Learn Hardcore Malay: Kami nampak ular panjang tidur diam dalam sangkar kaca. - We see a long snake sleeping still in a glass cage.

In this sentence, kami suggests that the group who saw the snake does not include the listener. For example, maybe the speaker is telling a friend about something that happened on a trip with someone else, not with that friend.

If the listener was part of the group that saw the snake, you would say:

Kita nampak ular panjang tidur diam dalam sangkar kaca.
“We (you and I) saw a long snake sleeping still in a glass cage.”

Can I use melihat or tengok instead of nampak? Are they different?

Yes, you can, but they have slightly different feels:

nampak – “see / notice / catch sight of” (very common, neutral–casual)
lihat / melihat – “see / look at” (a bit more formal or neutral)
tengok – “look / watch” (very informal, conversational)

You could say:

Kami nampak ular panjang… (original, natural)
Kami melihat seekor ular panjang… (a bit more formal)
Kami tengok ular panjang… (informal speech)

In many everyday situations, nampak and tengok are very common in spoken Malay. Melihat is more common in writing, news, or formal speech.

Why is it ular panjang and not panjang ular like “long snake” in English?

In Malay, descriptive words (adjectives) usually come after the noun:

ular panjang = snake long → a long snake
budak kecil = child small → a small child
rumah besar = house big → a big house

So:

English: long snake
Malay: ular panjang

Panjang here is an adjective describing ular. Saying panjang ular would sound wrong; it would be interpreted more like a phrase about “the length of the snake,” and even then you’d normally say panjang ular itu (the snake’s length), not as a simple noun phrase.

How do we know if ular panjang is “a long snake” or “long snakes”? There’s no plural ending.

Malay usually doesn’t mark singular vs plural on the noun itself. Ular panjang can mean:

a long snake
the long snake
long snakes
the long snakes

The exact meaning comes from context.

If you want to be clearly singular, you often add a classifier:

seekor ular panjang = one (animal) long snake

So a more explicit version could be:

Kami nampak seekor ular panjang tidur diam dalam sangkar kaca.
“We saw a long snake sleeping still in a glass cage.”

For clear plural, you might use a number or a quantifier:

beberapa ekor ular panjang = several long snakes
dua ekor ular panjang = two long snakes

In ular panjang tidur diam, which word is the subject and which are the verbs? How is that part structured?

The core structure here is:

ular panjang – the subject: the long snake
tidur – verb: sleep / is sleeping
diam – manner word: still, motionless, quiet

So ular panjang tidur diam means roughly:

the long snake is sleeping still / the long snake slept quietly

Malay doesn’t need a separate word for “is” here. Tidur acts like “is sleeping”.
Diam describes how it is sleeping (not moving, quietly).

You can think of it like:

ular panjang (subject) + tidur (verb) + diam (adverb-like description)

What does tidur diam mean exactly? Is diam an adjective or a verb here?

Literally:

tidur = to sleep
diam = still, silent, motionless; also “to be quiet / not move / not speak”

In tidur diam, diam works like an adverbial description of the sleeping:

tidur diam ≈ “sleep (while being) still / quietly / motionlessly”

So the idea is that the snake is asleep and not moving or making any noise.
You could compare:

tidur nyenyak – sleep soundly / deeply
tidur lena – sleep deeply
tidur diam – sleep quietly, not moving

Could I add sedang to show that the snake was in the middle of sleeping, like a progressive tense?

Yes. Sedang is often used to emphasize an ongoing action (similar to English “is/was …-ing”):

Kami nampak ular panjang sedang tidur diam dalam sangkar kaca.
“We saw a long snake (that was) sleeping still in a glass cage.”

Both sentences are correct:

Without sedang:
Kami nampak ular panjang tidur diam…
→ natural, and context can already imply it was sleeping then.
With sedang:
Kami nampak ular panjang sedang tidur diam…
→ adds clear focus that the sleeping was in progress at that moment.

Malay often omits sedang if the time is obvious.

What is the role of dalam here, and how is it different from di dalam?

In this sentence:

dalam = in / inside

So:

dalam sangkar kaca = in a glass cage

About dalam vs di dalam:

dalam can work by itself as a preposition: in, inside
di is a general location preposition: at, in, on
di dalam is often a bit more explicit or emphatic: inside, on the inside of

You could say:

Ular itu dalam sangkar kaca.
Ular itu di dalam sangkar kaca.

Both mean “The snake is in the glass cage.”
Di dalam can sound slightly more precise or formal, but in daily speech, dalam alone is very common and natural.

How does sangkar kaca work? Why is it “cage glass” instead of “glass cage” like in English?

In Malay, when you have two nouns where one describes the other, the main noun comes first, and the describing noun comes after:

sangkar kaca = cage glass → a glass cage
baju cotton = shirt cotton → a cotton shirt (often baju kapas in pure Malay)
cawan plastik = cup plastic → a plastic cup

So:

English: glass cage
Malay: sangkar kaca

Here, sangkar is the main thing (a cage), and kaca tells you what it’s made of (glass).

Is this sentence formal or informal? Would it be written differently in very formal Malay?

As written, it’s neutral and natural for everyday spoken and informal written Malay, though a bit compact.

In more careful or formal style, you might see:

Kami melihat seekor ular yang panjang sedang tidur diam di dalam sangkar kaca.

Changes:

melihat instead of nampak (more formal)
seekor added (classifier for animals)
yang panjang instead of just panjang (makes it very clearly a relative clause)
sedang to mark progressive aspect
di dalam instead of just dalam (slightly more formal/emphatic)

But for most everyday contexts, your original sentence is perfectly fine and understandable.