Learn Hardcore Malay: Saya rasa hubungan kami akan bertambah baik.

It can also carry a slight emotional nuance like “I feel that…”, but in everyday Malay saya rasa is very commonly used the way English uses “I think…” (an opinion, not just a physical feeling).

What’s the difference between saya rasa, saya fikir, and pada pendapat saya?

All three can translate as “I think / In my opinion”, but they differ in tone and nuance:

saya rasa
- Very common in speech.
- Neutral and natural.
- Can mean “I feel / I have the sense that…”, so it may sound slightly more subjective.
saya fikir
- Literally “I think (logically)”.
- Slightly more “reasoning” or “intellectual” in tone.
- Still used in conversation, but saya rasa is more frequent in many contexts.
pada pendapat saya
- Literally “in my opinion”.
- More formal / written, or for careful, polite speech (e.g. presentations, debates).

In this sentence, all are possible, but the most natural spoken version is Saya rasa hubungan kami akan bertambah baik.

Can I leave out saya rasa and just say Hubungan kami akan bertambah baik?

Yes.

Hubungan kami akan bertambah baik = “Our relationship will improve.”

Without saya rasa, the sentence sounds more like a plain statement or prediction, rather than clearly marked as your personal opinion.

With saya rasa, you explicitly show that this is what you think/feel, not necessarily an objective fact:

Saya rasa hubungan kami akan bertambah baik.
= “I think our relationship will improve.”

What does hubungan mean exactly? Is it only for romantic relationships?

Hubungan comes from the root hubung (to connect) and means “relationship / connection / link”.

It is not limited to romantic contexts. It can refer to:

Romantic relationships:
- hubungan kami – our (romantic) relationship
Family relationships:
- hubungan keluarga – family relationships
Professional or diplomatic ties:
- hubungan perniagaan – business relationship
- hubungan diplomatik – diplomatic relations

In this sentence, the specific type of relationship (romantic, family, work, etc.) comes from the context, not the word hubungan itself.

Why is kami used instead of kita in hubungan kami?

Malay distinguishes two types of “we/our”:

kami = we / our (excluding the person being spoken to)
kita = we / our (including the person being spoken to)

So:

hubungan kami
- “our relationship” but not including the listener.
- Example: You are talking to a friend about you and your partner:
  - “I think our (my partner and I) relationship will improve.” → hubungan kami
hubungan kita
- “our relationship” including the listener.
- Example: You talk directly to your partner:
  - “I think our relationship (yours and mine) will improve.” → Saya rasa hubungan kita akan bertambah baik.

So kami here implies the listener is not one of the people in that relationship.

What does akan do in this sentence? Is it a future tense marker?

Akan is a modal/auxiliary that marks future time or intention, similar to English “will / shall”.

In Saya rasa hubungan kami akan bertambah baik:

akan indicates future: “will improve” or “is going to improve”.

Malay doesn’t have strict verb conjugation for tense, so words like akan (future), sudah / telah (already), sedang (currently doing) are used to express time. Akan is one of these temporal markers.

Is akan required here, or can I say Saya rasa hubungan kami bertambah baik?

You can drop akan, but the meaning shifts:

Saya rasa hubungan kami akan bertambah baik.
→ “I think our relationship will improve (in the future).”
Saya rasa hubungan kami bertambah baik.
→ More like “I feel our relationship is improving / has been improving.”
(focus on a change that is already happening, not future expectation)

So:

Use akan when you want to emphasise future improvement.
Omit akan if you mean it is already getting better now.

How does bertambah baik work grammatically? What are tambah and ber-?

Breakdown:

tambah = to add, to increase, more
Prefix ber- often makes an intransitive verb meaning “to be / to become / to have (a certain state)”.

So:

bertambah ≈ “to increase / to grow / to become more”.
baik = good.

Together:

bertambah baik = literally “to become more good”, i.e.
- to improve,
- to get better,
- to keep getting better / to be improving (depending on context).

So akan bertambah baik = “will improve / will get better.”

Could I say lebih baik instead of bertambah baik? Is there a nuance difference?

Yes, you can, but there is a slight nuance:

lebih baik = “better” (comparative form: more good).
- akan lebih baik → “will be better.” (focus on the state)
bertambah baik = “to become better / to improve / to keep getting better.”
- Emphasises change or progress over time, not just a static comparison.

In your sentence:

Saya rasa hubungan kami akan lebih baik.
→ “I think our relationship will be better (than before / than now).”
Saya rasa hubungan kami akan bertambah baik.
→ “I think our relationship will improve / keep getting better.”

Both are correct; bertambah baik sounds a bit more like an ongoing improvement process.

How would I change this to say “I feel our relationship has improved” instead of “will improve”?

To express “has improved” (already improved), you can use sudah or telah (“already”) and usually drop akan:

Common options:

Saya rasa hubungan kami sudah bertambah baik.
Saya rasa hubungan kami telah bertambah baik.
→ “I feel (that) our relationship has improved.”

More colloquial alternatives:

Saya rasa hubungan kami dah makin baik sekarang.
- dah = spoken form of sudah
- makin = increasingly
  → “I feel our relationship is getting better now / has been getting better.”

Is the word order fixed, or could I move akan or rasa around?

The basic Malay word order is Subject – (Modal) – Verb – Object / Complement.

In this sentence:

Saya (subject)
rasa (verb: think/feel)
hubungan kami (object/clause subject)
akan (modal/future marker)
bertambah baik (verb phrase: will improve)

You cannot freely move these around the way you sometimes can in English.

Correct patterns:

Saya rasa hubungan kami akan bertambah baik.
(With emphasis) Saya rasa bahawa hubungan kami akan bertambah baik.
- bahawa = “that” (often omitted in speech)

Incorrect or unnatural examples:

✗ Saya hubungan kami akan rasa bertambah baik.
✗ Saya rasa hubungan kami bertambah akan baik.

So:

akan should come before the verb phrase (bertambah baik).
rasa should directly follow saya when used as “I think / I feel”.

How formal is this sentence? Would people actually say it like this in conversation?

The sentence is natural and usable in real conversation.

Formality level:

Saya is neutral–polite (standard; okay in almost any situation).
The structure Saya rasa … is very common in speech.

In more casual contexts, people might slightly adjust it:

Aku rasa hubungan kita akan makin baik.
- aku = very informal “I”
- makin baik = getting better

But Saya rasa hubungan kami akan bertambah baik is perfectly normal in:

Everyday polite conversation
Writing (emails, messages, essays)
Semi-formal situations

It’s neither too formal nor too slangy.

What’s the difference between saya rasa and saya berasa or saya merasa?

In Malay usage:

saya rasa
- Most common in everyday speech.
- Means “I think / I feel / I have the sense that…”.
- Used for opinions as well as feelings.
saya berasa
- More formal / literary.
- Tends to mean “I feel (emotionally/physically)”, not usually “I think”.
- Example: Saya berasa sedih. – “I feel sad.”
saya merasa
- Much more typical in Indonesian than in Malaysian Malay.
- In Malaysia you will more commonly hear saya rasa instead.

For your sentence, in standard Malaysian Malay, Saya rasa hubungan kami akan bertambah baik is the most natural choice.