Learn Hardcore Malay: Walaupun kedekut dengan wang sendiri, abang saya murah hati dengan masa dan tenaga. - Although he is stingy with his own money, my older brother is generous with his time and energy.

Walaupun kedekut dengan wang sendiri,
abang saya murah hati dengan masa dan tenaga.
→ Although he’s stingy with his own money, my brother is generous with his time and energy.

In everyday Malay:

walaupun, meskipun, and biarpun can usually be used interchangeably with almost no change in meaning.
All of them introduce something that is surprising or contrary to what you might expect based on the first clause.

You’ll also see patterns like:

Walaupun … tetapi / namun …
(Although … but / however …)

For example:
Walaupun dia penat, namun dia tetap membantu.
“Although he’s tired, he still helps.”

In the given sentence, walaupun is enough on its own; you don’t have to add tetapi or namun later, because the contrast is already clear.

Why is there a comma after “wang sendiri” and can I switch the order of the two parts of the sentence?

The comma marks the end of the concessive clause introduced by walaupun:

Walaupun kedekut dengan wang sendiri,
→ concessive clause (“Although …”)
abang saya murah hati dengan masa dan tenaga.
→ main clause

Yes, you can switch the order, just like in English:

Abang saya murah hati dengan masa dan tenaga walaupun dia kedekut dengan wang sendiri.

Notice that when walaupun comes in the middle like this, speakers usually add the pronoun dia explicitly:

… walaupun dia kedekut dengan wang sendiri.

Both orders are natural; putting walaupun at the start gives slightly more emphasis to the contrast.

Why can the subject “abang saya” be missing from the first part “walaupun kedekut dengan wang sendiri”?

Malay often omits the subject in a dependent clause if it’s the same as the subject in the main clause and is very clear from context.

Walaupun kedekut dengan wang sendiri, abang saya murah hati…
Literally: “Although stingy with his own money, my brother is generous…”

It’s understood that the person who is stingy and the person who is generous are the same: abang saya.

You could say:

Walaupun abang saya kedekut dengan wang sendiri, abang saya murah hati…

but repeating abang saya sounds heavy and unnatural in normal conversation. You might repeat it only for strong emphasis or in very formal writing.

A more common “full” version is:

Walaupun dia kedekut dengan wang sendiri, abang saya murah hati…

Is “kedekut” an adjective or a verb, and what’s its nuance?

Kedekut is an adjective meaning “stingy / miserly”, usually about money.

In Malay, adjectives can function like predicates without a verb “to be”, so:

Abang saya kedekut.
= “My brother is stingy.”

So kedekut here is an adjective used as the predicate of an implied subject (“he”), just as murah hati is an adjective phrase used predicatively.

Nuance:

kedekut is somewhat negative; you wouldn’t normally say it directly to someone’s face if you want to be polite.
Softer words for careful with money include berjimat (“to be thrifty”) or cermat (“careful”), which don’t necessarily mean stingy.

Why is it “kedekut dengan wang sendiri” and not just “kedekut wang sendiri”?

The preposition dengan (“with”) is very common with adjectives describing attitudes towards something:

baik dengan orang – good/kind to people
garang dengan budak-budak – fierce with children
kedekut dengan wang – stingy with money

So:

kedekut dengan wang sendiri
= “stingy with his own money”

You generally can’t drop dengan here; kedekut wang sounds ungrammatical or at least very odd.

You could rephrase more explicitly using a verb:

Dia sangat menjaga wang sendiri. – “He really guards his own money.”
But that changes the nuance (less directly “stingy”).

What does “wang sendiri” mean literally, and where does “sendiri” usually go?

wang = money
sendiri = own / oneself

So wang sendiri literally means “own money”.

In Malay, sendiri typically comes after the noun or pronoun it refers to:

rumah sendiri – one’s own house
kereta sendiri – one’s own car
saya sendiri – I myself
abang saya sendiri – my own older brother

So:

kedekut dengan wang sendiri
= stingy with his own money (context tells us the owner is abang saya).

