Learn Hardcore Malay: Pada hari Sabtu, pasar raya itu biasanya penuh dengan keluarga kecil. - On Saturdays, that supermarket is usually full of small families.

Pada hari Sabtu = On Saturday / On Saturdays
In Malay, it’s natural to say pada before time expressions like:
pada hari Isnin – on Monday
pada waktu pagi – in the morning
pada tahun 2020 – in 2020

You generally don’t use di with days of the week in standard Malay; di is more for locations (e.g. di rumah, di pasar raya).

Do I need the word hari in hari Sabtu, or can I just say pada Sabtu?

Both are possible in many contexts:

pada hari Sabtu – literally “on the day Saturday”, very standard and clear
pada Sabtu – also understood and used, especially in headlines or more condensed styles

For a learner, pada hari Sabtu is a safe, natural-sounding full form. Dropping hari is more a matter of style than grammar; you’ll still sound correct if you include hari.

What is the difference between pasar and pasar raya?

pasar on its own usually means a market, often a traditional open market.
pasar raya means a supermarket / hypermarket (a large, modern, often indoor store).

So:

pasar – wet market, morning market, traditional stalls
pasar raya – big store like a supermarket in a mall or a large retail chain

What is the function of itu in pasar raya itu?

Itu is a demonstrative that basically means “that”. Here, pasar raya itu means:

that supermarket / the supermarket (already known in context)

In Malay, itu and ini work like this:

pasar raya itu – that supermarket / the supermarket (there / previously mentioned)
pasar raya ini – this supermarket (near the speaker)

Often, itu is used similarly to “the” in English, when both speaker and listener know which specific place is meant.

Where does biasanya fit in the sentence, and can I move it?

In the sentence, biasanya means “usually” and is placed before the adjective penuh:

pasar raya itu biasanya penuh – that supermarket is usually full

You can move biasanya a bit without changing the basic meaning:

Pada hari Sabtu, biasanya pasar raya itu penuh dengan keluarga kecil.
Pada hari Sabtu, pasar raya itu biasanya penuh dengan keluarga kecil.

Both are acceptable. The original positioning (before penuh) is very natural: time → subject → frequency → predicate.

How does Malay show tense here? Why isn’t there a word for “is/are”?

Malay does not use a verb like “to be” (is/are) in adjectival or simple descriptive sentences. The structure is:

Subject + adjective
- pasar raya itu penuh – the supermarket (is) full

Tense is usually understood from context or time expressions:

Pada hari Sabtu already sets the time frame, which in natural English is “On Saturdays, the supermarket is usually full…” (habitual present).

Malay often doesn’t mark tense explicitly unless needed. You can add aspect markers if necessary (e.g. sudah for “already”, sedang for “currently”), but for habitual actions, the time phrase + adverb like biasanya is enough.

What exactly does penuh mean here? Is it like “crowded” or “full”?

Penuh literally means “full”, as in something being filled up or not having empty space.

In context, pasar raya itu biasanya penuh can be understood as:

“that supermarket is usually full”
which, in natural English, is often translated as “is usually crowded”.

There is also sesak, which more directly expresses crowded / packed / congested, often with a slightly negative nuance:

sesak dengan orang – crowded with people

Penuh is slightly more neutral and can apply to many things being full (a glass, a room, a schedule, etc.).

What does dengan do in penuh dengan keluarga kecil? Could I leave it out?

Dengan here means “with” and links the adjective penuh (full) to what it is full with:

penuh dengan keluarga kecil – full with small families / full of small families

In this construction, dengan is normally kept. Saying just penuh keluarga kecil is not natural standard Malay for this meaning.
So the pattern is:

penuh dengan X – full of X
- penuh dengan orang – full of people
- penuh dengan kenderaan – full of vehicles / packed with vehicles

Does keluarga kecil mean “small family” in number (few people) or physically small (short people)?

By default, keluarga kecil is understood as:

a small family in size (few members), e.g. 3–4 people, as opposed to a large extended family.

If you wanted to emphasise small physical size, you would normally clarify, for example:

keluarga dengan anak-anak kecil – a family with small/young children
keluarga yang semuanya bertubuh kecil – a family whose members are all small-sized

So in this sentence, keluarga kecil is about family size, not physical height.

How do I know keluarga kecil is plural (“small families”) and not just one “small family”?

Malay usually does not mark plural with an -s like English. Nouns are often number-neutral unless you specify with context or quantifiers.

Here, keluarga kecil comes after penuh dengan, which strongly suggests a lot of them, so the natural English translation is “small families” (plural).

If you really wanted to make it explicitly plural, you could say:

penuh dengan banyak keluarga kecil – full of many small families

But in everyday usage, the bare keluarga kecil after penuh dengan is enough to imply a plural meaning.

Is the comma after Pada hari Sabtu necessary?

In Malay writing, it is common and recommended to use a comma after a fronted time expression like:

Pada hari Sabtu, ...
Pada waktu pagi, ...

It marks a natural pause and makes the sentence clearer. In informal writing (like texts), people sometimes omit it, but in standard written Malay, keeping the comma after such initial phrases is good practice.