Learn Hardcore Malay: Saya mahu kurangkan tekanan di pejabat. - I want to reduce stress at the office.

mahu just means “want (to)”, not “will”.
The sentence “Saya mahu kurangkan tekanan di pejabat” is neutral in time; context tells you if you mean now, soon, or in general.

If you want to be clearer about future time, you can add a time word:

Saya mahu kurangkan tekanan di pejabat tahun ini.
= I want to reduce stress at the office this year.

What’s the difference between “mahu”, “hendak”, and “nak”?

They are closely related:

mahu – standard, common in speech and writing.
hendak – slightly more formal / traditional; often seen in writing or more formal speech.
nak – colloquial contraction of hendak/mahu, very common in informal spoken Malay.

Examples:

Saya mahu kurangkan tekanan di pejabat. (neutral, standard)
Saya hendak mengurangkan tekanan di pejabat. (formal-ish, written)
Saya nak kurangkan tekanan kat pejabat. (very colloquial / spoken)

In most learner-friendly, neutral contexts, mahu is a good choice.

Why “kurangkan” and not just “kurang”?

kurang by itself is usually an adjective/adverb: “less”, “not enough”, “lacking”.
- Example: Gaji saya kurang. = My salary is not enough / is low.
kurang can also be a verb meaning “to decrease” without a direct object:
- Tekanan di pejabat kurang. = The pressure at the office decreased / is less.
kurangkan has the -kan suffix, which makes it transitive – “to make something less / to reduce something”:
- Saya mahu kurangkan tekanan. = I want to reduce the pressure/stress.

In your sentence, you are acting on “tekanan”, so kurangkan is the correct form.

Is “mengurangkan” more correct than “kurangkan” here?

Both are possible, but they have slightly different feels:

mengurangkan = meN- + kurang + -kan
This is the fully derived verb, very natural and common in standard/formal Malay:
- Saya mahu mengurangkan tekanan di pejabat.
kurangkan is a shorter form that’s also heard, especially in spoken Malay:
- Saya mahu kurangkan tekanan di pejabat.

For careful, textbook-style Malay, “Saya mahu mengurangkan tekanan di pejabat” is often preferred, but your original sentence is still understandable and acceptable, especially in speech.

Does “tekanan” mean “stress” or “pressure”? When should I use “stres” instead?

tekanan literally means “pressure”, and by extension can mean “stress” (especially work or life pressure).

tekanan di pejabat = pressure/stress at the office
tekanan darah = blood pressure

Malay also uses the loanword stres (from English):

Saya mahu kurangkan stres di pejabat.

Both are understandable:

tekanan sounds a bit more neutral / native-Malay.
stres sounds very close to English “stress” and is common in everyday speech.

For “work stress”, you might hear:

tekanan kerja or stres kerja = work stress.

Why do we use “di” before “pejabat”? Can I use “ke” or “pada” instead?

In this sentence:

di is a location preposition meaning “at / in / on”.
- di pejabat = at the office / in the office

Compare:

di = at/in/on (static location)
- Saya bekerja di pejabat. = I work at the office.
ke = to / towards (direction, movement)
- Saya pergi ke pejabat. = I go to the office.
pada = on/at, mainly for time or abstract “at”
- pada pukul tiga = at three o’clock
- pada masa itu = at that time

So here, talking about stress located at the office, di is the correct choice: tekanan di pejabat.

Can I change the word order, like “Saya mahu di pejabat kurangkan tekanan”?

No, that word order is unnatural.

Standard word order here is:

Subject: Saya
Modal/auxiliary: mahu
Verb: (meng)urangkan
Object: tekanan
Location phrase: di pejabat

So:

✅ Saya mahu mengurangkan tekanan di pejabat.
❌ Saya mahu di pejabat mengurangkan tekanan. (feels odd/wrong in normal speech)

Malay generally prefers S–V–O–(adverbials), similar to English.

Is “Saya” formal? Can I use “aku” here instead?

Saya – neutral and polite; safe in almost all situations (work, strangers, formal, semi-formal).
Aku – informal / intimate; used with close friends, family, or in certain subcultures.

So:

At work, talking about office stress, Saya mahu kurangkan tekanan di pejabat is appropriate.
With close friends or in a diary, you might say:
- Aku nak kurangkan tekanan kat pejabat. (very informal, colloquial)

As a learner, if you’re unsure, stick with “saya”.

Can I drop “Saya” and just say “Mahu kurangkan tekanan di pejabat”?

You can, but only in certain contexts.

In casual spoken Malay, especially when the subject is obvious from context, people might omit Saya:

Mahu kurangkan tekanan di pejabat tahun ni.
(Said after you’ve been talking about yourself and your job.)

However:

In clear, complete sentences, especially in writing or formal speech, keep Saya.
As a learner, it’s safer and clearer to say the full “Saya mahu kurangkan…”.

Is this sentence polite enough for a workplace context?

Yes, it is polite and appropriate, especially if slightly “standardized”:

Saya mahu mengurangkan tekanan di pejabat.

You can make it even softer/more formal with wording like:

Saya ingin mengurangkan tekanan di pejabat.
(ingin = want/would like; slightly more formal/polite in tone)

But your original “Saya mahu kurangkan tekanan di pejabat” is already perfectly acceptable in most normal work conversations.

How do you pronounce “tekanan” and “pejabat”?

Approximate pronunciations (in simple English terms):

tekanan → tuh-KAH-nan
- te = “tuh”
- ka = “kah”
- nan = “nun” with ‘a’ like “cut”, but shorter, clearer
pejabat → puh-JAH-bat
- pe = “puh”
- ja = “jah” (like “jar” without the ‘r’)
- bat = “but” with a clearer ‘a’

Stress is usually fairly even in Malay, but you can give a slight emphasis on the middle syllables: te-KA-nan, pe-JA-bat.

How would I say “I want to reduce work stress at the office” more explicitly?

You can specify “work stress” as “tekanan kerja”:

Saya mahu mengurangkan tekanan kerja di pejabat.
= I want to reduce work stress at the office.

Or, more colloquial:

Saya nak kurangkan tekanan kerja di pejabat.