Ikan segar yang ayah beli pagi tadi disimpan di dalam peti sejuk sebelum dimasak.

The fresh fish that Father bought this morning is kept in the fridge before being cooked.

Breakdown of Ikan segar yang ayah beli pagi tadi disimpan di dalam peti sejuk sebelum dimasak.

• beli: to buy
• pagi tadi: this morning
• sebelum: before
• segar: fresh
• peti sejuk: the fridge
• ayah: the father
• yang: that/which
• di dalam: inside
• dimasak: to be cooked
• disimpan: to be stored
• ikan: the fish

Questions & Answers about Ikan segar yang ayah beli pagi tadi disimpan di dalam peti sejuk sebelum dimasak.

What does yang do in this sentence?

Yang is a relativizer; it introduces a relative clause, similar to “that / which / who” in English.

• Ikan segar = the fresh fish
• yang ayah beli pagi tadi = that Father bought this morning

So:

• Ikan segar yang ayah beli pagi tadi
  = the fresh fish that Father bought this morning

Everything from yang up to pagi tadi describes ikan segar.

Why is the word order “yang ayah beli” and not “yang beli ayah”?

In Malay relative clauses, the usual order is Subject – Verb – Object, just like in a normal sentence.

• Underlying simple sentence: Ayah beli ikan segar pagi tadi.
  (Father bought fresh fish this morning.)

When you turn ikan segar into “the fish that Father bought”, you move ikan segar to the front and mark it with yang:

• Ikan segar yang ayah beli pagi tadi
  (The fresh fish that Father bought this morning.)

So ayah (Father) stays in the subject position before the verb beli (buy).

How is the past tense “bought” expressed? There is no tense marker in beli, right?

Correct—beli by itself is not past; Malay verbs are generally tenseless.

Past time is usually shown by time expressions or context, not by changing the verb form.

In this sentence, pagi tadi (“this morning / earlier this morning”) tells you the action happened in the past, so:

• ayah beli = Father buy
  
  • pagi tadi = this morning
    → understood as “Father bought (this morning)”.

Without any time phrase, ayah beli ikan could mean “Father buys fish”, “Father bought fish”, or “Father will buy fish”, depending on context.

Why is it disimpan and not menyimpan? What is the difference?

Both come from the root simpan (“to keep / store”), but:

• menyimpan = active voice
  → “to keep / to store (something)”
  → Ayah menyimpan ikan di dalam peti sejuk.
  Father keeps/stores the fish in the fridge.

• disimpan = passive voice (di- passive)
  → “is/was kept / is/was stored”
  → Ikan segar … disimpan di dalam peti sejuk.
  The fresh fish … was kept in the fridge.

In this sentence, we want to focus on the fish as the subject, not on who did the storing, so the di- passive disimpan is used.

Why is it dim asak (“before being cooked”) and not an active form like memasak?

Again, this is the di- passive:

• Root: masak = to be cooked / cook
• memasak = to cook (active)
• dimasak = to be cooked (passive)

sebelum dimasak literally = “before (it was) cooked / before being cooked”.

We are still talking about the fish as the thing being cooked, not about a person who cooks, so a passive form matches the focus of the sentence:

• Subject of whole sentence: Ikan segar yang ayah beli pagi tadi
• Action 1: disimpan (was kept)
• Action 2: dimasak (was cooked)

If you wanted an active version, you might say:

• Ayah menyimpan ikan segar itu di dalam peti sejuk sebelum memasaknya.
  (Father stored the fresh fish in the fridge before cooking it.)

Here the subject is Ayah, so the active menyimpan / memasak is natural.

There is no word for “it” in sebelum dimasak. How do we know what is being cooked?

Malay often omits pronouns when they are clear from context.

• sebelum dimasak = “before (it/them) was/were cooked”
  The “it” is understood to be the fresh fish from earlier in the sentence.

If you want to make it explicit, you can add a pronoun:

• sebelum ia dimasak = before it was cooked
• sebelum ikan itu dimasak = before the fish was cooked

But in natural Malay, sebelum dimasak without a pronoun is very common when the object is obvious.

