Learn Hardcore Malay: Ayah menasihati kami bahawa rempah yang kuat kena disimpan jauh dari kanak-kanak. - Father advised us that strong spices must be stored far from children.

ayah
- Common in everyday speech.
- Feels warmer / more intimate, like “dad”.
- Often used as a way to address your own father:
  - Ayah, jom makan. – Dad, let’s eat.
bapa
- Slightly more formal or official.
- Often seen in written language, titles, or general references:
  - bapa saudara – uncle
  - bapa negara – father of the nation

In this sentence, Ayah menasihati kami…, ayah suggests someone talking about their own dad in a natural, family context. You could technically use Bapa here, but Ayah sounds more personal and typical in conversation.

Why is it menasihati and not just nasihat? How is the verb formed?

Nasihat is a noun: “advice”.

To make it into a verb (“to advise”), Malay uses a meN- prefix:

nasihat → menasihati = to advise (someone)

Breakdown of menasihati:

meN- (verb prefix) + nasihat (advice) + -i (suffix that often means “to give X to someone / to apply X on a target”)
Rough meaning: “to give advice to (someone)”

So:

Ayah menasihati kami
Literally: “Father advised us” (Father gave advice to us).

You cannot say Ayah nasihat kami as a complete standard sentence; you need a verb form like menasihati or a verb phrase like memberi nasihat.

What’s the difference between menasihati, menasihatkan, and memberi nasihat?

All three can be translated as “to advise”, but there are subtle differences:

menasihati (s.o.)
- Focus on the person receiving advice.
- Takes a person as object:
  - Ayah menasihati kami. – Father advised us.
menasihatkan (s.t. / s.o. about s.t.)
- Focus on the content or topic of the advice.
- Often used with what is being advised or with supaya / agar / untuk (“so that / in order to”):
  - Doktor menasihatkan saya supaya berehat.
    The doctor advised me to rest.
memberi nasihat (kepada s.o.)
- Literally “to give advice”.
- Slightly more neutral or formal; very common in writing and speech:
  - Ayah memberi nasihat kepada kami.
    Father gave advice to us.

In your sentence, menasihati kami focuses on us (we are the recipients of the advice), which fits nicely with the rest of the sentence.

What is the role of bahawa here? Can it be left out?

Bahawa introduces a that-clause, similar to English “that” in:

“He said that the spices must be kept away from children.”

In your sentence:

Ayah menasihati kami bahawa…
“Father advised us that…”

Grammatically:

menasihati (advise) + kami (us) + bahawa (that) + [statement]

In everyday spoken Malay, bahawa is often omitted, especially in casual speech:

Ayah menasihati kami rempah yang kuat kena disimpan jauh dari kanak-kanak.

This is still understandable and natural in conversation.
However, in formal writing (essays, news, official texts), keeping bahawa is common and often preferred.

I thought kena means “to get hit” or “to suffer something”. Why does it mean “must” here?

Kena is very flexible and has several meanings depending on context. Two main patterns:

Affected / hit / suffer
- Dia kena demam. – He got a fever.
- Bola itu kena kepala saya. – The ball hit my head.
Must / have to / should (colloquial)
- Awak kena datang awal. – You must come early.
- Kerja ini kena siap hari ini. – This work must be finished today.

In your sentence:

rempah yang kuat kena disimpan jauh dari kanak-kanak.

Here kena has the “must / have to” meaning:

“strong spices have to / must be kept far from children”

This use of kena is very common in everyday Malay and is a bit more colloquial than mesti or perlu.

You could also say:

… rempah yang kuat mesti disimpan jauh dari kanak-kanak.
… rempah yang kuat perlu disimpan jauh dari kanak-kanak.

All three are acceptable; kena just sounds more casual and conversational.

Why is it disimpan (passive) instead of an active verb like “keep”?

Disimpan is the passive form of simpan (“to keep / to store”):

simpan → disimpan = “to be kept / to be stored”

In Malay, when you talk about a general rule or requirement for how things should be, it’s very natural to use a passive construction:

Makanan perlu disimpan di dalam peti sejuk.
Food needs to be stored in the fridge.
Dokumen penting mesti disimpan dengan selamat.
Important documents must be kept safely.

