Breakdown of Ibu menasihati mereka supaya berkongsi ubat gigi dengan tenang.
Questions & Answers about Ibu menasihati mereka supaya berkongsi ubat gigi dengan tenang.
Menasihati is a verb meaning “to advise (someone), to give advice to (someone)”.
- Root: nasihat = advice
- Prefix: meN- (here mena-) turns it into an active verb
- Suffix: -i often means “to do X to/for someone”
So menasihati literally means “to advice‑i someone” → to advise someone.
Compare:
- Ibu menasihati mereka.
= Mother advises them / gave them advice. - Ibu memberi nasihat kepada mereka.
= Mother gives advice to them.
Differences:
- menasihati + [person]
The person advised is a direct object.
→ Ibu menasihati mereka. - memberi nasihat + kepada [person]
Uses the verb memberi (to give) plus the noun nasihat and the preposition kepada.
→ Ibu memberi nasihat kepada mereka.
Both are correct. Menasihati is just a single verb form instead of a verb–noun phrase. In everyday speech, many people use bagi nasihat, bagi tahu, cakap instead, but menasihati is standard and slightly more formal.
Supaya introduces a purpose / result clause, similar to “so that / in order that” in English.
In … menasihati mereka supaya berkongsi ubat gigi dengan tenang, it links:
- main clause: Ibu menasihati mereka (Mother advised them)
- purpose/result clause: (supaya mereka) berkongsi ubat gigi dengan tenang (so that they share toothpaste calmly)
So it means: Mother advised them so that they would share the toothpaste calmly.
Replacement options:
- agar – Very close in meaning and usage to supaya, often interchangeable.
→ Ibu menasihati mereka agar berkongsi ubat gigi dengan tenang. - untuk – More like “for / to”. It often introduces purpose too, but it’s a bit different:
- With a verb phrase:
Ibu menasihati mereka untuk berkongsi ubat gigi dengan tenang.
= Mother advised them to share the toothpaste calmly. (still fine) - With a noun:
ubat untuk gigi = medicine for teeth
- With a verb phrase:
General guide:
- After verbs like menasihati, menyuruh, mengarahkan, supaya/agar is very natural.
- Untuk is more general and can be used with nouns or verbs. In many cases, it’s interchangeable, but supaya/agar feel a bit more “clausal” (like “so that … happens”).
The base word is kongsi (“to share; share”), and berkongsi is its standard verb form:
- ber-
- kongsi → berkongsi = to share (something)
In standard / formal Malay, you normally say:
- mereka berkongsi ubat gigi = they share toothpaste
In casual spoken Malay, people often drop the ber- and just say:
- mereka kongsi ubat gigi (informal, common in speech)
So:
- berkongsi – standard, suitable for writing, exams, formal situations.
- kongsi – often heard in speech; acceptable informally, but may be marked wrong in a formal test.
Also note the pattern:
- berkongsi [something] (dengan [someone])
e.g. mereka berkongsi ubat gigi (they share the toothpaste [with each other])
In Malay, ubat is broader than “medicine” in English. It can mean:
- medicine/drug you take
- substances used on something, often for care or treatment
So a lot of everyday products are named like “X medicine”:
- ubat gigi – toothpaste (literally “tooth medicine”)
- ubat nyamuk – mosquito repellent
- ubat batuk – cough medicine
- ubat rambut – hair tonic / hair treatment
So ubat gigi is just the standard word for toothpaste.
You don’t need a classifier here; berkongsi ubat gigi is fine: “share toothpaste” in general, not necessarily one specific tube.
Yes, it’s very similar to adding -ly to make an adverb.
- tenang = calm (adjective)
- dengan = with
- dengan tenang = calmly / in a calm way
In Malay, a common way to make an adverb phrase is:
dengan + adjective
Examples:
- dengan perlahan – slowly
- dengan cepat – quickly
- dengan berhati‑hati – carefully
- dengan serius – seriously
So in berkongsi ubat gigi dengan tenang, dengan tenang modifies berkongsi, meaning “share the toothpaste calmly / in a calm way”.
As written:
Ibu menasihati mereka supaya berkongsi ubat gigi dengan tenang.
the default reading is:
- dengan tenang describes how they share the toothpaste
→ Mother advised them so that they would share the toothpaste calmly.
Why?
- dengan tenang is attached right after berkongsi ubat gigi, so it most naturally modifies berkongsi.
If you want to show clearly that the mother is the one who is calm when advising, you would usually move dengan tenang closer to menasihati:
- Ibu dengan tenang menasihati mereka supaya berkongsi ubat gigi.
= Mother calmly advised them to share the toothpaste.
