Learn Hardcore Malay: Dia menggantung lukisan kegemarannya di dinding bilik tidur. - He/She hangs his/her favorite painting on the bedroom wall.

Dia is a gender‑neutral third‑person singular pronoun in Malay. It can mean he or she, and Malay normally does not specify gender unless you add extra words like:

lelaki itu – that man / male
perempuan itu – that woman / female

So Dia menggantung lukisan kegemarannya... can be translated as:

He hung his favourite painting... or
She hung her favourite painting...

The context (if mentioned earlier in the conversation or text) usually tells you whether it is he or she.

How do we know this sentence is in the past tense if menggantung doesn’t change form?

Malay verbs generally do not change form for tense. The same verb form can mean past, present, or future. Menggantung by itself is just to hang (something).

To show time, Malay relies on:

Time words:
- semalam – yesterday
- tadi – earlier
- esok – tomorrow
- akan – will (often used before the verb for future)
Context of the conversation.

So:

Dia menggantung lukisan kegemarannya di dinding bilik tidur.
Can mean:
- He/She hung his/her favourite painting on the bedroom wall. (past)
- He/She is hanging his/her favourite painting on the bedroom wall. (present, in a narrative)
- Less commonly, with a time word, it could be future:
  - Esok dia menggantung lukisan kegemarannya... – Tomorrow he/she will hang...

The English translation uses past tense because that is the most natural reading without extra time words, but grammatically the Malay verb form itself is tenseless.

Why is it menggantung and not just gantung?

Gantung is the root (base form) meaning hang.
Menggantung is the meN- prefixed verb form, often used for active, transitive actions (subject does something to an object).

You often see this pattern:

Root: gantung – hang
Verb with meN-: menggantung – to hang (something)

You can sometimes use the root on its own in casual speech or in certain structures:

Tolong gantung lukisan ini. – Please hang this painting.
Lukisan itu tergantung di dinding. – That painting is hanging on the wall. (here tergantung = in a hanging state)

But in a full, neutral sentence where a subject acts on an object, meN- verbs like menggantung are very common and sound more complete/formal:

Dia menggantung lukisan itu. – He/She hangs/hung the painting.

What is the difference between menggantung and menggantungkan?

Both come from gantung (hang):

menggantung – to hang (something)
menggantungkan – also to hang (something), but the -kan suffix can:
- Emphasise the effect on the object or destination, or
- Sound a bit more formal/literary in some contexts.

In many everyday sentences like this one, both would be acceptable:

Dia menggantung lukisan kegemarannya di dinding bilik tidur.
Dia menggantungkan lukisan kegemarannya di dinding bilik tidur.

The meaning is practically the same here. In modern colloquial Malay, menggantung is more common for simple actions like this. -kan often becomes more important in other verbs where it clearly adds causative meaning, e.g.:

besar (big) → membesarkan (to enlarge / to raise a child)
hidup (alive) → menghidupkan (to turn on / make something alive)

What’s the difference between lukisan and gambar?

Both can be translated as picture, but there is a nuance:

lukisan
- From lukis (to draw/paint).
- Usually means a painting, drawing, or sketch – something created by hand as art.
gambar
- Very general: picture, image, photo.
- Can refer to:
  - photographs (e.g. gambar foto)
  - pictures in books
  - any general image.

So:

lukisan kegemarannya – his/her favourite painting (artwork).
gambar kegemarannya – his/her favourite picture/photo (could be a photo of family, scenery, etc.).

Using lukisan in this sentence suggests we’re talking about a piece of artwork, not just any photo.

What exactly does kegemarannya mean, and how is it formed?

Kegemarannya is built from the root gemar:

gemar – to like / to be fond of.
kegemaran – adding ke-…-an turns it into a noun: favourite / preference.
kegemarannya – adding -nya at the end gives:
- his/her favourite (possessive), and
- often a sense of “that particular favourite” (definite).

So:

lukisan kegemarannya
Literally: the painting which is his/her favourite
Natural English: his/her favourite painting.

Alternative ways to say it:

lukisan kegemaran dia – also his/her favourite painting, more explicitly separated.
lukisan yang dia paling gemar – the painting that he/she likes the most.

All are correct; kegemarannya is just more compact and natural here.

Could you explain the -nya ending in kegemarannya? Is it always possession?

The suffix -nya in Malay is quite flexible. In kegemarannya, it mainly shows:

Possession: his/her
Often also definiteness: that specific one

Common functions of -nya include:

Possessive pronoun (his/her/its/their)
- bukunya – his/her book
- rumahnya – his/her house
Referring back to something already known (like the in English in some contexts)
- Lelaki itu membuka pintu, lalu menutupnya.
  – The man opened the door, then closed it.
Emphasis or nominalization in some fixed expressions
- yang pentingnya – what’s important is...

In lukisan kegemarannya, the core idea is his/her favourite painting, and the -nya attaches directly to kegemaran for a compact possessive phrase.

Why is it di dinding bilik tidur and not something like pada dinding or di atas dinding?

In Malay:

di is the basic preposition for in / at / on (location).
pada can also mean on / at, but is:
- more formal, and
- often used with abstract things (on someone, on a topic, etc.).

For physical location on a surface like a wall, di dinding is very natural:

di dinding – on the wall
di lantai – on the floor
di meja – on the table

Pada dinding is not wrong, but sounds more formal or bookish.
di atas dinding literally means on top of the wall, and can sound odd if you just mean on the wall like a picture that is hung.

So di dinding bilik tidur is the normal, idiomatic way to say on the bedroom wall.

How should I understand the structure dinding bilik tidur? Is it “bedroom wall” or “wall of the bedroom”?

In Malay, noun phrases are usually head noun + modifier(s), with modifiers coming after the main noun.

Here:

dinding – wall (head noun)
bilik tidur – bedroom (modifier phrase, literally sleeping room)

So dinding bilik tidur is:

literally: the wall of the bedroom
natural English: the bedroom wall.

This pattern appears everywhere in Malay:

pintu rumah – the house door / the door of the house
buku sejarah – history book / book of history
tingkap bilik – the room window / window of the room

So di dinding bilik tidur = on the bedroom wall.

Can I change the word order, like putting di dinding bilik tidur earlier or later in the sentence?

The usual, most natural word order is:

Subject – Verb – Object – (Location/Time)

So:

Dia (subject)
menggantung (verb)
lukisan kegemarannya (object)
di dinding bilik tidur (location phrase)

You can sometimes move the location phrase for emphasis, but you must be careful not to break the usual flow:

Di dinding bilik tidur, dia menggantung lukisan kegemarannya.
– On the bedroom wall, he/she hung his/her favourite painting. (fronted for emphasis, still correct)

But something like:

Dia menggantung di dinding bilik tidur lukisan kegemarannya.

is grammatically possible but sounds awkward or confusing, because di dinding bilik tidur is placed between the verb and its direct object, which is not typical.

For learners, it’s safest to keep:

Subject – Verb – Object – Location:
Dia menggantung lukisan kegemarannya di dinding bilik tidur.