Anak kecil itu pegang pisau mainan di tangan kanan, bukan pisau sebenar.

That small child holds a toy knife in the right hand, not a real knife.

Breakdown of Anak kecil itu pegang pisau mainan di tangan kanan, bukan pisau sebenar.

• adalah: to be
• itu: that
• di: in
• anak: the child
• kecil: small
• bukan: not
• kanan: right
• tangan: the hand
• pisau: the knife
• pegang: to hold
• mainan: toy
• sebenar: real

Questions & Answers about Anak kecil itu pegang pisau mainan di tangan kanan, bukan pisau sebenar.

What is the function of itu in anak kecil itu? Is it like the or that?

Itu is a demonstrative meaning that / those, but in many contexts it also works like a definite article the.

• anak kecil = a small child / small children (no article)
• anak kecil itu = that small child / the small child

So itu makes the noun phrase specific and identifiable. It usually comes after the noun phrase it modifies:

• rumah itu = that house / the house
• guru baru itu = that new teacher / the new teacher

Why is it pegang and not memegang? Are both correct?

Both pegang and memegang come from the same root and can mean to hold.

• memegang is the full verb with the prefix meN-, often more formal or neutral.
• pegang is the bare root form, common in everyday spoken Malay and informal writing.

In this sentence:

• Anak kecil itu pegang pisau mainan… – natural in casual speech.
• Anak kecil itu memegang pisau mainan… – natural in standard / formal Malay.

Meaning-wise here, they’re the same. The difference is mostly in style/register, not grammar.

There is no word for is or am. How does Malay show “is holding” here?

Malay generally does not use a verb like “to be” (is/am/are) before verbs.

The structure is simply:
[subject] + [verb] + [object]
→ Anak kecil itu pegang pisau mainan…

This can be translated as:

• The child holds a toy knife, or
• The child is holding a toy knife, depending on context.

If you specifically want to emphasize that the action is happening right now, you can add sedang (in the middle of doing):

• Anak kecil itu sedang memegang pisau mainan… = The child is (currently) holding a toy knife.

Why is there no he or she in the sentence? How do we know whose right hand it is?

Malay often omits pronouns when they’re clear from context.

Here, di tangan kanan naturally refers back to the subject anak kecil itu. Native speakers understand it as in the child’s right hand without needing a possessive pronoun.

If you want to make the possession explicit, you can say:

• di tangan kanannya = in his/her right hand
  
  • -nya is a third-person possessive suffix, roughly his/her/their.

Malay does not mark gender in pronouns, so -nya or dia can mean he or she.

Why is it di tangan kanan and not something like pada tangan kanan? What does di mean here?

Di is a common preposition meaning at / in / on depending on context. In body-part locations, di is the default:

• di tangan kanan = in/on the right hand
• di kepala = on the head
• di bahu saya = on my shoulder

Pada can also mean at / on, but it sounds more formal/abstract and is less common for simple physical location on the body in everyday speech.

So di tangan kanan is the natural choice here.

Why do we use bukan instead of tidak before pisau sebenar?

Malay has two main negators:

• tidak – negates verbs and adjectives

  • dia tidak makan = he/she does not eat
  • itu tidak benar = that is not true

• bukan – negates nouns and whole nominal phrases

  • itu bukan pisau = that is not a knife
  • dia bukan guru = he/she is not a teacher

In the sentence, pisau sebenar (a real knife) is a noun phrase, so bukan is correct:

• …bukan pisau sebenar = …not a real knife.

Using tidak pisau sebenar would be ungrammatical.

How does pisau mainan work grammatically? Why not mainan pisau?

Malay often forms noun–noun compounds where the main noun comes first and the describing noun comes after it.

• pisau mainan
  
  • pisau = knife (main noun)
  • mainan = toy (modifier noun)
    → literally toy knife

If you said mainan pisau, it would more naturally mean something like a toy (that is a) knife as an item in a group of toys – it’s not the usual way to say toy knife.

Other similar patterns:

• kereta mainan = toy car
• telefon mainan = toy phone

What does sebenar mean, and how is it different from words like betul or asli?

Sebenar is an adjective meaning roughly real / actual / true (in the sense of genuine, not fake).

In pisau sebenar, it means a real (genuine) knife, as opposed to a toy or fake knife.

Compare:

• sebenar – real, actual, genuine
  
  • masalah sebenar = the real problem
• betul – correct, right (factually correct)
  
  • jawapan betul = correct answer
• asli – original, authentic, from the origin
  
  • produk asli = original/authentic product

So bukan pisau sebenar is specifically not a real / genuine knife, which fits well as a contrast to pisau mainan (toy knife).

Malay doesn’t have a / an / the. How can we tell if pisau mainan means “a toy knife” or “the toy knife”?

Malay has no direct equivalent of English articles a/an/the. The specificity is usually understood from context, or added with words like itu (that/the) or ini (this).

• pisau mainan
  
  • could be a toy knife (indefinite)
  • or the toy knife (definite), depending on context.

If you want to be clearly definite:

• pisau mainan itu = that toy knife / the toy knife

If you want to emphasize one:

• sebuah pisau mainan = a toy knife (one toy knife)
  
  • sebuah is a classifier for objects.

Is the word order fixed? Could I say Anak kecil itu di tangan kanan pegang pisau mainan?

The natural, neutral word order in Malay is:
[subject] + [verb] + [object] + [location/time]

So:

• Anak kecil itu pegang pisau mainan di tangan kanan…

Putting di tangan kanan earlier like:

• Anak kecil itu di tangan kanan pegang pisau mainan

is not natural and sounds wrong to native speakers in this context.

You can sometimes move location phrases for emphasis or in more complex sentences, but for a simple sentence like this, keep:

• subject: Anak kecil itu
• verb: pegang
• object: pisau mainan
• location: di tangan kanan

Is anak kecil the normal way to say “small child”? How is it different from kanak-kanak or budak?

All of these relate to children, but they differ slightly in usage and nuance:

• anak kecil

  • literally small child
  • sounds neutral and slightly descriptive; often used in narratives.

• kanak-kanak

  • more general children, often in formal / written contexts, signs, or institutions.
  • taman kanak-kanak = children’s park / playground
  • To say a small/young kid you might say kanak-kanak kecil, but it’s more formal.

• budak

  • colloquial for kid / child
  • budak kecil = little kid (very common and casual)

In this sentence, anak kecil itu is perfectly natural; budak kecil itu would also be common in everyday spoken Malay.