Learn Hardcore Malay: Pekerja di pejabat itu biasanya minum kopi pagi sebelum mesyuarat. - The workers in that office usually drink coffee in the morning before the meeting.

The number is understood from context.
In “Pekerja di pejabat itu biasanya minum kopi…”, we naturally understand it as “the workers / employees” (plural) because of the general, habitual meaning of the sentence.

Why do we say “di pejabat itu” and not something like “pejabat di itu” or “itu pejabat”?

In Malay, the normal order for “in that office” is:

di + noun + demonstrative
→ di pejabat itu

Breakdown:

di = in/at
pejabat = office
itu = that / the (refers to a specific one)

✅ Correct:

di pejabat itu = in that office / at that office

❌ Incorrect / unnatural as a noun phrase:

pejabat di itu – the preposition di must come before its noun, not after.
itu pejabat – this would sound like “that is an office” in some contexts, not “that office.”

To say “that office” as a noun phrase, the demonstrative itu goes after the noun:

pejabat itu = that office
di pejabat itu = in/at that office

What does “biasanya” do in this sentence, and where can it go?

Biasanya means “usually / normally” and marks a habitual action.

In “Pekerja di pejabat itu biasanya minum kopi…”, it tells us this is something they do as a habit, not just once.

Common positions:

Pekerja di pejabat itu biasanya minum kopi…
→ neutral, very natural.
Biasanya pekerja di pejabat itu minum kopi…
→ puts a bit more emphasis on “as for what usually happens…”.
Pekerja di pejabat itu minum kopi biasanya…
→ sounds odd or wrong; adverbs like biasanya usually come before the verb, not at the end.

So: keep biasanya near the start of the clause, typically just before the verb or at the very beginning.

How do we know the sentence is in the present habitual (they usually drink), when there’s no tense marking?

Malay verbs are not inflected for tense. There’s no change like “drink / drank / will drink.”

We infer time from:

time words: pagi (morning), semalam (yesterday), nanti (later), etc.
aspect / frequency words: sudah (already), sedang (in the middle of), selalu (always), biasanya (usually), etc.
context.

In “Pekerja di pejabat itu biasanya minum kopi pagi…”:

biasanya = usually
pagi = in the morning

These together naturally give “usually (every) morning”, so the English translation is in present habitual:

“The workers in that office usually drink coffee in the morning before the meeting.”

Is “kopi pagi” “morning coffee” as a fixed expression, or does it literally mean “coffee in the morning”?

Kopi pagi is a noun phrase where:

kopi = coffee
pagi = morning

It can be understood as:

“Morning coffee” (a kind of session / break), or
“Coffee (that you drink) in the morning.”

In daily speech, kopi pagi is often used like English “morning coffee”:

Mari kita minum kopi pagi.
= Let’s have our morning coffee.

If you want to be very explicit about time, you can also say:

minum kopi pada waktu pagi = drink coffee in the morning

But in this sentence, minum kopi pagi is perfectly natural and reads as “have (their) morning coffee.”

Why is there no word for “the” in “mesyuarat”, even though we translate it as “before the meeting”?

Malay does not have definite or indefinite articles like “the” or “a/an.”

So:

mesyuarat can mean “a meeting” or “the meeting”, depending on context.

In your sentence:

sebelum mesyuarat
literally: before meeting
interpreted as: before the meeting (the one everyone knows about)

If you really need to specify which meeting, you add more detail:

sebelum mesyuarat pagi = before the morning meeting
sebelum mesyuarat mingguan = before the weekly meeting
sebelum mesyuarat itu = before that meeting / before the meeting (already mentioned)

Why is there no “pada” or “pada waktu” before “pagi”? Would “pada waktu pagi” be more correct?

All of these are grammatically correct, but they differ in formality / explicitness:

pagi (by itself)
- Very common in speech.
- minum kopi pagi = drink coffee (in the) morning.
pada pagi
- Slightly more explicit: on / in the morning.
pada waktu pagi
- More formal / explicit: in the morning time.

Your sentence uses the short, natural form for everyday language:

…biasanya minum kopi pagi sebelum mesyuarat.
= …usually drink (their) morning coffee before the meeting.

If you were writing something more formal, you might see:

…biasanya minum kopi pada waktu pagi sebelum mesyuarat.

Could we say “Pekerja-pekerja di pejabat itu…” instead of “Pekerja di pejabat itu…”? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

Pekerja-pekerja di pejabat itu…

This is the reduplication form that explicitly marks plural.

Difference:

Pekerja di pejabat itu…
→ Usually already understood as plural from context. Very normal, neutral.
Pekerja-pekerja di pejabat itu…
→ Also plural, but can:
- slightly emphasize the fact that there are many workers, or
- sound more formal / textbook-like in some contexts.

In everyday speech and writing, people often just say pekerja and let context show it’s plural, as in your sentence.

Why is it “minum” and not “meminum” here?

Both minum and meminum come from the same root minum (to drink), but:

minum is the basic verb form.
meminum is a derived form with the prefix meN-, sometimes used to make a more formal / transitive verb.

In modern Malay:

In everyday use, you almost always just say minum:
- Saya minum kopi. = I drink coffee.
- Mereka minum air. = They drink water.
Meminum does exist but sounds formal or literary and is much less common.

So:

Pekerja di pejabat itu biasanya minum kopi pagi…
is the normal and most natural way to say it.

Is “mesyuarat” the only way to say “meeting”, or can people also say “meeting” in Malay?

Malay has:

mesyuarat – the standard Malay word for “meeting” (especially formal, work-related, organisational meetings).
miting / meeting – an English loanword used informally in some workplaces, especially in speech (“Ada meeting petang ni.”).

In your sentence, mesyuarat is the correct standard word, especially for:

office context,
neutral or formal register.

So:

sebelum mesyuarat = before the meeting (standard Malay).

Why is there no word for “they” (like “mereka”) before “biasanya minum kopi”?

Malay often omits subject pronouns when the subject is already clear.

Your sentence:

Pekerja di pejabat itu biasanya minum kopi pagi sebelum mesyuarat.

The subject is clearly “pekerja di pejabat itu” (the workers in that office), so we don’t need an extra “they”.

If you wanted, you could add mereka in a different structure:

Pekerja di pejabat itu biasanya mereka minum kopi pagi sebelum mesyuarat.
→ This is not natural; sounds wrong.

Correct patterns are:

Pekerja di pejabat itu biasanya minum kopi pagi… (as given)
Or with a pronoun alone, without repeating pekerja:
- Mereka biasanya minum kopi pagi sebelum mesyuarat. = They usually drink coffee in the morning before the meeting.

But you don’t put mereka and pekerja side by side as separate subjects.

Could the word order be “Pagi pekerja di pejabat itu biasanya minum kopi sebelum mesyuarat”?

That word order is not natural.

Malay generally keeps this order:

Time expression (optional)
Subject
Adverb(s) of frequency (like biasanya)
Verb
Object
Other information (time, place, etc.)

Your sentence:

(Time) –
Subject: Pekerja di pejabat itu
Frequency: biasanya
Verb: minum
Object: kopi pagi
Extra info: sebelum mesyuarat

If you want to put pagi (morning) or another time word at the front, you normally move a full time phrase, not just pagi alone modifying kopi. For example:

Pada waktu pagi, pekerja di pejabat itu biasanya minum kopi sebelum mesyuarat.
= In the morning, the workers in that office usually drink coffee before the meeting.

But “Pagi pekerja di pejabat itu biasanya minum kopi…” sounds like “Morning, the workers in that office usually drink coffee…” and is ungrammatical as a standard Malay sentence.