Learn Hardcore Malay: Seorang pengawal keselamatan duduk di lobi hotel. - A security guard is sitting in the hotel lobby.

In Malay you often need a classifier when you count or specify nouns.
For people, orang (person) is the common classifier, and se- means “one”:

se- (one) + orang (person) → seorang (one person / a person)

So seorang is used because the noun refers to a human being and we want to say “a security guard” rather than just “security guard” in general.

Could I say just “Pengawal keselamatan duduk di lobi hotel” without seorang? What is the difference?

Yes, you can say:

Pengawal keselamatan duduk di lobi hotel.

This is also grammatical.

Difference in nuance:

Seorang pengawal keselamatan…
Emphasizes one guard. It matches English “A security guard is sitting in the hotel lobby.”
The listener imagines a single, unspecified person.
Pengawal keselamatan…
More general or neutral. Depending on context it can mean:
- “A security guard…” (context makes it clear it’s one person), or
- “The security guard…” (if both speakers know which guard)

Malay doesn’t have strict articles like a / the, so context usually carries that information. Seorang just makes the “one person” idea explicit.

What exactly does pengawal keselamatan mean? Is it one word or two?

It’s two words:

pengawal – guard, watcher (from root awal is not used here; pengawal is its own word meaning guard)
keselamatan – safety, security (from selamat = safe)

Together: pengawal keselamatan = security guard (literally “safety/security guard”).

This is a common Malay pattern: noun + noun to form a more specific noun:

tiket bas – bus ticket
lobi hotel – hotel lobby
pegawai kerajaan – government officer

So pengawal keselamatan is the standard term for a security guard, not a single long compound word.

Why is duduk used here? Does it mean “sit”, “is sitting”, or “sat”?

Duduk is the base verb meaning “to sit” or “to be in a sitting position.”

Malay verbs do not change form for tense. The same duduk can mean:

sit / is sitting / are sitting / sat / was sitting, etc.

The exact English tense comes from context or time words:

Seorang pengawal keselamatan duduk di lobi hotel.
→ Usually translated as “A security guard is sitting in the hotel lobby.” (present)
Tadi, seorang pengawal keselamatan duduk di lobi hotel.
→ “Earlier, a security guard was sitting in the hotel lobby.” (past)
Sekarang, seorang pengawal keselamatan sedang duduk di lobi hotel.
→ “Right now, a security guard is (currently) sitting in the hotel lobby.” (continuous)

So duduk itself doesn’t carry tense; it’s context that tells you whether it’s “sits/is sitting/sat”.

How would I make the action clearly continuous, like “is currently sitting”?

Use sedang before the verb:

Seorang pengawal keselamatan sedang duduk di lobi hotel.
= “A security guard is (currently) sitting in the hotel lobby.”

Sedang marks an action in progress, similar to English “is/are … -ing”:

Saya sedang makan. – I am eating.
Mereka sedang menonton TV. – They are watching TV.

It’s optional; the original sentence without sedang is still normally understood as present, unless context says otherwise.

What does di mean in di lobi hotel, and how is it different from the di- prefix?

In di lobi hotel, di is a preposition meaning “at / in / on” (location):

di rumah – at home
di sekolah – at school
di lobi hotel – in/at the hotel lobby

As a separate word before a noun, di = location preposition.

There is also a di- prefix (attached to verbs) that marks the passive voice:

makan – to eat
dimakan – is eaten / was eaten
baca – to read
dibaca – is read / was read

So:

di lobi hotel – preposition di
- noun phrase, meaning “in the hotel lobby”.
dibaca oleh Ali – verb with prefix di-, meaning “read by Ali”.

They look similar but are different in function and spacing:

Preposition: di lobi (two words)
Passive verb: dibaca (one word)

What does lobi hotel literally mean? Why is there no word for “of the”?

Lobi hotel is a noun–noun phrase:

lobi – lobby (loanword from English)
hotel – hotel

lobi hotel literally = “hotel lobby” (lobby [of a] hotel).

