Learn Hardcore Malay: Lagi kerap saya pegang bola dengan tangan, lagi kuat tangan saya rasa selepas bersenam. - The more often I hold a ball with my hands, the stronger my hands feel after exercising.

Lagi kerap saya pegang bola dengan tangan, lagi kuat tangan saya rasa selepas bersenam.
= The more often I hold the ball with my hands, the stronger my hands feel after exercising.

You can use this pattern with many adjectives or adverbs:

Lagi banyak saya baca, lagi pandai saya jadi.
The more I read, the smarter I become.
Lagi laju dia lari, lagi cepat dia penat.
The faster he runs, the quicker he gets tired.

Why is it “pegang” and not “memegang”?

Both pegang and memegang are correct; they differ in style and nuance.

pegang: base verb, common in everyday/informal speech, especially in Malaysia.
- Saya pegang bola. – I hold the ball.
memegang: meN- prefix, often sounds slightly more formal or complete.
- Saya memegang bola. – I am holding the ball.

In spoken Malay, people very often drop the meN- prefix, especially with common verbs:

baca (from membaca), tulis (from menulis), pegang (from memegang).

So your sentence is natural conversational Malay. A more “textbook-formal” version could be:

Lagi kerap saya memegang bola dengan tangan, lagi kuat tangan saya rasa selepas bersenam.

What is the difference between “kerap” and words like “selalu” or “sering”?

All three relate to frequency, but they have slightly different feels:

kerap – “frequent / often”, a bit more formal or neutral.
selalu – very common word for “always / often” in Malay; in practice it often just means “often”.
sering – very common in Indonesian; in Malaysia it’s understood but sounds more Indonesian / formal.

In your sentence you could also say:

Lagi selalu saya pegang bola… (very natural in Malaysia)
Lagi kerap saya pegang bola… (slightly more formal/neutral)
Lagi sering saya pegang bola… (sounds Indonesian-style to Malaysian ears)

Why do we say “dengan tangan”? Isn’t it obvious that you hold a ball with your hands?

Yes, it’s somewhat obvious, but “dengan tangan” is used to emphasise the body part being used.

Saya pegang bola. – I hold the ball. (no emphasis on how)
Saya pegang bola dengan tangan. – I hold the ball with my hands. (focus on hands)

Malay often uses dengan + body part to highlight the means or instrument:

Dia makan dengan tangan. – He eats with his hands.
Saya tulis dengan tangan kiri. – I write with my left hand.

In your sentence, the emphasis fits well because the second clause talks about how strong the hands feel.

Why is it “tangan saya rasa” and not “saya rasa tangan saya”?

Both are possible, but the focus changes slightly.

Your sentence:

…lagi kuat tangan saya rasa selepas bersenam.
Literally: …the stronger my hands feel after exercising.

Here, tangan saya (my hands) is placed just before rasa (feel), so the focus stays on the hands as the subject that has the feeling of strength.

If you say:

…lagi kuat saya rasa tangan saya selepas bersenam.
Literally: …the stronger I feel my hands (are) after exercising.

Now saya (I) is the grammatical subject, and tangan saya is more like an object or complement. It is still understandable, but less tight and slightly less natural for this specific meaning.

A clearer, very natural alternative that keeps the same meaning:

…lagi kuat saya rasa tangan saya selepas bersenam. – also acceptable
…tangan saya rasa lagi kuat selepas bersenam. – My hands feel stronger after exercising (very natural word order)

Where is “my” in this sentence? Why don’t we see “my hands” or “my ball” clearly marked?

Malay usually shows possession by placing a pronoun after the noun, without any extra word like “of” or “my”:

tangan saya – my hand(s)
rumah saya – my house
kawan dia – his/her friend

In your sentence:

tangan saya = my hands

For the ball, the sentence just says bola (ball), not “my ball”. If you wanted to say “my ball”, you would say:

bola saya – my ball

Malay does not use a separate possessive word like “’s” or “of” between the noun and the pronoun.

Why does “tangan” mean “hands” here even though it looks singular?

Malay generally doesn’t mark plural with an s like English. The word tangan can mean hand or hands, depending on context.

Saya ada sakit tangan. – I have pain in my hand / hands. (context decides)
Basuh tangan sebelum makan. – Wash (your) hands before eating.

If you really need to emphasise plural, you can:

Use duplication: tangan-tangan (hands), but this is not very common for body parts.
Add a number or word like dua (two): dua tangan – two hands.

In normal speech, tangan alone is enough to mean “hands” here.

Why is it “selepas bersenam” and not “selepas saya bersenam”?

Both are correct, but Malay often drops repeated or obvious subjects if the meaning is clear.

selepas bersenam – after exercising
selepas saya bersenam – after I exercise

Because saya is already the subject earlier in the sentence, and it’s clear we’re talking about my exercise, Malay comfortably uses the shorter form:

selepas bersenam – understood as “after I exercise” in this context.

If you wanted to be very explicit (for example, to contrast with someone else), you could include it:

Lagi kerap saya pegang bola… lagi kuat tangan saya rasa selepas saya bersenam, bukan selepas dia bersenam.

Can I replace “selepas” with “lepas” or other words?

Yes. The main options are:

selepas – “after”, more formal/standard.
lepas – very common colloquial form in Malaysia, used in speech and informal writing.
sesudah – also “after”, somewhat formal/literary.

So you could say:

Lepas bersenam, tangan saya rasa lagi kuat. – very natural spoken Malay.
Sesudah bersenam, tangan saya rasa lagi kuat. – sounds more literary / formal.

In your sentence, selepas is standard and neutral.

Is it necessary to repeat “saya” in both clauses?

No, it’s not strictly necessary. Malay often omits pronouns when they are clear from context.

Your sentence:

Lagi kerap saya pegang bola dengan tangan, lagi kuat tangan saya rasa selepas bersenam.

You could also say, and still be understood:

Lagi kerap pegang bola dengan tangan, lagi kuat tangan saya rasa selepas bersenam.

Here the first saya is dropped, but people will still understand that you (the speaker) are the one holding the ball.

However, repeating saya keeps the sentence clearer and more careful, which is useful for learners and in more formal contexts.

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral Malay?

This sentence is neutral-standard Malay, acceptable in both spoken and written contexts:

It uses standard vocabulary: lagi, kerap, pegang, bola, tangan, kuat, rasa, selepas, bersenam.
The only slightly informal feature is using pegang instead of memegang, but pegang is so common that it’s fine even in many formal contexts.

A slightly more formal version would be:

Lagi kerap saya memegang bola dengan tangan, lagi kuat tangan saya berasa selepas bersenam.

In everyday speech, people might relax it further:

Lagi kerap saya pegang bola dengan tangan, lagi kuat tangan saya rasa lepas bersenam.