Breakdown of Selepas makan, adik saya lipat tikar itu dan simpan dalam kereta.
Questions & Answers about Selepas makan, adik saya lipat tikar itu dan simpan dalam kereta.
Adik means younger sibling. It:
- Refers to someone younger than the speaker.
- Does not specify gender by itself.
- Can mean younger brother or younger sister depending on context.
If you want to be specific, you can say:
- adik lelaki saya – my younger brother
- adik perempuan saya – my younger sister
In everyday conversation, adik saya is often enough, especially if everyone already knows who is being talked about.
Malay normally shows possession by simply putting the possessor after the thing possessed:
- adik saya = younger sibling
- I → my younger sibling
- kereta saya = my car
- rumah mereka = their house
There’s no separate word like “of” or “’s” needed. Word order alone shows the relationship:
- adik saya – my younger sibling
- saya adik – (unusual / not how you say “my younger sibling”)
Malay often omits the subject when it’s clear from context.
In this sentence:
- Selepas makan, adik saya lipat tikar itu…
Literally: After eat, my younger sibling folded that mat…
We understand that the same person (adik saya) is the one who ate, because:
- The main clause subject is adik saya.
- There’s no other candidate in the sentence.
- Malay frequently drops repeated subjects in subordinate clauses.
If you really want to spell it out, you can say:
- Selepas adik saya makan, adik saya lipat tikar itu…
(After my younger sibling ate, my younger sibling folded that mat…)
But this sounds a bit repetitive; the shorter version is more natural.
Grammatically, makan is a verb, but Malay verbs can easily function like verbal nouns without changing form.
- makan – to eat / eating
- Selepas makan – After eating / After (we) ate
Malay doesn’t need a special ending like “-ing” for this usage. Context and position in the sentence tell you whether it’s more like “to eat” or “eating”.
Both forms exist:
- lipat / melipat – to fold
- simpan / menyimpan – to keep / to store / to put away
In everyday Malay:
- The base form (lipat, simpan) is very common in spoken and informal written language, especially when the object comes after the verb:
- adik saya lipat tikar itu
- adik saya simpan tikar itu
The meN- forms (melipat, menyimpan) are:
- Often used in more formal or standard style.
- Slightly more “complete” grammatically, especially in writing:
- Selepas makan, adik saya melipat tikar itu dan menyimpannya dalam kereta.
Both are correct; the original sentence just sounds more colloquial/natural spoken Malay.
Yes, that sentence is correct.
Differences:
Style / formality
- lipat / simpan → more colloquial, spoken, relaxed.
- melipat / menyimpannya → more formal/standard, common in writing or careful speech.
Pronoun -nya
- menyimpannya = “keep/put it” (where -nya = it / the mat).
- In the original, simpan dalam kereta leaves “it” understood from context.
Meaning is essentially the same: After eating, my younger sibling folded the mat and put it in the car.
Tikar is usually:
- A mat, often woven, used for sitting on the floor or for picnics.
- Typically thinner and lighter than a carpet.
Common contexts:
- tikar mengkuang – traditional woven mat
- hampar tikar – spread out the mat
So tikar itu here is best translated as “the mat” (probably a picnic or floor mat).
Itu is a demonstrative meaning “that”, but in practice it often works like “the” in English.
- tikar – a mat / mat (general)
- tikar itu – that mat / the mat (a specific one the listener knows about)
So:
- If speakers can see the mat, tikar itu is close to “that mat”.
- In natural translation, “the mat” is often smoother English.
Malay doesn’t have a separate word for “the”, so ini (this) and itu (that) frequently cover that role.
All involve kereta (car), but they’re slightly different:
dalam kereta – in the car / inside the car
- Focuses on being inside.
- With simpan dalam kereta, it implies “put (and keep) it inside the car”.
di dalam kereta – in / inside the car (more explicit)
- di = at/in (location)
- dalam = inside
- Combined, it can sound a bit more formal or more precise.
- simpan di dalam kereta is also correct.
ke dalam kereta – into the car
- ke = to / towards (direction/movement)
- Emphasises movement into the interior.
- E.g. Letak tikar itu ke dalam kereta – Put that mat into the car.
In your sentence, simpan dalam kereta is very natural and already implies putting and keeping it inside the car.
Malay usually does not mark tense on the verb. The bare verb can refer to past, present, or future, depending on context.
We know it’s past here because of:
- The time sequence word selepas (after), which suggests a completed action.
- Typical narrative context: “After eating, my younger sibling folded the mat and put it in the car.”
If you want to mark past more explicitly, you can add particles:
- Selepas makan, adik saya telah melipat tikar itu dan menyimpannya dalam kereta.
(telah = has / had, often formal)
But in everyday Malay, the original sentence is enough to show the sequence of past actions.
Yes, you can replace selepas with lepas or sesudah:
- Selepas makan, … – after eating (neutral, standard)
- Lepas makan, … – after eating (more colloquial, very common in speech)
- Sesudah makan, … – after eating (standard / can sound slightly more formal/literary)
Meaning is the same; the main difference is style:
- Everyday spoken Malay: Lepas makan, adik saya lipat tikar itu…
- Neutral written Malay: Selepas makan, adik saya melipat tikar itu…
The default word order in Malay is Subject – Verb – Object (SVO), similar to English:
- Adik saya (Subject) lipat (Verb) tikar itu (Object).
You can change word order for emphasis, but that often requires extra particles or sounds literary. For normal, neutral sentences, stick with SVO:
- Saya baca buku itu. – I read that book.
- Mereka simpan beg dalam kereta. – They put the bag in the car.
On its own, kereta in Malay usually means car.
For train, Malay uses:
- kereta api – literally “fire vehicle”, i.e. train.
So:
- kereta – car
- kereta api – train
In your sentence, dalam kereta clearly means “in the car”.