Learn Hardcore Malay: Pada hujung minggu, keluarga saya berkelah di tepi tasik. - On weekends, my family has picnics by the lake.

Hujung minggu, keluarga saya berkelah… is understandable and might appear in informal speech or writing, but pada hujung minggu sounds more complete and natural in standard Malay.

Could you use di instead?

Di is mainly for place (at/in/on). You’ll sometimes hear di with time in very casual speech, but in standard Malay, pada is the correct choice for time expressions like this.
So:
✅ Pada hujung minggu (standard)
❌ Di hujung minggu (not standard for time)

Why does hujung minggu mean “weekend”? It literally looks like “end of week”.

You’re right: literally,

hujung = end / tip
minggu = week
So hujung minggu = end of the week → “weekend”.

This is the normal, everyday way to say weekend in Malay.

Other related forms you might see:

pada hujung minggu ini = this weekend
pada hujung minggu lepas = last weekend
pada hujung minggu depan = next weekend

Why is it keluarga saya and not saya keluarga for “my family”?

Malay usually puts the thing possessed first, then the possessor:

keluarga saya = family my → my family
buku saya = book my → my book
rumah kami = house our → our house

So:

✅ keluarga saya = my family
❌ saya keluarga (ungrammatical as “my family”)

You might also see:

sekeluarga saya or kami sekeluarga = my whole family / all of us as a family (slightly different nuance, stressing the whole family as a unit).

What does berkelah mean exactly, and what does the prefix ber- do?

Berkelah is an intransitive verb meaning “to have a picnic / to go for a picnic.”

berkelah = have a picnic / go on a picnic

The prefix ber-:

often forms intransitive verbs from nouns or roots.
can suggest doing / being in a state of / having something.

Examples:

bekerja (ber- + kerja) = to work
berjalan (ber- + jalan) = to walk
berlari (ber- + lari) = to run

With berkelah, it’s like “to do a picnic-ing activity”.
There is also a loanword berpiknik, but berkelah is the more traditional, native Malay term.

Do we know if berkelah here is past, present, or future? There’s no tense marking.

Malay verbs like berkelah do not change form for tense. Tense is usually understood from context or from time words.

So keluarga saya berkelah di tepi tasik could mean:

My family *is having a picnic by the lake* (present)
My family *had a picnic by the lake* (past)
My family *will have a picnic by the lake* (future)

To be clearer, you add time expressions:

Semalam, keluarga saya berkelah… = Yesterday, my family had a picnic…
Esok, keluarga saya akan berkelah… = Tomorrow, my family will have a picnic…
Setiap hujung minggu, keluarga saya berkelah… = Every weekend, my family has a picnic…

In your sentence, pada hujung minggu suggests a general time (“on the weekend”), and the exact tense depends on context.

What’s the difference between di tepi tasik and just di tasik?

di tasik = at the lake (somewhere in/at that lake area)
di tepi tasik = by the lake / at the edge of the lake / on the lakeside

Tepi means edge / side / bank. So:

di tepi jalan = by the road / roadside
di tepi pantai = by the beach / on the shore

In your sentence, di tepi tasik gives the image of sitting or being on the bank of the lake, which fits the idea of a picnic more precisely than just at the lake.

Is the preposition di necessary before tepi tasik, or can I say just tepi tasik?

In standard Malay, when giving a location, you normally need a preposition like di:

✅ di tepi tasik = at/by the lake
❌ tepi tasik (by itself as a complete locative phrase) sounds incomplete in standard sentences like this.

However:

In very informal speech, people might drop di and say things like kat tepi tasik (with kat as a colloquial form of di).
In headlines, signs, or short notes, you might see something like Tepi tasik as a label, but in a full sentence, di tepi tasik is the natural standard form.

Is keluarga singular or plural? How do you say “my family” versus “my families”?

Malay nouns usually do not change form for singular vs. plural.

keluarga saya = my family (as one unit), or my family members (group implied)
pelajar = a student / students (context decides)
buku = a book / books

To make “families” explicit, you can use reduplication or a numeral:

keluarga-keluarga = families (in general, multiple families)
dua keluarga saya = my two families (context-dependent; sometimes sounds unusual unless you really mean two separate families)

In normal use:

keluarga saya = my family (group)
You don’t need to change the word to show plural people inside the family.

How should I pronounce hujung, keluarga, and tasik? Anything tricky for English speakers?

Key points:

hujung
- hu like “hoo” in hoop
- jung with ng as in sing → /hu-jung/ (ng at the end, not “g”)
keluarga
- Break it as ke-luar-ga
- keluar (to go out) is kə-loo-ar, so keluarga is similar:
  - ke like weak “ke” (schwa)
  - luar like “loo-ar”
  - ga with a hard “g”
- Roughly: kə-loo-AR-ga (stress often slightly toward the second or third syllable, but Malay stress is relatively light).
tasik
- ta like “tah”
- sik ends with a glottal stop for the k in many Malay varieties, not a full English “k” burst.
- So it can sound more like ta-sikʔ, a cut-off at the end.

Malay stress is generally soft and fairly even; don’t over-stress any one syllable like in English.

Are there more informal or alternative ways to say this sentence?

Yes. The given sentence is neutral/standard:

Pada hujung minggu, keluarga saya berkelah di tepi tasik.

Some alternatives (mostly just style changes):

Add time specificity:
- Pada hujung minggu lepas, keluarga saya berkelah di tepi tasik.
  = Last weekend, my family had a picnic by the lake.
Slightly more conversational, still standard:
- Hujung minggu lepas, kami sekeluarga berkelah di tepi tasik.
  - kami = we (excluding the listener)
  - sekeluarga = as a whole family
Very informal (spoken):
- Hujung minggu lepas, kitorang sekeluarga berkelah kat tepi tasik.
  - kitorang = colloquial “we/us”
  - kat = colloquial for di

Your original sentence is perfectly good standard Malay; these just show what you might hear in conversation.