Breakdown of Adik perempuan saya suka menari, jadi dia sertai kelab tarian di kampus.
Questions & Answers about Adik perempuan saya suka menari, jadi dia sertai kelab tarian di kampus.
In Malay, possessive pronouns like saya (my) usually come after the noun they possess.
- Adik perempuan saya
= adik perempuan (younger female sibling) + saya (my)
= “my younger sister”
If you say saya adik perempuan, you are literally saying:
- saya = I
- adik perempuan = younger sister
Together, this is understood as “I am a younger sister” (Malay often drops the verb to be), not “my younger sister”.
So:
- Adik perempuan saya = my younger sister
- Saya adik perempuan = I am a younger sister
Yes, adik always means “younger sibling”, regardless of gender. By itself, it doesn’t say if it’s male or female.
Common family terms:
- adik = younger sibling (male or female)
- adik perempuan = younger sister
- adik lelaki = younger brother
- kakak = older sister
- abang = older brother
Malay usually distinguishes by relative age, not just “sister/brother” like English. So “sister” is normally either kakak (older) or adik perempuan (younger), depending on who is older.
Adik alone is gender-neutral:
- adik = younger sibling (could be brother or sister)
If you want to specify that it’s a younger sister, you add perempuan (female):
- adik perempuan = younger female sibling → younger sister
- adik lelaki = younger male sibling → younger brother
In real conversation, if context is already clear, people might just say adik and everyone knows which sibling you mean. But in a standalone sentence like this, adik perempuan clearly tells the learner it’s a younger sister.
Malay pronouns don’t mark gender the way English does:
- dia = he / she
There is no separate word for “he” and “she” in standard Malay. Both are dia.
So even though adik perempuan saya tells you it’s a younger sister (female), the pronoun is still dia, not something else. The listener identifies “she” from context, not from the pronoun form.
Yes, dropping dia is possible in casual speech, because the subject is clear from context:
Adik perempuan saya suka menari, jadi dia sertai kelab tarian di kampus.
(more explicit / standard)Adik perempuan saya suka menari, jadi sertai kelab tarian di kampus.
(subject dia is understood: “so [she] joined the dance club on campus”)
In writing and in more formal contexts, it’s safer and clearer to keep dia. In everyday conversation, speakers often omit repeated subjects when it’s obvious who they’re talking about.
In Malay, when one verb follows another (like “like to do X”), you usually just put the second verb directly after the first, without to or a preposition:
- suka menari = likes to dance / likes dancing
- suka makan = likes to eat / likes eating
- suka membaca = likes to read / likes reading
Using untuk (for / to) before a verb can be correct in some structures, but suka untuk menari sounds more formal or slightly awkward in everyday usage. The natural way is:
- suka + [verb in base form] → suka menari
Malay verbs usually do not change form for tense. Suka and sertai can represent past, present, or future, depending on context and time words.
In the sentence:
- Adik perempuan saya suka menari, jadi dia sertai kelab tarian di kampus.
You understand the time like this:
- suka menari → a general, timeless preference: “likes to dance”
- sertai kelab tarian → a one-time action that logically happened after that preference → often understood as “(so) she joined the dance club”
If you want to make tense explicit, you can add markers:
- sudah / telah = already (past)
- dia sudah sertai kelab tarian = she has already joined the dance club
- akan = will (future)
- dia akan sertai kelab tarian = she will join the dance club
But in many sentences, Malay simply relies on context and logical order of events.
The base root is serta (to participate, to join). The standard active form with the meN- prefix is:
- menyertai = to join / to take part in (something)
sertai (without meN-) is:
- often used in headlines, slogans, advertisements, or more casual/short forms
- used as a bare verb in some styles: Dia sertai kelab itu.
In fully standard, careful prose, you would most commonly see:
- … jadi dia menyertai kelab tarian di kampus.
So:
- menyertai = more clearly “standard” active verb form
- sertai = shorter form that you will often hear and read, and is generally acceptable in informal or semi-formal contexts
Sertai / menyertai is a transitive verb: it takes a direct object.
- dia sertai kelab tarian
- dia = subject (she)
- sertai = verb (join)
- kelab tarian = direct object (the thing she joins)
You don’t say something like “join to the club” or “join in the club” in Malay; it’s simply “join club”:
- sertai kelab, menyertai pertandingan, menyertai projek itu, etc.
No extra preposition (like di, ke, pada) is needed after sertai.
Menari is a verb; tarian is a noun.
- menari = to dance (verb)
- tarian = dance / dancing (as a thing or art form, noun)
Malay often creates nouns from verbs with the -an suffix:
- makan (to eat) → makanan (food)
- minum (to drink) → minuman (drink, beverage)
- menari (to dance) → tarian (dance / dances)
Kelab tarian is a Noun + Noun structure:
- kelab (club) + tarian (dance) → “dance club” / “dance club (for dancing activities)”
Kelab menari is not impossible, but it sounds more like “club that (is) dancing” or “club whose activity is dancing” as a description. For naming the club itself, kelab tarian is the natural, standard equivalent of “dance club” as an organization.
In this sentence, jadi is a conjunction meaning “so”, “therefore”, or “as a result”:
- Adik perempuan saya suka menari, jadi dia sertai kelab tarian di kampus.
= My younger sister likes to dance, so she joined the dance club on campus.
Other words and phrases with similar meanings include:
- oleh itu = therefore / thus (more formal)
- sebab itu = that’s why / for that reason
- maka = then / so (literary, formal, or storytelling)
Jadi is very commonly used in speech and informal writing.
Di is the basic preposition for location: “in / at / on”.
- di rumah = at home
- di sekolah = at school
- di kampus = on campus / at the campus
Kampus (campus) is a loanword, but it behaves like any other noun. You can absolutely say:
- di kampus = on campus
- di universiti = at the university
The nuance:
- di kampus emphasizes the physical campus area (buildings, grounds).
- di universiti can be slightly broader, referring to the institution in general.
In this context, both are fine, but di kampus matches the English “on campus” closely.
Kelab by itself is not marked for singular or plural. Malay nouns typically do not change form for plural.
- kelab = club / clubs (depending on context)
- pelajar = student / students
- buku = book / books
You can mark plurality in a few ways if needed:
Reduplication (often for “various” / multiple items):
- kelab-kelab = clubs (various clubs)
- pelajar-pelajar = students
Using numbers or quantifiers:
- tiga kelab = three clubs
- banyak kelab = many clubs
In kelab tarian in this sentence, context tells us it’s just one club: “the dance club”. No extra plural marking is needed.