Malay usually doesn’t use a separate word for “of” in this kind of phrase. Instead, you put the more general noun first, then the more specific or “owner” noun:

bilik hotel – hotel room (room of a/the hotel)
pintu kereta – car door (door of a/the car)
baju bayi – baby’s clothes (clothes of the baby)

So lobi hotel already means “the lobby of the hotel / the hotel lobby” without needing an extra word like “of”.

Why doesn’t Malay use words like “a” and “the” here? How would I say “the security guard”?

Malay generally does not have articles like English “a/an/the”. The base noun can mean a, the, or just “security guard(s)” depending on context.

pengawal keselamatan
→ a security guard / the security guard / security guards

To be more specific:

a security guard – often seorang pengawal keselamatan
the security guard (one already known in context) – usually just pengawal keselamatan; if you want to really specify, you can add itu (= that):
- pengawal keselamatan itu – that security guard / the (particular) security guard

But in many cases, Malay speakers don’t bother adding anything; context does the work.

Why seorang and not satu pengawal keselamatan for “one security guard”?

You can say satu pengawal keselamatan, but it sounds more like you’re emphasizing the exact number one (as opposed to two or more).

For humans, the natural classifier is orang (person), so the idiomatic form is:

seorang pengawal keselamatan – a security guard / one (human) security guard

Compare:

seorang guru – one teacher / a teacher
dua orang pelajar – two students
tiga orang doktor – three doctors

Using satu directly with a human noun is grammatically possible, but it can sound a bit number-focused or slightly unnatural in everyday speech. Seorang is the usual, smooth-sounding choice here.

Is the word order in Seorang pengawal keselamatan duduk di lobi hotel fixed? Could I move things around?

Malay word order is generally Subject–Verb–(Object/Place), similar to English.

In this sentence:

Seorang pengawal keselamatan – subject (a security guard)
duduk – verb (sit / is sitting)
di lobi hotel – place (in the hotel lobby)

This order is natural and standard:

[Subject] [Verb] [Place]
→ Seorang pengawal keselamatan duduk di lobi hotel.

You can sometimes front the place phrase for emphasis:

Di lobi hotel, seorang pengawal keselamatan duduk.
= “In the hotel lobby, a security guard is sitting.”

But that sounds a bit more formal or literary. For everyday sentences, keep the basic order as given.

What is the difference between di lobi hotel and di dalam lobi hotel?

Both are correct; the nuance is slightly different:

di lobi hotel – at/in the hotel lobby (normal, general)
di dalam lobi hotel – inside the hotel lobby (more explicitly “inside”)

dalam means inside, so di dalam = “in / inside”.

Often di lobi hotel is enough, because a lobby already implies an interior area. You might add di dalam if you want to contrast with outside, e.g.:

Di luar hotel ada tempat letak kereta, dan di dalam lobi hotel ada seorang pengawal keselamatan.
= Outside the hotel there is a car park, and inside the hotel lobby there is a security guard.

How do you pronounce pengawal keselamatan and lobi?

Approximate pronunciation (for English speakers):

pengawal → /pəŋ-gah-wal/
- pe- like a quick “puh”
- ng as in “singer” (not “finger”)
- ga as in “garden”
- stress slightly on -gawal: puh-NGAH-wal
keselamatan → /kə-sə-la-ma-tan/
- ke- and se- are both like a quick “keh/suh” with a schwa
- main stress generally near -ma- or spread evenly: kə-sə-LA-ma-tan
lobi → /loh-bee/
- like English “low-bee”

Malay stress is usually fairly even, not as strong and contrastive as in English. Each syllable is clearly pronounced.

Is this sentence formal, casual, or neutral? Would people actually say it like this?

It’s neutral, natural, and perfectly usable in everyday speech or writing.

Vocabulary: common, standard Malay.
Structure: simple, clear S–V–P pattern.

You might hear exactly this kind of sentence in:

A news report:
“Seorang pengawal keselamatan duduk di lobi hotel ketika kejadian berlaku.”
A story or description:
“Seorang pengawal keselamatan duduk di lobi hotel, mengawasi para tetamu.”

In very casual conversation, people might shorten things or add slang, but this sentence is a good, standard model.