Learn Hardcore Malay: Kadang-kadang bos dan pekerja salah faham tentang tugasan. - Sometimes the boss and the workers misunderstand the task.

The repetition (kadang + kadang) is just how the adverb is normally formed in Malay; it doesn’t intensify the meaning, it’s just the standard word.
Kadang alone is not normally used by itself in standard Malay to mean “sometimes”.
Kadangkala is a correct synonym of kadang-kadang, also meaning “sometimes”.
- Kadang-kadang is slightly more common in everyday speech.
- Kadangkala can sound a bit more formal or literary, but both are fine.

So yes, you can say:

Kadangkala bos dan pekerja salah faham tentang tugasan.

with the same meaning.

Can kadang-kadang go in a different position in the sentence?

Yes. In Malay, adverbs of frequency like kadang-kadang are flexible. All of these are grammatical and natural:

Kadang-kadang bos dan pekerja salah faham tentang tugasan.
Bos dan pekerja kadang-kadang salah faham tentang tugasan.
Bos dan pekerja salah faham tentang tugasan kadang-kadang. (less common, more spoken/emphatic)

The most common are (1) and (2). Position (3) is possible but can sound a bit marked or informal.

Does bos mean one boss or many bosses here? There is no plural marker.

Malay usually does not mark plural with an ending like English -s. So bos can mean:

a boss, the boss, or
bosses (in general)

You understand the number from context. In this sentence:

Kadang-kadang bos dan pekerja salah faham tentang tugasan.

the natural interpretation is “sometimes bosses and workers misunderstand each other about tasks”, talking about them in general, not one specific boss and one specific worker.

If you really want to emphasize plural, you can say:

bos-bos dan pekerja (more colloquial)
para bos dan para pekerja (more formal)

But usually bos dan pekerja is enough.

Is bos formal, or should I use another word like majikan or ketua?

Bos is widely used in everyday Malay and is understood everywhere. It’s fairly neutral in most workplace contexts, maybe slightly informal in very formal writing.

Alternatives:

majikan – “employer”; more formal, often used in legal or official contexts, especially about employment law.
ketua – “leader/head/chief”; often used for positions like ketua jabatan (head of department), ketua kampung (village head).
pengurus – “manager”.

In this general sentence, bos is natural and idiomatic. In a very formal text, you might see:

Kadang-kadang majikan dan pekerja salah faham tentang tugasan.

Why is there no verb like “are” in bos dan pekerja salah faham? In English we say “boss and workers are misunderstanding”.

Malay does not use a verb like “to be” (am/is/are) in this kind of sentence.

bos dan pekerja = subject (“boss(es) and worker(s)”)
salah faham = predicate (“misunderstand”)

You simply put the subject and then the predicate:

Dia sakit. = “He/She is sick.”
Mereka letih. = “They are tired.”
Bos dan pekerja salah faham. = “The boss and workers misunderstand.”

You do not add adalah here. Adalah is used in more specific structures (e.g. before a noun phrase or in formal definitions), not before a verb like salah faham.

What exactly is salah faham? Is it a verb, an adjective, or a noun?

In this sentence, salah faham acts like a verb phrase meaning “to misunderstand”.

salah = “wrong, incorrect”
faham = “understand”

Together they form an expression: salah faham = “to understand wrongly” → “to misunderstand”.

You’ll also see related forms:

kesalahfahaman / kesalahfahaman – a noun meaning “a misunderstanding”
- e.g. Ada sedikit kesalahfahaman antara kami.
tersalah faham – can mean “misunderstood (by mistake)” in some contexts, but plain salah faham is more neutral and common.

In your sentence, salah faham is best thought of as a verb: “(they) misunderstand”.

Why is salah faham written as two words? I’ve seen salahfaham or salahfahaman too.

You will see variation in practice:

salah faham (two words) – very common and widely accepted (especially in Malaysia) as a verb phrase.
salahfaham (one word) – sometimes treated as a single lexical item, but less standard as a verb.
kesalahfahaman – a standard noun form meaning “a misunderstanding”.

In the sentence:

Kadang-kadang bos dan pekerja salah faham tentang tugasan.

the most natural and standard way is salah faham (two words) as a verb phrase. Writing it as one word is less common and less clearly standard for this usage.

Could I leave out tentang and just say salah faham tugasan?

You generally need a preposition like tentang (about) or mengenai (regarding) here. Without it, salah faham tugasan sounds awkward or incomplete in standard Malay.

Correct patterns:

salah faham tentang tugasan
salah faham mengenai tugasan
salah faham berkenaan tugasan (more formal)

So, keep tentang or replace it with a similar preposition; don’t drop it.

What is the difference between tentang, mengenai, and berkenaan dengan?

All three can mean “about / regarding / concerning”, but they differ slightly in tone:

tentang – neutral, very common in speech and writing.
mengenai – slightly more formal, also extremely common.
berkenaan dengan – more formal/bureaucratic; you see it a lot in official letters or documents.

You can safely use either tentang or mengenai in this sentence:

Kadang-kadang bos dan pekerja salah faham tentang tugasan.
Kadang-kadang bos dan pekerja salah faham mengenai tugasan.

Both are natural.

What’s the difference between tugasan and tugas?

Both are related and both are common:

tugas – “duty, job, task, role” (more general)
tugasan – often “assignment, specific task, piece of work”, sometimes a more concrete or countable task

Nuance:

tugas: the general duties or responsibilities you have.
tugasan: a particular assignment given to you, for example by your boss or teacher.

In your sentence, tugasan suggests specific tasks or assignments that the boss and workers are talking about. tugas could also be used, especially if you mean “their duties” in a broader sense:

… salah faham tentang tugas. = misunderstand the duties (in general)
… salah faham tentang tugasan. = misunderstand the specific assignments/tasks.

Is the whole sentence formal or informal? Would it be okay in professional contexts?

The sentence is neutral and suitable for general use, but a couple of elements lean slightly informal/colloquial:

bos is very common in speech and ordinary writing, slightly informal compared to majikan.
pekerja, salah faham, tentang tugasan are neutral.

In a professional training or workplace discussion, this sentence is perfectly fine. In a very formal official document, it might be made slightly more formal:

Kadang-kadang majikan dan pekerja salah faham mengenai tugasan.

But your original sentence is natural for conversation, training materials, and general writing.

The English translation might be “Sometimes the boss and the worker misunderstand the assignment.” Does bos dan pekerja mean one boss and one worker, or any boss and any worker in general?

Literally, bos dan pekerja could be read as “(the) boss and (the) worker”, but in Malay, without extra markers, such a phrase is often understood generically: bosses and workers in general.

So:

As a general statement (most likely reading):
- “Sometimes bosses and workers misunderstand tasks.”
As a specific situation (possible if context makes it clear):
- “Sometimes the boss and the worker misunderstand the task.”

Malay doesn’t mark this difference strongly in the sentence itself; context decides. If you want to be clearly generic, you can say para pekerja (“workers as a group”) or majikan dan pekerja in a more formal general-statement way.

Could I say Bos dan pekerja kadang-kadang salah faham tentang tugasan instead? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, you can:

Bos dan pekerja kadang-kadang salah faham tentang tugasan.

This is just as correct and very natural. The meaning is the same: “Sometimes bosses and workers misunderstand tasks.”

The difference is only in emphasis/rhythm:

Kadang-kadang bos dan pekerja… – starts with the time/frequency, slightly highlighting “sometimes”.
Bos dan pekerja kadang-kadang… – starts with the people, then mentions that it happens sometimes.

Both are standard and idiomatic.