What is the difference between di dalam peti sejuk and just dalam peti sejuk?

Both are widely used and both can mean “in the fridge”.

• di dalam peti sejuk

  • literally: “at/at-in the inside of the fridge”
  • a bit more explicit; sometimes feels slightly more formal or emphatic.

• dalam peti sejuk

  • literally: “inside the fridge / in the fridge”
  • very common and natural in everyday speech.

In many sentences, you can use either without changing the meaning much. Here:

• … disimpan di dalam peti sejuk …
• … disimpan dalam peti sejuk …

Both would be understood as “was kept in the fridge”.

What exactly does peti sejuk mean? Is it the same as “fridge”?

Yes. peti sejuk is the standard Malaysian term for a refrigerator / fridge.

Literally:

• peti = box, chest
• sejuk = cold

So peti sejuk = “cold box”.

In Indonesian you’re more likely to see kulkas (from Dutch koelkast), but in Malaysia and Brunei, peti sejuk is the usual Standard Malay term.

There is also peti ais (“ice box”) in some varieties, but peti sejuk is the neutral standard form in Malaysia.

Why does ayah here mean “my father” even though there is no word for “my”?

Malay often drops possessive markers when the relationship is obvious from context, especially with close family members.

So in many contexts:

• ayah can be understood as “my father”
• mak / ibu can be understood as “my mother”, etc.

If you want to be explicit, you can say:

• ayah saya = my father
• bapa saya = my father (more formal/regional variation)

But in a normal narrative or conversation about your own family, ayah by itself is usually taken to mean “(my) father”.

Could we say ikan segar yang dibeli ayah pagi tadi instead of ikan segar yang ayah beli pagi tadi?

Yes, that is also grammatically correct and natural.

• ikan segar yang ayah beli pagi tadi
  = the fresh fish that Father bought this morning (active clause)

• ikan segar yang dibeli ayah pagi tadi
  = the fresh fish that was bought by Father this morning (passive clause inside the relative)

Both focus on the fish; the difference is only the voice of the relative clause:

• ayah beli (active)
• dibeli ayah (passive)

Everyday modern Malay probably favors yang ayah beli, but yang dibeli ayah is fully acceptable and can sound a bit more formal or written-style.

Can we rewrite the whole sentence in a more “active” style? How would that change the feel?

Yes. One active-style version is:

• Ayah menyimpan ikan segar yang dibelinya pagi tadi di dalam peti sejuk sebelum memasaknya.
  (Father stored the fresh fish that he bought this morning in the fridge before cooking it.)

Key changes:

• Subject becomes Ayah instead of Ikan segar ….
• Verbs switch to active: menyimpan, memasak.
• Clitics -nya (his/its) show possession and object:
  • yang dibelinya = that he bought
  • sebelum memasaknya = before cooking it

Effect:

• The original sentence (with ikan segar … disimpan … sebelum dimasak) focuses more on what happened to the fish.
• The active version focuses more on what Father did.

Both are correct; it’s mainly a question of emphasis and style.

Why is there no classifier like seekor before ikan here? When would I say seekor ikan segar instead of ikan segar?

Malay often uses classifiers / measure words with countable nouns, especially when you emphasize number.

• seekor ikan segar = one (animal-classifier) fresh fish
• dua ekor ikan segar = two fresh fish

In this sentence, we are talking about “the fresh fish that Father bought this morning” as a general group or batch, not emphasizing how many there are. So a bare noun phrase ikan segar is natural and idiomatic.

You would use seekor / dua ekor / beberapa ekor when you:

• introduce a specific number:
  Ayah beli dua ekor ikan segar. (Father bought two fresh fish.)
• need to be clear it is one fish:
  Seekor ikan segar disimpan di dalam peti sejuk.

Without any number, ikan segar by itself can mean “fresh fish” in general or “the fresh fish” that both speaker and listener know about from context.