Learn Hardcore Malay: Pasukan sekolah saya menang dalam pertandingan bola semalam. - My school team won in the football competition yesterday.

If you said saya sekolah pasukan, it would be ungrammatical; Malay does not rearrange the words the way English does. You always keep the head noun (pasukan) first, then add details (which school? whose school?) after it:

pasukan (team)
pasukan sekolah (school team)
pasukan sekolah saya (my school team)

Why is there no separate word for "the" or "a" in the sentence?

Malay generally does not use articles like the or a/an. The sentence:

Pasukan sekolah saya menang dalam pertandingan bola semalam.

can be understood as:

My / the school team won in the ball competition yesterday.

Whether you understand it as the or a depends on context, not on a specific word. Specificity is usually shown by:

Possessives: sekolah saya (my school), buku kamu (your book)
Demonstratives: pasukan itu (that team), pertandingan ini (this competition)
Context: what you and your listener already know

So Malay is happy without an exact equivalent of the and a; you infer that from the rest of the phrase.

How do we know the sentence is in the past tense when menang doesn’t change form?

Malay verbs do not change form for tense. The verb menang can mean win / wins / won / will win, depending on context.

In this sentence, semalam (yesterday) tells you the time:

Pasukan sekolah saya menang dalam pertandingan bola semalam.
→ The time word semalam makes it clearly past: won yesterday.

If you need to be extra clear or more formal, you can add optional aspect markers:

telah menang – has/had won (formal-ish)
sudah menang – already won

For example:

Pasukan sekolah saya telah menang dalam pertandingan bola semalam.
Pasukan sekolah saya sudah menang dalam pertandingan bola semalam.

But the simple menang ... semalam is already perfectly clear and very natural.

What exactly does menang mean here? Is it like “to win” or “is the winner”?

Menang is primarily an intransitive verb meaning to win.

In this sentence:

Pasukan sekolah saya menang...
→ My school team won...

There is no extra verb “to be” needed. You do not say:

✗ Pasukan sekolah saya adalah menang...

You just use menang as the main verb.

In other contexts, menang can also function in an adjective-like way to describe status:

Pasukan itu pasukan yang menang.
→ That team is the winning team.

But here, it is best understood simply as the past action won.

What is the role of dalam in dalam pertandingan bola? Could we use di or pada instead?

Dalam literally means in / inside, but it’s also used in a more abstract sense: in (the context of), in (the framework of).

menang dalam pertandingan bola
→ won in the ball / football competition

Comparisons:

dalam pertandingan bola
- Focuses on within the event / context of the competition.
- Very natural here.
di pertandingan bola
- di is more about location: at the competition (physically there).
- Understandable; also heard in speech, but a bit more “place-focused”.
pada pertandingan bola
- pada often marks time or occasions/events: on / at / during the competition.
- Feels a bit more formal or written.

All three can be used, but:

dalam pertandingan bola is very natural for winning in the competition (as an event).
di pertandingan bola sounds more like at the competition as a place.

Can we remove dalam and just say menang pertandingan bola semalam?

Yes, you can, and it’s still grammatical:

Pasukan sekolah saya menang pertandingan bola semalam.

This now treats pertandingan bola more directly as the object:

Literally: my school team won the ball competition yesterday.

Nuance:

menang dalam pertandingan bola = won in the competition (within that competitive event)
menang pertandingan bola = won the competition (more direct object relationship)

Both are common; with or without dalam is acceptable. Using dalam is slightly more descriptive and common in careful speech/writing, but dropping it is fine and often heard in casual speech.

What exactly does pertandingan bola mean? Is it the same as “football match”?

Pertandingan bola literally means ball competition.

pertandingan = competition, contest, tournament
bola = ball (often understood as football/soccer if not specified)

Possible nuances:

pertandingan bola
- could be a tournament or competition involving ball games (often football)
- may imply more than one match (e.g. a school tournament)

Compare with:

perlawanan bola
- perlawanan = (sport) match
- Usually refers to a specific match/game, not the whole tournament.
permainan bola
- permainan = game/play
- More general: a ball game, not necessarily a formal competition.

So pertandingan bola is closer to ball / football competition or tournament, while perlawanan bola is closer to a football match.

Can bola alone really mean “football/soccer”, not just “ball”?

Yes. In many Malay-speaking contexts, especially informal ones, bola by itself is often understood to mean football/soccer, because:

The full term bola sepak = football/soccer
People often shorten it to just bola when the context is clear.

So:

pertandingan bola will very often be understood as a football competition, especially in a school or sports context.
If it were another sport, you’d usually specify:
- bola keranjang – basketball
- bola jaring – netball
- bola tampar – volleyball

Without extra information, bola typically implies football in everyday conversation.

Where can semalam go in the sentence? Is it only correct at the end?

Semalam (yesterday) is fairly flexible in position. All of these are acceptable:

At the end (very common):
- Pasukan sekolah saya menang dalam pertandingan bola semalam.
At the beginning (also very natural, slightly more narrative):
- Semalam, pasukan sekolah saya menang dalam pertandingan bola.
After the subject (possible, but slightly more marked/emphatic in some contexts):
- Pasukan sekolah saya semalam menang dalam pertandingan bola.
  (Often used in speech to highlight “yesterday” or to contrast with another time.)

The two most neutral patterns are:

Semalam, pasukan sekolah saya...
Pasukan sekolah saya ... semalam.

Can I say pasukan sekolahku instead of pasukan sekolah saya? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

Pasukan sekolahku menang dalam pertandingan bola semalam.

Differences:

sekolah saya
- saya is a separate pronoun: my
- neutral, polite, standard; good for speech and writing
sekolahku
- -ku is a suffix meaning my attached to the noun
- often feels more personal, poetic, or informal
- common in songs, literature, and casual writing (e.g. messages)

In normal conversation and neutral writing, sekolah saya is safer and more standard. sekolahku is correct but carries a slightly more emotional or stylistic flavor.

Is pasukan sekolah saya singular or plural? In English we talk about the team as a group of people.

Grammatically, pasukan is singular (one team), but it refers to a group of people.

Malay verbs do not change for number, so menang stays the same whether:

one person wins: Dia menang.
a team wins: Pasukan sekolah saya menang.
many people win: Mereka semua menang.

If you wanted to emphasize plurality of teams, you would repeat the noun:

pasukan-pasukan = teams (more than one team)

But here, pasukan sekolah saya clearly refers to one team (my school’s team), even though that team is made up of many players.

What does pasukan mean exactly? Is it always a sports team?

Pasukan means team / squad / unit and is not limited to sports. It is used for:

Sports: pasukan bola sepak, pasukan sekolah saya
Military or police: pasukan tentera (army unit), pasukan polis (police unit)
Work or task groups: pasukan penyelamat (rescue team), pasukan pemasaran (marketing team)

In sports contexts, it usually maps well to English team. In this sentence, pasukan sekolah saya is clearly a sports team (because of pertandingan bola).

How do you pronounce menang, and is ng one sound or two?

Menang is pronounced approximately like:

mə-NANG (with the ng as in English sing)

Key points:

me- is a light, unstressed syllable (like meh but very short).
-nang is stressed.
ng in Malay represents a single sound: the velar nasal /ŋ/, as in English sing, long.
You do not pronounce it as “menang-g”; the g is not a separate sound.

So, break it as me-nang, with the final sound like the ng in “sung”.