Learn Hardcore Malay: Guru kata, barulah kita betul-betul faham kalau kita tanya soalan lisan di bilik darjah. - The teacher says we only really understand if we ask oral questions in the classroom.

Guru kata ≈ “The teacher said / says”
berkata is a bit more formal/literary.
mengatakan is usually followed by bahawa or a direct object:
- Guru mengatakan bahawa… (“The teacher states that…”)

So Guru kata is natural, conversational Malay. Using Guru berkata would also be correct, just slightly more formal in tone. Guru mengatakan would change the rhythm and sound more formal and written‑style.

Is a word like bahawa (“that”) missing after Guru kata?

Yes, you can think of an implied bahawa here.

Full, more formal version:
Guru kata bahawa barulah kita betul-betul faham…
Natural spoken version often drops bahawa:
Guru kata, barulah kita betul-betul faham…

In speech and informal writing, Malay frequently omits bahawa when introducing reported speech or a clause, especially after verbs like kata, cakap, beritahu. The comma already signals that what follows is what the teacher is saying.

What does barulah mean exactly, and what nuance does it add?

Barulah has a sense of “only then / only at that point / that’s when”.

Here it adds an idea of condition or sequence:

Barulah kita betul-betul faham…
≈ “Only then will we really understand…”
≈ “That’s when we truly understand…”

It emphasizes that real understanding happens only after the condition is met (after we ask oral questions in class), not before. Without barulah, the sentence would just say “we really understand,” without that strong “only then” emphasis.

Why is betul-betul doubled? What’s the difference from just betul or sangat faham?

The duplication betul-betul is an intensifier, similar to “really / truly / genuinely” in English.

betul by itself is “correct / right”.
betul-betul = “really / truly / genuinely” (emphasizing degree).

Comparisons:

kita faham – “we understand”
kita betul-betul faham – “we really/truly understand”
kita sangat faham – “we understand very well”

Betul-betul often feels more about genuine / complete understanding, not just a high degree. It implies the understanding is solid and real, not superficial.

Does kalau here mean “if” or “when”? Could we use jika instead?

Kalau can mean both “if” and “when”, depending on context. Here, it’s best read as “when / if we ask oral questions in class”.

In conversational Malay, kalau is the default word for “if / when (conditional)”.
Jika is more formal and is common in writing, instructions, or official language.

You could say:

…kalau kita tanya soalan lisan… (neutral, conversational)
…jika kita bertanya soalan lisan… (more formal)

The meaning is basically the same, but kalau sounds more natural in everyday speech.

Why is kita repeated? Could you just say kalau tanya soalan lisan… without kita?

Yes, you could omit the second kita:

Guru kata, barulah kita betul-betul faham kalau tanya soalan lisan di bilik darjah.

Malay often drops pronouns when they are clear from context. The second kita is optional; it’s there to:

keep the subject explicit and clear (especially for learners or in careful speech),
make the rhythm smoother for some speakers.

Both versions are grammatically correct. Native speakers do use both patterns.

What is the difference between kita and kami here? Why not kami?

Malay distinguishes between inclusive and exclusive “we”:

kita = “we (including the person spoken to)”
kami = “we (excluding the person spoken to)”

In this sentence, kita implies the teacher includes the students (and generally all of “us”) in that statement:

Guru kata… barulah kita betul-betul faham…
≈ “The teacher said that only then do we (you and I / all of us) really understand…”

If the teacher used kami, it would sound like the teacher is talking about a different group that does not include the listener, which wouldn’t fit the context of advice to students. So kita is the natural choice.

Is tanya soalan redundant? Doesn’t tanya already mean “to ask”?

Literally, yes:

tanya = “to ask”
soalan = “question”
tanya soalan = “ask a question”

So it is somewhat redundant, but very natural in Malay. It’s like English “ask a question” versus just “ask”.

You can say:

tanya soalan – very common, neutral
bertanya – slightly more formal; often doesn’t take soalan
- e.g. kalau kita bertanya di bilik darjah (also correct)

In everyday speech, tanya soalan is completely normal and not considered wrong or awkward.

What does soalan lisan mean exactly? Is lisan an adjective?

Yes, lisan is an adjective meaning “oral / spoken” (as opposed to written).

soalan = question
lisan = oral
soalan lisan = oral question(s) / questions asked verbally

It contrasts with:

soalan bertulis – written questions
peperiksaan lisan – oral exam
peperiksaan bertulis – written exam

So here the teacher is specifically talking about questions that students ask out loud, not written questions.

Why is it di bilik darjah and not dalam bilik darjah? What’s the difference?

Both di and dalam can sometimes mean “in,” but they have different core meanings:

di = at / in (location)
dalam = inside (interior)

In practice:

di bilik darjah – “in/at the classroom” (neutral, very common)
dalam bilik darjah – “inside the classroom” (slightly stronger sense of being inside the physical space)

Here, the focus is simply on the classroom as the setting of the activity, so di bilik darjah is the usual, natural choice. Dalam bilik darjah would not be wrong, but feels more spatial/physical and slightly less idiomatic for this particular sentence.

Why is there no tense marker like “will” or “did”? How do we know the time reference?

Malay generally does not change verb forms for tense. Time is understood from context and from time expressions (e.g. tadi, akan, esok).

In this sentence:

Guru kata – can be “the teacher said” or “the teacher says” depending on context.
barulah kita betul-betul faham – could be understood as:
- “only then do we really understand” (general truth)
- “only then will we really understand” (future sense)

Because this sounds like general advice about learning, we interpret it as a general present/future truth (“only then do/will we really understand”), even though the grammar itself doesn’t change.

Could we move barulah and say: Guru kata, kalau kita tanya soalan lisan di bilik darjah, barulah kita betul-betul faham? Is that still correct?

Yes, that word order is also correct and natural:

Guru kata, barulah kita betul-betul faham kalau kita tanya soalan lisan di bilik darjah.
Guru kata, kalau kita tanya soalan lisan di bilik darjah, barulah kita betul-betul faham.

Both mean the same thing. The difference is mainly in focus and rhythm:

Original: focuses first on the result (“only then we really understand”), then explains the condition.
Reordered: first states the condition (“if/when we ask oral questions in class”), then gives the result (“only then we really understand”).

Both patterns are common in Malay; speakers choose based on what they want to highlight and what sounds more natural in the flow of speech.