So:
- Original sentence: calm sharing (them)
- Reordered sentence: calm advising (mother)
In real usage, context can resolve any ambiguity, but position usually tells you which verb it modifies.
Yes, you can say:
- Ibu menasihati mereka supaya mereka berkongsi ubat gigi dengan tenang.
This is fully correct and a bit more explicit: it repeats mereka in the subordinate clause.
However, Malay often omits the subject in the subordinate clause when:
- it is obvious from context, and
- it is the same as a subject or object in the previous clause.
So:
- … menasihati mereka supaya berkongsi ubat gigi…
- The object of menasihati is mereka.
- The understood subject of berkongsi is also mereka.
- Therefore, mereka is dropped after supaya.
This kind of subject dropping (ellipsis) is very common and natural in Malay.
Pronouns in Malay (3rd person) roughly:
- dia – he / she / it / that person (singular)
- mereka – they / them (plural)
In the sentence:
Ibu menasihati mereka supaya berkongsi ubat gigi dengan tenang.
mereka tells us that more than one person is being advised and will share the toothpaste.
If it was just one person, you’d say:
- Ibu menasihati dia supaya berkongsi ubat gigi dengan orang lain.
(Mother advised him/her to share the toothpaste with someone else.)
So:
- Use dia for one person.
- Use mereka for more than one person.
Malay pronouns don’t mark gender, but they do distinguish singular vs plural.
Malay verbs do not change form for tense like English verbs do.
Menasihati, berkongsi, etc. stay the same in past, present, or future.
The time is shown by context or time words, for example:
- Past:
- Tadi, ibu menasihati mereka… – Earlier, mother advised them…
- Semalam ibu menasihati mereka… – Yesterday, mother advised them…
- Present (ongoing):
- Sekarang ibu sedang menasihati mereka… – Right now, mother is advising them…
- Future:
- Nanti ibu akan menasihati mereka… – Later, mother will advise them…
- Esok ibu akan menasihati mereka… – Tomorrow, mother will advise them…
Without any time word, Ibu menasihati mereka… is neutral; you usually interpret it based on the surrounding sentences or as a kind of general narrative past.
Ibu menasihati mereka supaya berkongsi ubat gigi dengan tenang.
- Vocabulary like menasihati and supaya gives it a neutral–formal, somewhat written or narrative feel.
- You’d often see this kind of sentence in stories, essays, textbooks, or exams.
In more casual spoken Malay, people might say something like:
- Ibu suruh mereka kongsi ubat gigi elok‑elok.
(Mother told them to share the toothpaste nicely.) - Ibu cakap dekat mereka, kongsi je ubat gigi tu elok‑elok.
Notes:
- suruh – to tell/ask (someone) to do something (common in speech)
- kongsi – dropping ber- is common informally
- elok‑elok – nicely / properly (colloquial alternative to dengan tenang in this context)
- je – only / just (very informal)
Your original sentence is perfectly natural; it just sounds like it belongs in a written story or formal description rather than relaxed conversation.
Yes, that’s grammatical, and it slightly changes what dengan tenang most naturally modifies.
Compare:
Ibu menasihati mereka supaya berkongsi ubat gigi dengan tenang.
→ Focus: sharing is calm
“Mother advised them so that they would share the toothpaste calmly.”Ibu dengan tenang menasihati mereka supaya berkongsi ubat gigi.
→ Focus: mother is calm when advising
“Mother calmly advised them to share the toothpaste.”You can also front the adverb:
- Dengan tenang, ibu menasihati mereka supaya berkongsi ubat gigi.
(Still mainly “Mother calmly advised them…”)
- Dengan tenang, ibu menasihati mereka supaya berkongsi ubat gigi.
So yes, you can move dengan tenang around, but:
- Closer to menasihati → more likely to describe how she advised.
- Closer to berkongsi → more likely to describe how they share.
Capitalization is a bit tricky here because the word is at the beginning of the sentence, so it would be capitalized anyway.
In Malay:
- ibu – generic “a mother”
- Ibu – often used as a form of address or title, like “Mother / Mum / Madam”
In a sentence like:
- Ibu menasihati mereka…
common interpretations:
- In a story about a family, it often means “(the) mother” of the children in context, similar to “Mother advised them…” or “Their mother advised them…”.
- If spoken by a child about their own mother, the capital Ibu can function like a name/title, i.e. “Mum/Mom”, and is written with a capital when addressing or referring to her respectfully.
So:
- Grammatically, ibu just means “mother”.
- Capitalization can indicate respect / title, but here it might also simply be because it’s the first word of the sentence. Context would decide whether we read it as “the mother” in a story, or “Mother/Mum” as a specific person.