Learn Hardcore Malay: Lagi kurang gula dalam minuman saya, lagi sihat gigi dan mulut saya. - The less sugar in my drink, the healthier my teeth and mouth are.

Lagi banyak kamu berlatih, lagi pandai kamu.
The more you practise, the better you get.
Lagi lambat kita bertolak, lagi susah kita kejar masa.
The later we leave, the harder it is to catch up on time.

Your sentence follows the same pattern:

Lagi kurang gula dalam minuman saya, lagi sihat gigi dan mulut saya.
= The less sugar there is in my drink, the healthier my teeth and mouth are.

So the double lagi is natural and expected in this pattern.

Is lagi kurang the same as just kurang? What nuance does lagi add?

Kurang gula by itself means “less sugar” or “not enough sugar”.

Lagi kurang gula in this pattern means “the less sugar” (in a comparative sense) or “the less and less sugar”.

Nuance:

kurang gula – a simple description: There is little / not enough sugar.
lagi kurang gula … lagi sihat … – creates a link between changing amount (less and less) and the result (healthier).

So lagi here doesn’t just intensify kurang; it marks the comparative relationship in the “the less…, the more…” structure.

Could I replace lagi with semakin or lebih? For example: Semakin kurang gula…?

Yes, you can. The most standard written form would usually use semakin, not lagi:

Semakin kurang gula dalam minuman saya, semakin sihat gigi dan mulut saya.

This means the same thing and sounds a bit more formal/standard.

Comparison:

Lagi kurang … lagi sihat …
– very common in everyday spoken Malaysian Malay; informal.
Semakin kurang … semakin sihat …
– standard, suitable for writing, speeches, and both Malaysian and Indonesian contexts.
Lebih kurang does not work here; it means “approximately / more or less”, not “the less”.

So:

Use lagi or semakin for “the more/less…, the more/less…”.
Avoid lebih in this pattern for this meaning.

Why is there no verb like adalah or ialah before sihat? Shouldn’t it be lagi sihat adalah gigi dan mulut saya?

In Malay, adjectives can function directly as predicates without a linking verb. You don’t need an equivalent of “to be” (“is/are”).

So:

Gigi saya sihat.
= My teeth are healthy.
Dia tinggi.
= He/She is tall.
Air itu panas.
= That water is hot.

In your sentence, the structure after the comma is:

lagi sihat gigi dan mulut saya
literally: even healthier (are) my teeth and mouth

The “are” is simply understood, not spoken. Adding adalah here would be unnatural in this pattern; you normally do not say:

✗ lagi sihat adalah gigi dan mulut saya

Why is the word order lagi sihat gigi dan mulut saya and not gigi dan mulut saya lagi sihat?

Both orders are possible, but they have slightly different feel and usage.

Lagi sihat gigi dan mulut saya.
- Puts focus on “lagi sihat” (healthier).
- Fits very naturally in the lagi A, lagi B pattern, where lagi directly precedes the adjective in both halves.
Gigi dan mulut saya lagi sihat.
- Sounds more like a stand‑alone statement: My teeth and mouth are healthier.
- Could be used, but then the rhythm of your correlative pattern breaks a bit.

For clean parallelism in this structure, Malay speakers usually keep lagi directly before the adjective in both clauses:

Lagi kurang gula…, lagi sihat…
(not lagi kurang…, gigi saya lagi sihat in the second clause)

Could I leave out saya the second time and just say lagi sihat gigi dan mulut?

You can, but it changes the feel:

lagi sihat gigi dan mulut saya
– clearly refers to your own teeth and mouth.
lagi sihat gigi dan mulut
– more general; sounds like “teeth and mouth (in general)” are healthier.
In isolation it could be understood as people’s teeth and mouths.

If the context is clearly “me” and you’ve just mentioned minuman saya, many speakers might still understand it as yours, but:

For a learner and in careful Malay, including the second saya is clearer and more natural.

Why is there no plural marker for “teeth”? Why just gigi and not something like “gigi‑gigi”?

Malay usually does not mark plural the way English does. One word form often covers both singular and plural:

gigi = tooth / teeth
buku = book / books
budak = child / children

Plural is understood from:

context,
numbers (dua gigi – two teeth),
or other words (banyak gigi – many teeth).

You could theoretically say gigi‑gigi, but that kind of full reduplication is rare for body parts here and would sound odd in this sentence. Gigi alone is the normal, natural choice.

What’s the role of dalam in dalam minuman saya? Could I say di dalam or something else?

Dalam is the preposition meaning “in / inside”.

dalam minuman saya = in my drink

About alternatives:

di dalam minuman saya
- Also correct.
- Slightly more explicit (“inside”), but in practice often interchangeable with dalam.
- In everyday speech, people often just say dalam here.
pada minuman saya
- Literally “on/at my drink”; sounds odd for the idea of sugar inside the drink.
gula minuman saya
- Could mean “the sugar of my drink”, but sounds less natural than gula dalam minuman saya for this health context.

So dalam minuman saya is idiomatic and the most natural here. Di dalam is fine but a little heavier.

Could I say kurang gula dalam minuman saya without lagi and keep the same meaning?

If you say only:

Kurang gula dalam minuman saya.

it means something like:

“There is little sugar in my drink.”
or “There isn’t enough sugar in my drink.”

It does not express the idea “the less sugar…, the healthier…” by itself.

To keep the original comparative “the less…, the more…” meaning, you must keep the pattern:

Lagi kurang gula dalam minuman saya, lagi sihat gigi dan mulut saya.
or
Semakin kurang gula dalam minuman saya, semakin sihat gigi dan mulut saya.

So you cannot drop lagi (or semakin) without changing the meaning.

Could lagi kurang gula dalam minuman saya be misunderstood as “my drink still doesn’t have enough sugar”?

Context decides, but yes, “lagi kurang” can also mean “still not enough / still lacking” in other sentences:

Teh ini lagi kurang gula.
= This tea still doesn’t have enough sugar.

In your sentence, though, the presence of the second lagi… lagi… clause:

…, lagi sihat gigi dan mulut saya.

signals very clearly that we are in the comparative pattern “the less…, the more…”. So native speakers will interpret lagi kurang gula here as:

“the less sugar there is” (comparative),

not as a complaint that the drink lacks sugar.

Is this sentence more Malaysian Malay or Indonesian? How would an Indonesian speaker typically say it?

The exact sentence:

Lagi kurang gula dalam minuman saya, lagi sihat gigi dan mulut saya.

sounds very Malaysian Malay because:

lagi … lagi … in this comparative pattern is strongly associated with Malaysian usage in everyday speech.
sihat is the Malaysian spelling; Indonesian uses sehat.

An Indonesian‑style version would more likely be:

Semakin sedikit gula dalam minuman saya, semakin sehat gigi dan mulut saya.
- semakin … semakin … – preferred written standard in Indonesian.
- sedikit gula – “little sugar / less sugar”.
- sehat – Indonesian spelling.

Both versions mean the same thing; the sentence you gave is just in a more Malaysian and informal style.