Learn Hardcore Malay: Adik perempuan saya takut melihat harimau yang berjalan dekat kaca. - My younger sister is afraid to see the tiger walking near the glass.

Adik perempuan saya takut melihat harimau yang berjalan dekat kaca.

My younger sister is afraid to see the tiger walking near the glass.

Breakdown of Adik perempuan saya takut melihat harimau yang berjalan dekat kaca.

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Questions & Answers about Adik perempuan saya takut melihat harimau yang berjalan dekat kaca.

Why is there no word for is in the Malay sentence?

Malay usually does not use a separate word for is / am / are before adjectives.

In Adik perempuan saya takut melihat…, takut (afraid) itself functions as the predicate, so Malay does not add anything like is.

Rough structure:

Adik perempuan saya – my younger sister
takut – is afraid
melihat… – to see…

So the meaning is: “My younger sister [is] afraid to see…”, but the “is” is understood from the structure, not spoken.

What exactly does adik perempuan saya mean? Does it always mean “my younger sister,” and why include perempuan?

Adik means “younger sibling” (gender-neutral).
To be specific:

adik perempuan – younger sister
adik lelaki – younger brother

Then you add saya after the noun to mean “my”:

adik perempuan saya – my younger sister
adik lelaki saya – my younger brother

So adik perempuan saya literally = “younger-sibling female my” → “my younger sister”.

If context already makes the gender clear, people might just say adik saya (“my younger sibling”) and let context show it’s a sister.

Can I say adik saya perempuan instead of adik perempuan saya?

You can, but it sounds different and is less natural if you just mean “my younger sister”.

adik perempuan saya – a fixed, natural phrase meaning “my younger sister”.
adik saya perempuan – literally “my younger sibling is female”, more like stating the fact that your younger sibling is female (e.g. when clarifying gender).

For everyday “my younger sister,” use adik perempuan saya.

Where is she in this sentence? Why don’t we see dia?

Malay does not need a separate pronoun when the subject is already a full noun phrase.

Here the subject is:

Adik perempuan saya – my younger sister

That already plays the role of “she” in the sentence. Adding dia would sound redundant:

❌ Adik perempuan saya dia takut… (ungrammatical / very wrong)

If you replace the whole phrase with “she,” then you use dia:

Dia takut melihat harimau yang berjalan dekat kaca. – She is afraid to see the tiger that is walking near the glass.

Is takut a verb or an adjective here? How does takut melihat work?

Malay doesn’t separate verbs and adjectives as strictly as English. takut can behave like “to fear” (verb) or “afraid” (adjective) depending on context.

In this sentence, takut is like “is afraid”, and melihat is the action that causes the fear:

takut melihat ≈ “afraid to see / afraid of seeing”

So structurally, you can think:

Adik perempuan saya takut [melihat harimau…]
“My younger sister is afraid [to see the tiger…]”

Could I say takut untuk melihat or takut akan harimau? What’s the difference?

Yes, but they give slightly different nuances:

takut melihat harimau
- Very natural and common.
- “Afraid to see / afraid of seeing the tiger.”
takut untuk melihat harimau
- Also possible. untuk adds an explicit “to”.
- Often feels a bit more deliberate or formal: “afraid to (go and) see the tiger.”
takut akan harimau
- Focuses more on being afraid of tigers in general.
- akan used like “of”: takut akan harimau = “afraid of the tiger(s)”.
- You’d usually not attach melihat after akan in this pattern.

For your original sentence, takut melihat harimau is the most straightforward.

What’s the difference between melihat, tengok, and nampak? Which fits best here?

All relate to “seeing,” but with different nuances and levels of formality:

melihat – “to see / to look at” (more formal / neutral, standard).
tengok – “to look / to watch” (more colloquial, everyday speech).
nampak – “to see / to notice / to be visible” (often about something coming into view, sometimes accidental seeing).

In a neutral written sentence like this, melihat is the best choice:

takut melihat harimau – afraid to see the tiger.

In casual speech, you might hear:

Adik perempuan saya takut tengok harimau…

What does yang do in harimau yang berjalan dekat kaca?

yang introduces a describing clause (a relative clause), similar to “that / which / who” in English.

harimau – the tiger
yang berjalan dekat kaca – that is walking near the glass

So harimau yang berjalan dekat kaca = “the tiger that is walking near the glass.”

General pattern:

noun + yang + verb phrase
- budak yang berlari – the child who is running
- kereta yang rosak – the car that is broken

Why do we use berjalan and not just jalan?

The base word jalan is a noun (“road”) and also a verb root (“walk”). When used as a verb, Malay usually adds ber-:

berjalan – to walk, is walking

In everyday speech, you sometimes hear jalan used as a verb (especially in some dialects), but in standard Malay:

berjalan is the correct, complete verb form.

So:

harimau yang berjalan dekat kaca – the tiger that is walking near the glass.

Why is it dekat kaca and not dekat dengan kaca or di dekat kaca? Are those wrong?

All three forms can appear, but they differ in formality and style:

dekat kaca
- Common and natural in everyday Malay.
- dekat acts like “near” and doesn’t need dengan.
dekat dengan kaca
- Also acceptable; a bit more explicit/literary sounding: “near to the glass.”
- You will see this in writing and formal contexts.
di dekat kaca
- Grammatically possible, but less common and often feels wordy.
- More literally “at near the glass.”

In spoken and neutral usage, dekat kaca is perfectly fine and very common.

What does kaca refer to here? Could I say tingkap or cermin instead?

kaca means the material “glass” (like the glass panel at a zoo).

In a zoo context, dekat kaca implies “near the glass wall / glass barrier.”

Related words:

tingkap – window (the whole window structure, not just the glass).
cermin – mirror.
gelas – a drinking glass (the cup).

If you want to be more specific:

dekat kaca tingkap – near the window glass
dekat dinding kaca – near the glass wall

But in context, kaca alone is enough for “(the) glass” as a barrier.

Do I need a classifier like seekor before harimau?

You can add a classifier, but it’s not always required.

Classifiers (measure words) in Malay:

seekor harimau – one (animal) tiger
- ekor is the classifier for animals; se- means “one”.

With or without classifier:

Adik perempuan saya takut melihat harimau yang berjalan dekat kaca.
- “My younger sister is afraid to see the tiger that is walking near the glass.”
- Often understood as a specific tiger (e.g. the one in front of you).
Adik perempuan saya takut melihat seekor harimau yang berjalan dekat kaca.
- Emphasizes “a/one tiger” (especially if you’re introducing it into the conversation).

Both are grammatically correct.

How could I emphasize that the tiger is currently walking, like “the tiger that is currently walking near the glass”?

You can add sedang before the verb to show ongoing action:

harimau yang sedang berjalan dekat kaca
– the tiger that is currently walking near the glass

So the full sentence becomes:

Adik perempuan saya takut melihat harimau yang sedang berjalan dekat kaca.

sedang + verb is a common way to mark a present continuous/progressive sense in Malay.

How would I change this sentence to talk about my younger brother instead of my younger sister?

Just replace perempuan (female) with lelaki (male):

Adik lelaki saya takut melihat harimau yang berjalan dekat kaca.
– My younger brother is afraid to see the tiger that is walking near the glass.