Pegawai meminta saya tulis tandatangan di atas borang permintaan.

The officer asks me to write my signature on the request form.

Breakdown of Pegawai meminta saya tulis tandatangan di atas borang permintaan.

• tulis: to write
• di atas: on
• saya: me
• pegawai: the officer
• meminta: to ask
• tandatangan: the signature
• borang permintaan: the request form

Questions & Answers about Pegawai meminta saya tulis tandatangan di atas borang permintaan.

What does pegawai mean exactly? Is it like officer, staff, or employee?

Pegawai is a general word for an official or staff member, often in a government office, company, or organization.

Depending on context, it can be translated as:

• officer – especially in government: pegawai kerajaan (government officer)
• clerk / staff member – at a counter, service desk, office
• employee – more broadly, though pekerja and kakitangan are also common

In your sentence, pegawai is probably the person serving you at a counter or office window, so the officer / staff member / clerk all work in English, depending on the situation.

Why is it meminta and not just minta?

The base verb is minta (to ask for, to request).

• minta – base form, common in everyday speech, especially at the beginning of a sentence:

  • Saya minta air. – I ask for water / I’d like some water.

• meminta – the meN- verb form; sounds a bit more complete/formal and is very common in writing and in full sentences:

  • Pegawai meminta saya… – The officer asked me…

In your sentence, meminta matches the slightly more formal tone of an office situation. You could hear Pegawai minta saya tulis tandatangan… in spoken, casual Malay; it would be understood, just less formal.

Why is it saya tulis tandatangan, not saya menulis tandatangan?

Malay often uses the bare verb root (here: tulis) after another verb like minta / meminta, suruh, ajar, cuba, etc.

So these patterns are all possible:

• Pegawai meminta saya tulis tandatangan…
• Pegawai meminta saya menulis tandatangan…

Both are grammatical and mean the same thing: The officer asked me to sign…

Differences:

• tulis after meminta is very common and natural in everyday Malay.
• menulis sounds slightly more formal or careful, and you’ll see it more often in written Malay, but it’s not required here.

So your sentence is normal, colloquial-standard Malay.

Why say tulis tandatangan? Isn’t there a single verb for “to sign”?

Yes. Malay has a specific verb:

• menandatangani – to sign (a document)

You have a few options:

1. Pegawai meminta saya tulis tandatangan di atas borang permintaan.
   Literally: The officer asked me to write (my) signature on the request form.

2. Pegawai meminta saya menulis tandatangan di atas borang permintaan.

3. Pegawai meminta saya menandatangani borang permintaan.
   Literally: The officer asked me to sign the request form.

All three are correct. Nuance:

• tulis tandatangan = very natural, everyday phrasing; literally “write (my) signature”.
• menandatangani = more compact and somewhat more formal; common in official writing and speech.

In spoken Malay, tulis tandatangan is extremely common.

Is tandatangan one word or two words (tanda tangan)?

In Malay (Malaysia), the standard spelling is:

• tandatangan (one word) – signature

In Indonesian, you’ll usually see:

• tanda tangan (two words)

In Malaysian Malay, you might occasionally see tanda tangan, but tandatangan as one word is the norm and what you should learn for Malay.

Where is the word my? Why isn’t it tandatangan saya?

In Malay, it’s very common to omit the possessive pronoun when the meaning is obvious from context.

tulis tandatangan in this situation naturally means write (your own) signature, i.e. sign (your name).

If you say:

• tulis tandatangan saya – write my signature

it can sound like you are asking someone else to copy your signature, which is a bit different.

In your sentence, the officer is clearly asking you to sign, so tulis tandatangan is understood as write your own signature without needing saya.

Why is there no word for to (as in “asked me to sign”)?

In English, you need to before an infinitive (to sign).

In Malay, the structure is just:

• [verb 1] + [person] + [verb 2]

So:

• meminta saya tulis tandatangan
  = asked me (to) write a signature

No extra word like to is necessary.

