Learn Hardcore Malay: Warna pakaian sekolah kami sama dengan warna baju sukan, tetapi kainnya berbeza. - The color of our school clothes is the same as the sports shirt color, but the fabric is different.

kami suggests the speaker is talking about their own group (their school, their class), and the listener is not part of that group.
If the listener were also a member of the same school/group, you would more naturally use kita:
pakaian sekolah kita = our (yours and mine) school uniform.

So kami here implies: the uniform of our school (but not yours).

How is warna pakaian sekolah kami structured? Why does warna come first?

Warna pakaian sekolah kami breaks down like this:

warna = color
pakaian sekolah kami = our school clothes / our school uniform

Malay often builds “X of Y” as X Y:

warna pakaian = the color of the clothes
warna pakaian sekolah = the color of the school clothes
warna pakaian sekolah kami = the color of our school clothes

So warna comes first because it is the head noun (color), and what follows (pakaian sekolah kami) further specifies whose or which color we are talking about.

Literally: color [of] our school clothes.

What does sama dengan mean, and could we just say sama?

Sama dengan is a common phrase meaning the same as.

In the sentence:

sama dengan warna baju sukan = the same as the color of the sports shirt

About usage:

sama dengan is the usual way to compare two things:
- Warna beg ini sama dengan warna baju saya.
  = The color of this bag is the same as the color of my shirt.
In informal speech, people sometimes just say sama and leave out dengan, especially when the comparison is clear from context. But sama dengan is clearer and more standard.

So here sama dengan is natural and idiomatic.

What exactly does baju sukan mean?

Baju sukan is:

baju = shirt/top (or sometimes general clothing, depending on context)
sukan = sport(s)

Together, baju sukan usually means:

sports shirt
PE shirt (physical education shirt)
the top you wear for sports at school

So in the sentence, warna baju sukan is the color of the sports shirt (or PE shirt).

Why does the sentence repeat warna in warna baju sukan instead of just saying sama dengan baju sukan?

Malay often repeats the head noun in both parts of a comparison for clarity:

warna pakaian sekolah kami sama dengan warna baju sukan
= the color of our school uniform is the same as the color of the sports shirt

Grammatically, you could say:

Warna pakaian sekolah kami sama dengan baju sukan.

This would still be understandable, but it is slightly less precise, because sama dengan baju sukan can (in theory) mean the same as the sports shirt (in some respect), not specifically its color.

Other natural alternatives include:

Warna pakaian sekolah kami sama dengan warnanya (baju sukan).
(warnanya = its color)
Warna pakaian sekolah kami sama dengan warna pakaian sukan kami.

Repeating warna makes the comparison explicit: it is the color that is the same.

What does kainnya mean here, and what does the -nya do?

Kainnya consists of:

kain
- -nya

Possible meanings of kain:

cloth / fabric / material
in school-uniform context (especially for girls), the skirt / lower part of the uniform

The suffix -nya usually marks:

his / her / its / their, or
a kind of definite “the” in context

So kainnya can mean:

its fabric / its material, or
the skirt (the specific one already mentioned or implied)

In this sentence, common interpretations are:

The fabric/material of the uniform vs that of the sports clothes
→ but the fabric is different.
In some contexts (e.g., talking about girls’ uniforms), it might mean:
→ but the skirt is different.

The exact nuance depends on how people at that school normally talk about their uniform, but grammatically it’s kain + its/the.

What is the difference between kain, baju, and pakaian?

They are related but not the same:

pakaian
- general word for clothing / clothes / attire
- can refer to a full set of what you wear (head to toe)
baju
- most commonly shirt / top / blouse, especially in everyday speech
- in some contexts, can mean clothing in general, but here it clearly means the top
kain
- cloth / fabric / material (general)
- also: a skirt or sarong-like lower garment in many Malay contexts
  (e.g. baju kurung = top, kain = matching skirt)

In many schools in Malaysia/Brunei/Indonesia:

baju = the top part of the uniform
kain = the skirt (for girls)

So one possible reading of the sentence is:

The color of the school uniform is the same as the sports top, but the skirt/fabric is different.

Why use berbeza instead of lain to say “different”?

Both berbeza and lain can express the idea of different, but they behave slightly differently:

berbeza
- from root beza (difference)
- functions like a stative verb / adjective meaning is different
- sounds a bit more neutral/formal
- example:
  - Pendapat saya berbeza. = My opinion is different.
lain
- means other / different / another
- used more directly as an adjective before a noun or after a noun:
  - orang lain = other people
  - kainnya lain = the cloth is different

In the sentence:

kainnya berbeza = its cloth/fabric is different.

You could also say:

kainnya lain, which is grammatical and natural in many contexts.
berbeza here just sounds a bit more neutral/standard, and clearly states “is different” as a predicate.

Why is it kainnya berbeza and not berbeza kainnya?

Malay word order for descriptions is usually:

noun + adjective / descriptive word

So:

kainnya berbeza
= literally its cloth is different

Putting berbeza first (berbeza kainnya) is not the normal way to state “its cloth is different” as a simple sentence.

You might put berbeza earlier only in special structures, for emphasis or in relative clauses, for example:

yang berbeza ialah kainnya
= what is different is the cloth

But in a straightforward statement, you keep:

[noun] + [description]
→ kainnya berbeza

Why isn’t there any plural marking? How do we know if it’s one uniform or many?

Malay normally does not mark plural on nouns. Number is understood from context.

In the sentence:

warna pakaian sekolah kami
could be the color of our (one) school uniform design, or
the color of our school uniforms (in general, for all students)

If you really wanted to emphasize plurality, you might say:

warna-warna pakaian sekolah kami (the various colors of our school clothes)
pakaian-pakaian sekolah kami (our school clothes, many items)

But in everyday Malay, you rarely need to do this unless the plural idea is important for the meaning. The default is to leave nouns unmarked and rely on context.

Could this sentence be shortened or said in a slightly different but still natural way?

Yes. Some natural variants:

Dropping the second warna (still quite clear):
- Warna pakaian sekolah kami sama dengan baju sukan, tetapi kainnya berbeza.
Using warnanya for the second mention:
- Warna pakaian sekolah kami sama dengan warnanya baju sukan, tetapi kainnya berbeza.
  (More commonly: … sama dengan warnanya, tetapi kainnya berbeza. if context is clear.)
Using tapi instead of tetapi (more informal):
- Warna pakaian sekolah kami sama dengan warna baju sukan, tapi kainnya berbeza.

All of these keep the same basic meaning; the original sentence is standard and clear.