Learn Hardcore Malay: Saya tulis apa yang guru kata tentang kerja rumah di dalam diari. - I write what the teacher says about the homework in the diary.

tulis = base form (root) of the verb “to write”
- Very common in speech, especially informal.
- Also used in imperatives: Tulis nama kamu. = “Write your name.”
menulis = meN- (active) form of the same verb
- More neutral/standard, especially in writing and formal contexts.
- Many textbooks will show this as the “dictionary form”.

In your sentence, more formal/neutral Malay would often say:

Saya menulis apa yang guru kata tentang kerja rumah di dalam diari.

Your version with tulis is natural in everyday, slightly informal Malay:

Saya tulis apa yang guru kata tentang kerja rumah di dalam diari.

How do we know if saya tulis means “I wrote”, “I am writing”, or “I will write”? There’s no tense marking.

Malay verbs usually do not change their form for tense. The same verb form covers past, present, and future. So:

Saya tulis … can mean:
- “I wrote …”
- “I am writing …”
- “I will write …”
- “I usually write …”

The time is understood from context or from time words like:

tadi – earlier / just now
semalam – yesterday
esok – tomorrow
nanti – later
selalu – always / usually

Examples:

Tadi saya tulis apa yang guru kata…
“Earlier I wrote what the teacher said…”
Sekarang saya tulis apa yang guru kata…
“Right now I am writing what the teacher says…”
Nanti saya tulis apa yang guru kata…
“Later I will write what the teacher says…”

So the exact tense of saya tulis is determined by context, not by changing the verb form.

What is the function of yang in apa yang guru kata? Why can’t we just say apa guru kata?

yang is a very important word in Malay. In this sentence it is:

a linker/relativizer that turns the clause guru kata (“the teacher says/said”) into something that describes apa (“what”).

So:

apa yang guru kata ≈ “what it is that the teacher says/said”

It does two things here:

Marks “apa” as the thing being described
- Without yang, apa guru kata? is normally understood as a direct question: “What did the teacher say?”
- With yang, apa yang guru kata can more easily be used inside a bigger sentence, like the object of “write”.
Nominalizes the clause
It lets the whole chunk act like a noun phrase:
- apa yang guru kata = “the thing(s) that the teacher says/said”.

You might hear Saya tulis apa guru kata… in casual speech, but apa yang guru kata is the clear, standard way, especially in writing.

In English, yang here is somewhat like the word that in “what that the teacher said”, although we don’t usually say it that way in English.

Why is it guru kata and not guru saya kata or seorang guru kata? How do I know if it means “the teacher” or “my teacher”?

In Malay, a bare noun like guru (without a/the/my) is quite flexible. It can mean:

“the teacher” (specific, known from context)
“a teacher” (non-specific)
sometimes even “my teacher”, if it’s obvious from context (e.g., you are talking about your school or your class).

To be more explicit:

guru saya – my teacher
seorang guru – a/one teacher
guru itu – that teacher / the teacher (definite, specific)

So you could also say:

Saya tulis apa yang guru saya kata…
“I write what my teacher said…”
Saya tulis apa yang seorang guru kata…
“I write what a teacher said…”

In your sentence, guru alone is natural if both speaker and listener already know which teacher you’re talking about, or if it just generally means “the teacher” (e.g., the class teacher).

What is the difference between kata, berkata, mengatakan, and cakap? Why use guru kata here?

All of these relate to “saying / speaking”, but they differ in usage and style.

kata (root verb)
- Means “to say” or “said”.
- Often used directly after a subject in speech:
  - Guru kata… – “The teacher said…”
- Slightly informal/neutral.
berkata
- More formal, often used with quoted speech:
  - Guru itu berkata, “Buat kerja rumah kamu.”
    “The teacher said, ‘Do your homework.’”
mengatakan
- More formal, often used when you state something explicitly:
  - Guru itu mengatakan bahawa kerja rumah itu penting.
    “The teacher stated that the homework is important.”
- Often followed by bahawa (“that”).
cakap (colloquial)
- Very common in conversation for “to talk/say”:
  - Guru cakap kerja rumah penting.
- Informal; avoid in formal writing.

In your sentence:

Saya tulis apa yang guru kata tentang kerja rumah…
is quite natural and neutral, maybe slightly informal.

More formal options:

Saya menulis apa yang guru itu berkata tentang kerja rumah…
Saya menulis apa yang dikatakan guru tentang kerja rumah…

Does kerja rumah mean “homework” or “housework”? The words look like “house work”.

In Malay:

kerja rumah almost always means “homework” (schoolwork to do at home).
- kerja = work
- rumah = house / home

So in the context of school and a teacher:

kerja rumah = homework (assignments, exercises to do at home)

For housework / chores, people usually say:

kerja rumah tangga – housework, domestic chores
kerja-kerja rumah – (all) the work/tasks around the house
buat kerja rumah can mean “do housework” if context is clearly not about school, but in a school context it’s “do homework”.