However, it is also possible to say:

• meminta saya untuk menulis tandatangan
• meminta saya supaya menulis tandatangan

These add untuk or supaya, which are fine and sound a bit more explicit or formal, but they are not required in this sentence.

What’s the difference between di atas, atas, and pada here? Could I say pada borang permintaan?

In your sentence:

• di atas borang permintaan = on (top of) the request form

Rough guidelines:

• di atas

  • literally “on top of / above”
  • used for physical location: di atas meja (on the table)
  • very natural with documents: tandatangan di atas borang

• atas (without di)

  • more like “for / regarding / over” in some abstract uses:
    
    • terima kasih atas bantuan anda – thank you for your help
  • normally, for physical position you use di atas, not bare atas.

• pada

  • can mean “on, at, in” depending on context
  • with documents, pada borang is possible, especially in more formal or written Malay.

So you can say:

• tandatangan di atas borang permintaan – very common and natural.
• tandatangan pada borang permintaan – more neutral/formal; also correct.

In everyday speech, di atas is very common for “on (a form/document)”.

What does borang permintaan literally mean?

Breakdown:

• borang – form (a printed form to fill in)
• permintaan – request

In Malay, the usual order is head noun + modifying noun:

• borang permintaan = request form
• borang permohonan = application form
• borang pendaftaran = registration form

So borang is the main thing, and permintaan just specifies what kind of form it is.

Is the sentence formal, informal, or neutral?

Pegawai meminta saya tulis tandatangan di atas borang permintaan. is:

• context: an office / official setting (you are dealing with a pegawai)
• language level: generally neutral, suitable for spoken and written Malay

A slightly more formal version might be:

• Pegawai itu meminta saya menulis tandatangan di atas borang permintaan.
• Pegawai tersebut meminta saya menandatangani borang permintaan.

But your original sentence is perfectly natural in most contexts.

How would I say “the officer” versus “an officer” in Malay?

Malay doesn’t have direct equivalents of the and a/an, so you often rely on context.

To make it clearer:

• Pegawai meminta…
  
  • Could be an officer or the officer, depending on context.

If you really want to specify:

• seorang pegawai – an officer / one officer

  • Seorang pegawai meminta saya tulis tandatangan…

• pegawai itu – that/the officer (specific, already known)

  • Pegawai itu meminta saya tulis tandatangan…

So to strongly express the officer (a known one), use pegawai itu. To emphasize an officer, you can add seorang.

Could I say Pegawai meminta tandatangan saya di atas borang permintaan? Does it mean the same thing?

Yes, that sentence is grammatical, but the nuance changes slightly:

• Pegawai meminta saya tulis tandatangan di atas borang permintaan.
  = The officer asked me to sign the request form.

• Pegawai meminta tandatangan saya di atas borang permintaan.
  = The officer asked for my signature on the request form.

So:

• With meminta saya tulis… the focus is on the action (you doing the signing).
• With meminta tandatangan saya… the focus is on the thing (your signature as an object).

Both can be used in this situation; it’s just a slightly different way of expressing it.

How would I say “I was asked to sign the request form” in Malay?

You can use a passive-like structure:

• Saya diminta menulis tandatangan di atas borang permintaan.
  – I was asked to write (my) signature on the request form.

or more formally:

• Saya diminta menandatangani borang permintaan.

The pattern is:

• Saya diminta [verb]… – I was asked to [verb]…

There’s no past tense marker. How do we know it means “asked” and not “asks” or “will ask”?

Malay usually does not mark tense on the verb.

• meminta can mean ask / asks / asked / is asking / will ask, depending on context.

You understand the time from:

• the surrounding sentences and situation
• time adverbs if used, e.g. tadi (earlier), semalam (yesterday), nanti (later)

So in a story about a past visit to an office, Pegawai meminta saya… naturally means The officer asked me…. If you were describing a routine or current situation, it could mean asks me.