So:

rempah yang kuat kena disimpan jauh dari kanak-kanak
“strong spices must be kept far away from children”

If you wanted an active version with a clear subject doing the action, you could say, for example:

Kami kena simpan rempah yang kuat jauh dari kanak-kanak.
We must keep the strong spices far away from children.

Both are grammatical, but the passive version sounds more like a general safety rule, not tied to a specific person.

Why is it rempah yang kuat and not kuat rempah or something else? How do adjectives and yang work here?

Malay normally puts adjectives after the noun:

rumah besar – big house
air panas – hot water
rempah kuat – strong spices

So you could say rempah kuat, and it would be understood as “strong spices”.

However, here we see rempah yang kuat:

yang can link a noun to a describing part, which can be:
- an adjective
- a phrase
- a clause

Using yang often:

Gives the phrase a slightly more specific or emphasized feeling.
Can make it sound a little more careful or standard.

Compare:

rempah kuat – strong spices (simple adjective phrase)
rempah yang kuat – the spices that are strong / spices which are strong

In practice, rempah kuat and rempah yang kuat are both fine here, with yang adding a bit of emphasis or clarity that you are referring specifically to the strong ones.

What exactly does kuat mean for spices? Is it “spicy”, “strong-smelling”, or something else?

Kuat literally means “strong” and is very flexible in Malay. For spices (rempah), kuat can mean:

Strong in smell
Strong in taste / flavour
Sometimes also “strong” in spiciness depending on context

So rempah yang kuat might imply:

Strong-smelling spices (e.g. very pungent)
Strong-tasting / intense spices
Possibly very “potent” spices (e.g. chilli powder, strong curry spices)

If you specifically mean spicy / hot (chilli heat), you might use:

pedas – spicy (hot)
- makanan yang pedas – spicy food
tajam – sharp (sometimes used for very sharp taste or smell)

But kuat is a good general word for intense / powerful flavour or smell, so it fits naturally here.

What is the difference between kanak-kanak, budak, and anak for “child/children”?

They all relate to children, but with different usage:

kanak-kanak
- More formal / neutral, often used in writing, official contexts, signs.
- Means children in general (usually not just one).
- Example:
  - Taman permainan kanak-kanak – children’s playground
budak
- More informal, common in everyday speech.
- Can mean “kid / child”, sometimes slightly casual or rough depending on tone.
- Example:
  - Budak itu nakal. – That kid is naughty.
anak
- Literally “child / offspring”, often with a sense of “someone’s son/daughter”.
- With a possessive:
  - anak saya – my child
  - anak dia – his/her child
- As a group:
  - anak-anak – children (plural)

In jauh dari kanak-kanak, kanak-kanak sounds appropriate and a bit more formal, like a safety instruction or warning (similar to “keep out of reach of children” on packaging).

Is kanak-kanak always plural? How do I say “one child”?

Kanak-kanak is a reduplicated form of kanak, and in modern Malay it almost always refers to children (plural) as a group.

To say one child, you can do:

seorang kanak-kanak – one child
(literally “one person (of) child/children”)

Examples:

Seorang kanak-kanak terjatuh di taman permainan.
A child fell at the playground.
Kanak-kanak tidak dibenarkan masuk.
Children are not allowed to enter.

So:

With a classifier (like seorang): can refer to a single child.
Without a classifier: usually understood as children in general.

Why is it jauh dari kanak-kanak and not jauh daripada or something else?

Both dari and daripada can mean “from”, but they’re used slightly differently.

Very roughly:

dari – from a place / direction / time
daripada – from a source / origin / comparison / person

In actual usage:

After jauh (“far”), people very often say jauh dari:
- jauh dari rumah – far from home
- jauh dari bandar – far from the city
- jauh dari kanak-kanak – far from children

So jauh dari kanak-kanak is completely natural and idiomatic.

You might see jauh daripada in some contexts, but jauh dari is much more common in everyday speech, especially with locations, people, or things you should be distant from.