In your sentence, because it’s guru kata tentang kerja rumah, it is clearly homework, not vacuuming or washing dishes.

What does tentang do here, and can I replace it with something else or leave it out?

tentang is a preposition meaning “about / regarding / concerning”.

In your sentence:

tentang kerja rumah = “about homework”

This is like English about in “what the teacher said about the homework”.

You can often replace tentang with:

mengenai – also “about / regarding”, slightly more formal.
pasal – “about / regarding”, more informal/colloquial (especially in Malaysia).

So you could say:

apa yang guru kata mengenai kerja rumah
apa yang guru kata pasal kerja rumah (informal)

You generally cannot just drop tentang/mengenai/pasal here without changing structure, because you need a preposition to link “say” with its topic:

apa yang guru kata kerja rumah
→ feels incomplete/incorrect in standard Malay.

So keep one of tentang / mengenai / pasal in this structure.

Why is it di dalam diari? Could I say dalam diari or di diari instead? What is the difference between di, dalam, and di dalam?

All three are related to location, but they’re used slightly differently:

di
- Basic preposition for “at / in / on”:
  - di rumah – at home
  - di sekolah – at school
dalam
- Means “inside / in (the interior of)”:
  - dalam beg – inside the bag
  - dalam kotak – in the box
di dalam
- Literally “at in(side)”, but functionally means “inside”, often with a bit more emphasis on being inside something.
- It is very common and sounds natural:
  - di dalam kotak – inside the box
  - di dalam diari – in(side) the diary

In your sentence:

di dalam diari = “in the diary / inside the diary”

Other possibilities:

dalam diari – also fine and common; many people use this.
di diari – technically possible (“at/in the diary”), but sounds less natural than dalam or di dalam here.

So:

Saya tulis … di dalam diari. – very natural
Saya tulis … dalam diari. – also natural, slightly simpler

Meaning-wise, di dalam diari vs dalam diari isn’t a big difference; di dalam can feel just a little more “explicitly inside” or a bit more formal.

Can I move di dalam diari to a different place in the sentence, like in English (“I write in my diary what the teacher said…”)? How flexible is the word order?

Malay word order is generally S–V–O, but adverbials (like place/time phrases) can move around. Your original:

Saya tulis apa yang guru kata tentang kerja rumah di dalam diari.

Possible variations that still sound natural:

Saya tulis di dalam diari apa yang guru kata tentang kerja rumah.
– “I write in the diary what the teacher said about the homework.”
Di dalam diari, saya tulis apa yang guru kata tentang kerja rumah.
– “In the diary, I write what the teacher said about the homework.” (fronting for emphasis)

The important thing is to keep the chunk:

apa yang guru kata tentang kerja rumah

together, because it functions as one unit (“what the teacher said about the homework”).

Avoid splitting that chunk in a confusing way, for example:

✗ Saya tulis apa yang guru di dalam diari kata tentang kerja rumah.
(This suggests “the teacher in the diary”, which is not what you mean.)

So yes, you can move di dalam diari, but don’t break up apa yang guru kata tentang kerja rumah.

Could I use aku instead of saya here? What is the difference between aku and saya?

Both aku and saya mean “I / me”, but they differ in politeness and context.

saya
- Neutral and polite, used with strangers, in formal situations, with adults, and in writing.
- Safe default pronoun for most learners.
aku
- More intimate and informal, used with close friends, family, people your own age (if the relationship is casual).
- Can sound rude or too familiar in the wrong context, especially to older people or in formal situations.

So:

Saya tulis apa yang guru kata…
– Polite/neutral, appropriate in almost any setting.
Aku tulis apa yang guru kata…
– Sounds like you are talking to a close friend about it.

If you are writing a diary entry to yourself, you would naturally use aku inside the diary:

Hari ini aku tulis apa yang guru kata tentang kerja rumah di dalam diari.

But when speaking politely or in class, saya is the safer choice.

Could we say apa yang guru katakan tentang kerja rumah instead of apa yang guru kata? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say:

apa yang guru katakan tentang kerja rumah

Here, katakan is kata + -kan, a derived verb that sounds a bit more formal and often a bit more explicit or “stated”.

Nuance:

apa yang guru kata tentang kerja rumah
– Neutral, everyday, slightly informal/colloquial.
apa yang dikatakan guru tentang kerja rumah
– More formal; literally “what is said by the teacher about the homework”.
apa yang guru katakan tentang kerja rumah
– Also somewhat more formal than plain kata, though still natural in speech.

So in your original sentence, kata is perfectly fine; katakan or dikatakan just shift the style slightly toward formal/written Malay.