Learn Hardcore Malay: Selepas pertandingan tamat, penonton berdiri dekat pintu keluar stadium. - After the competition ended, the spectators stood near the stadium exit.

selepas
- More standard/formal.
- Common in writing and careful speech.
- Used in many fixed expressions, e.g. selepas itu (after that).
lepas
- More informal/colloquial.
- Very common in everyday spoken Malay: Lepas pertandingan tamat… would sound natural in conversation.

Both are understood and grammatically fine here. In an exam, essay, or news article, selepas is safer; with friends, lepas is very common.

Is pertandingan tamat a full clause? How does that work grammatically?

Yes, pertandingan tamat is a complete clause.

pertandingan = the match / competition
tamat = ends / is over / is finished

In Malay, it’s very common to have:

[noun] + [adjective or intransitive verb]

with no extra linking verb. So:

pertandingan tamat ≈ the match ended / the match is over
kedai tutup ≈ the shop is closed
dia tidur ≈ he/she sleeps / is sleeping

So Selepas pertandingan tamat literally is After the match ended / was over.
Malay doesn’t need a separate word like “is” or “has” here.

Could I also say Selepas tamat pertandingan instead of Selepas pertandingan tamat?

Yes, Selepas tamat pertandingan is also grammatical and natural.

The difference is mainly emphasis and style:

Selepas pertandingan tamat
- More neutral word order.
- Focus is slightly more on pertandingan (the match).
Selepas tamat pertandingan
- A bit more literary/flowing.
- Focus is slightly more on tamat (the ending).

Both are used in real Malay. For a learner, Selepas pertandingan tamat is straightforward and very safe.

Why is there a comma after tamat?

The comma separates the time clause from the main clause:

Selepas pertandingan tamat, → time clause (After the match ended)
penonton berdiri dekat pintu keluar stadium. → main clause (the spectators stood near the stadium exit.)

This is similar to English:

After the match ended, the spectators stood near the exit.

If the time clause comes first, a comma is standard in written Malay.
If it comes second, the comma is usually dropped:

Penonton berdiri dekat pintu keluar stadium selepas pertandingan tamat.

Does penonton mean one spectator or many spectators? There’s no plural -s.

Penonton can be singular or plural, depending on context.

penonton = spectator / audience member / (the) audience

Malay usually doesn’t mark plural on nouns. You work it out from context:

Here, a stadium, a match, an exit → clearly many spectators.
If you wanted to emphasise plural, you could say:
- para penonton = the spectators (more formal)
- semua penonton = all the spectators

To make it clearly singular, you could say:

seorang penonton = one spectator / a spectator

But in the original sentence, penonton on its own is naturally understood as the spectators.

Why is it berdiri dekat pintu keluar stadium, and not something like di dekat?

Berdiri dekat… is the normal pattern:

berdiri = to stand / stood (intransitive verb)
dekat = near
pintu keluar stadium = the stadium exit

So berdiri dekat… = stood near…

About dekat and di dekat:

dekat can act like a preposition:
- berdiri dekat pintu keluar = stand near the exit
di dekat is also possible but often a bit heavier:
- berdiri di dekat pintu keluar = stand near/by the exit

In many everyday sentences, dekat alone is more natural and shorter.
Di dekat is used when you want to be slightly more explicit or formal, but here berdiri dekat pintu keluar stadium is perfectly standard.

What exactly does pintu keluar stadium mean? How is that phrase put together?

Pintu keluar stadium is a noun phrase chain:

pintu = door / gate
keluar = exit / out
stadium = stadium

Structure:

pintu keluar → literally “exit door/gate” (a compound: door-for-going-out)
pintu keluar stadium → the stadium exit gate, literally “the stadium’s exit gate”

Malay often expresses possession or “of” relationships by just putting nouns next to each other:

pintu keluar stadium = stadium exit gate
tiket bas malam = night bus ticket
pintu rumah jiran = neighbour’s house door

You don’t need “of” or “’s” like in English. The relationship is understood from context and order.

Why is there no di before pintu keluar stadium? In English we say “at the exit”.

Here, dekat already fills the role that di usually plays.

di = at / in / on (basic location preposition)
dekat = near

So you normally have either:

di pintu keluar stadium = at the stadium exit
or
dekat pintu keluar stadium = near the stadium exit

Putting both is possible (di dekat pintu keluar), but it’s more wordy and less common in simple statements. In this sentence, dekat is enough to show the location relationship.

How does tamat differ from verbs like habis or berakhir?

All three can involve the idea of ending / finishing, but they have different flavours:

tamat
- Often used for events, courses, contracts, shows.
- Slightly formal/neutral.
- pertandingan tamat = the competition ended
- kontrak sudah tamat = the contract has expired
habis
- Very common and colloquial.
- Often means used up / finished / all gone:
  - makanan habis = the food is finished / all gone
  - duit saya habis = my money is gone
- For events, majlis sudah habis is possible but more casual than majlis sudah tamat.
berakhir
- More formal; used in news, writing.
- Literally “to have an ending”; used with events, periods:
  - mesyuarat itu berakhir pada pukul 5 = the meeting ended at 5
  - perang itu berakhir pada tahun…

In your sentence, pertandingan tamat is very natural and slightly more neutral/formal than using habis.

Can I move the selepas-clause to the end, like in English “The spectators stood… after the match ended”?

Yes. These are both correct:

Selepas pertandingan tamat, penonton berdiri dekat pintu keluar stadium.
Penonton berdiri dekat pintu keluar stadium selepas pertandingan tamat.

Differences:

Sentence 1: most common in writing; it sets the time frame first.
Sentence 2: perfectly acceptable; it starts with the main action and adds the time information at the end.

There is no change in meaning. Word order is flexible here; just keep “selepas + clause” together.