Breakdown of Saya hantar kertas kerja kepada moderator dan dia menulis komen ringkas di tepi.
Questions & Answers about Saya hantar kertas kerja kepada moderator dan dia menulis komen ringkas di tepi.
Malay verbs do not change form for tense. Hantar can mean send / sent / am sending, depending on context.
In this sentence, the past meaning comes from the situation and the sequence of events: first you sent the paper, then the moderator wrote comments. If you really want to make the past time explicit, you can add words like:
- tadi – earlier / just now
- Saya hantar kertas kerja kepada moderator tadi…
- semalam – yesterday
- telah – formal past marker
- Saya telah menghantar kertas kerja kepada moderator…
But in everyday Malay, people usually just rely on context, as in the original sentence.
Both hantar and menghantar are correct, but they differ in style and feel:
Saya hantar kertas kerja…
- More informal / conversational.
- Common in speech and casual writing.
Saya menghantar kertas kerja…
- More formal / complete verb form.
- Common in formal writing, reports, essays, etc.
Meaning-wise they’re the same (“I sent / I submit the paper”), but if you’re writing something official, menghantar is safer. For everyday spoken Malay, hantar is perfectly natural.
No. Kertas kerja is a fixed expression and usually means:
- a working paper / proposal paper / concept paper / written project
(often for meetings, conferences, projects, events, etc.)
It does not usually mean a physical “sheet of paper”. For a simple sheet, Malay uses:
- kertas – paper (material / sheet of paper)
- sekeping kertas – a sheet of paper
So here, kertas kerja is more like “a proposal / written report / working paper”, not just a random piece of paper.
Kepada is the correct preposition for “to (a person)” when you are directing something to someone:
- kepada – to (a person / recipient)
- ke – to (a place / destination)
Examples:
- Saya hantar kertas kerja *kepada moderator. – I send the paper *to the moderator.
- Saya pergi *ke pejabat. – I go *to the office.
You cannot say “Saya hantar kertas kerja ke moderator” in standard Malay; ke with a person sounds wrong.
You also don’t need an article (“the, a”) in Malay, so kepada moderator already means “to the moderator” (or “to a moderator”, depending on context).
In this sentence, dia most naturally refers to the moderator, because of the logical sequence:
- Saya hantar kertas kerja kepada moderator – I sent the paper to the moderator
- dan dia menulis komen ringkas di tepi – and he/she wrote a short comment at the side
So: I send it; the moderator writes the comment.
Malay does allow some ambiguity, but here context strongly suggests dia = moderator. If you wanted to avoid any ambiguity, you could repeat the noun:
- …kepada moderator dan *moderator itu menulis komen ringkas di tepi.*
Dia is gender-neutral. It can mean he or she. Malay normally doesn’t mark gender in third-person pronouns.
If you need to be clearer, you can:
- Use context: usually enough.
- Use a name or title:
- …dan *Encik Ahmad menulis komen…*
- …dan *Puan Salmah menulis komen…*
- Use beliau in more formal contexts, which is also gender-neutral but more respectful / formal:
- …kepada moderator dan *beliau menulis komen ringkas di tepi.*
But there’s no separate basic words for “he” vs “she”; it’s all dia (or beliau).
In Malay, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe:
- komen ringkas – short comment
- komen = comment
- ringkas = brief / short (in terms of length, not measurement)
Other examples:
- buku baharu – new book
- meja besar – big table
- kereta merah – red car
So ringkas komen would be wrong as a noun phrase. The correct order is noun + adjective: komen ringkas.
Di tepi literally means “at the side / on the side / by the edge”.
In this context, it most naturally means:
- the moderator wrote the short comment in the margin / at the side of the document (or paper)
Malay often leaves out the obvious noun if it’s understood from context. More explicit versions would be:
- …dia menulis komen ringkas *di tepi kertas kerja itu.*
- …di tepi halaman. – at the side of the page
But di tepi alone is very natural if the thing with an “edge” is already clear (here, the paper/document).
In Malay, subject pronouns are usually not dropped the way they are in Spanish or Japanese. You normally keep saya and dia:
- ✅ Saya hantar kertas kerja kepada moderator dan dia menulis komen ringkas di tepi.
If both subjects are the same, you can sometimes omit the second one to avoid repetition:
- Saya hantar kertas kerja kepada moderator dan menulis komen ringkas di tepi.
(Here, it sounds like I wrote the comment myself.)
But in your original sentence, omitting dia would change the meaning (it would no longer be clear that the moderator wrote it), so it’s better to keep it.
You cannot normally just say “Hantar kertas kerja kepada moderator dan menulis komen…” in standard language; it sounds incomplete unless the subject has been very clearly established just before in context.
Dan is a neutral “and”, simply joining two actions:
- …kepada moderator *dan dia menulis komen… – …to the moderator *and he/she wrote comments…
If you want to show clearer sequence (“then / after that”), you can use:
- kemudian – then / afterwards (more neutral)
- Saya hantar kertas kerja kepada moderator, *kemudian dia menulis komen ringkas di tepi.*
- selepas itu – after that
- …kepada moderator. *Selepas itu, dia menulis komen ringkas di tepi.*
Dan is fine if the order is obvious from context. If you’re emphasising sequence, kemudian or selepas itu is better.
Komen is a loan word from English “comment”. It’s very commonly used in modern Malay, both as:
- noun: comment
- komen ringkas – short comment
- beri komen – give a comment / give feedback
- verb (informally): to comment
- Dia suka komen di media sosial. – He/She likes to comment on social media.
There is also a more classical / formal word ulasan (review, commentary), but komen is standard and natural here, especially in an academic or work setting.
Malay usually does not change the noun form for plural. Komen can mean “comment” or “comments” depending on context.
If you really want to emphasize plurality, you can:
Use a number or quantifier:
- beberapa komen ringkas – a few short comments
- banyak komen ringkas – many short comments
Use reduplication (more common with other nouns, less with loan words, but possible in speech):
- komen-komen ringkas – comments (multiple comments)
However, dia menulis komen ringkas di tepi can already be understood as him/her writing one or more brief comments, just from context. No change in form is required.
You can raise the formality level by:
- Using the full verb form menghantar
- Adding telah for past aspect (optional but formal)
- Possibly using beliau instead of dia if the moderator is someone you respect
- Choosing a slightly more formal verb like memberikan ulasan ringkas (give brief feedback) or menyertakan komen ringkas
A more formal version:
- Saya telah menghantar kertas kerja kepada moderator dan beliau menulis komen ringkas di tepi.
Or, even more formal in tone:
- Saya telah menghantar kertas kerja kepada moderator dan beliau telah menyertakan ulasan ringkas di bahagian tepi.
The original sentence is acceptable in many semi-formal contexts, but these versions sound more “official.”