What does “murah hati” literally mean, and is it always “generous”?

Literally:

murah = cheap / inexpensive
hati = heart

So murah hati literally looks like “cheap-hearted”, but idiomatically it means “kind-hearted, generous”.

It’s a fixed expression:

Dia sangat murah hati. – “He/She is very generous.”
Orang kampung di situ murah hati. – “The villagers there are generous/kind-hearted.”

It usually refers to kindness, generosity, willingness to help, not to prices or money.

Be careful: murah alone (without hati) applied to objects almost always means cheap (low price), not generous.

Why does the second part say “murah hati dengan masa dan tenaga”? What does “tenaga” mean?

Here, dengan again means “with” and links the adjective phrase to what it’s about:

murah hati dengan masa dan tenaga
= “generous with (his) time and energy”

Vocabulary:

masa = time (in a general sense)
tenaga = energy, effort, physical or mental strength

The phrase “masa dan tenaga” is a common pair, similar to English “time and effort” or “time and energy”, suggesting he willingly spends his time and puts in effort to help others.

What’s the difference between “masa” and “waktu”? Could I say “waktu dan tenaga”?

Both masa and waktu can mean “time”, but they’re used slightly differently.

masa
- broad, general time (as a resource or duration)
- also used for periods/eras (“zaman / masa dahulu” – old times)
waktu
- more often refers to a point in time or specific time
- like “at this time / at that moment” (e.g. waktu itu, waktu pagi)

In this sentence, masa is more natural because we’re talking about time as a resource he gives to others.

“waktu dan tenaga” would be understood but sounds less idiomatic here.

Do I need “adalah” or “ialah” between “abang saya” and “murah hati”?

No, you do not need a verb like “to be” here. In Malay:

Noun + adjective can form a full sentence without adalah.

So:

Abang saya murah hati.
= “My brother is generous.”

You could say:

Abang saya adalah seorang yang murah hati.

This is grammatically correct but:

adds the word seorang (“a person”) and
sounds more formal or wordy.

In everyday speech, “abang saya murah hati” is the most natural form.

How is “abang saya” used? Does “abang” always mean literal older brother?

Abang literally means “older brother”, but it’s used more broadly:

Literal family member
- abang saya – my older brother
Polite form of address
- to an adult male who is a bit older than you
- similar to calling someone “big brother” or “bro” in some cultures
- e.g. calling a shop assistant or driver “bang” (a shortened, colloquial form of abang).

In this sentence, with “abang saya”, the default reading is “my (older) brother”, unless the broader social use is clear from context.

Note: Malay distinguishes:

abang – older brother
kakak – older sister
adik – younger sibling (any gender)

Is “kedekut” always negative? How strong is it compared to English words?

Yes, kedekut is generally negative. It’s close to:

“stingy”, “tight-fisted”, “a miser”.

It suggests someone who really doesn’t like to spend money, even when it might be reasonable or kind to do so.

If you want softer, less judgmental ways to talk about money habits, you can use:

berjimat – to be thrifty / economical
cermat – careful (e.g. with money, with actions)

Comparatively:

kedekut ≈ “stingy / miserly” (clearly negative)
berjimat ≈ “thrifty” (more positive or neutral)

Could I replace “walaupun” with “sekalipun” or “meskipun” here?

Yes, you can, with only minor nuance differences:

Walaupun kedekut dengan wang sendiri, abang saya murah hati dengan masa dan tenaga.
Meskipun kedekut dengan wang sendiri, abang saya murah hati dengan masa dan tenaga.
Sekalipun kedekut dengan wang sendiri, abang saya murah hati dengan masa dan tenaga.

All three are grammatically fine and mean “Even though he is stingy with his own money, my brother is generous with his time and energy.”

Nuance (very slight):

walaupun / meskipun – most common in everyday speech and writing.
sekalipun – feels a bit stronger or more formal, like “even if / even though” in a slightly more literary tone.

For normal conversation or writing, walaupun or meskipun are your safest, most natural choices.