Learn Hardcore Malay: Tolong pinjamkan telefon awak kepada saya sebentar.

In this sentence, Tolong pinjamkan… = “Please lend…” / “Could you lend…?”
It softens the command and makes it polite in an everyday, friendly way.
On its own, tolong! can also mean “Help!” (a cry for help), but before a verb phrase it is usually understood as “please (do X)”.

So here it is not asking for help in general, but politely asking someone to perform the action that follows (pinjamkan telefon awak…).

What is the difference between pinjam, pinjamkan, and meminjamkan?

All three are related to the idea of borrowing/lending, but they’re used slightly differently:

pinjam (base verb, very common in speech)
- Can mean to borrow or to lend, depending on context.
- Examples:
  - Saya nak pinjam telefon awak. = I want to borrow your phone.
  - Boleh saya pinjam buku itu? = Can I borrow that book?
pinjamkan (base verb + suffix -kan)
- Usually means to lend (something to someone).
- It highlights that you are causing someone to have the thing, or doing it for someone.
- In this sentence: pinjamkan telefon awak kepada saya = lend your phone to me.
meminjamkan (formal, with prefix meN-
- -kan)
- Also means to lend (something), but sounds more formal, often written or careful speech.
- Example:
  - Dia meminjamkan keretanya kepada saya. = He/She lent his/her car to me.

In everyday conversation, pinjam and pinjamkan are much more common than meminjamkan.
Here pinjamkan is natural because you’re asking the other person to lend you their phone.

Could I just say pinjam instead of pinjamkan in this sentence?

Yes, in casual speech you can say:

Tolong pinjam telefon awak kepada saya sebentar.

However:

Many speakers would shorten it even further and drop kepada saya because it’s obvious you mean “to me”:
- Tolong pinjam telefon awak sebentar.

In practice:

Tolong pinjamkan telefon awak (kepada saya) sebentar.
→ Sounds like “Please lend your phone (to me) for a bit.”
Tolong pinjam telefon awak sebentar.
→ Sounds like “Please let me borrow your phone for a bit.”

Both are understood and natural. Pinjamkan just makes the “lending to someone” idea a bit clearer/“more complete”.

What does the suffix -kan in pinjamkan do in general?

The suffix -kan often has a causative or benefactive function:

causative: cause something to happen / cause someone to have something
benefactive: do something for someone

In pinjamkan:

Root: pinjam (borrow/lend)
With -kan: pinjamkan = cause someone to be able to borrow / lend something to someone, i.e. to lend (something to someone).

Other examples:

buka (open) → bukakan pintu untuk saya = open the door for me.
tutup (close) → tolong tutupkan tingkap = please close the window (for me).

So, in Tolong pinjamkan telefon awak kepada saya sebentar, -kan helps emphasize that the action is done for someone else (you are lending your phone to me).

Why do we need kepada here? Can we leave it out?

Kepada is a preposition that means roughly “to” (when referring to a person or recipient).

telefon awak kepada saya = your phone to me

In this sentence, it explicitly marks who the phone is being lent to.

However, in casual speech, when it’s obvious that you are the recipient, Malay speakers often leave kepada saya out:

Tolong pinjamkan telefon awak sebentar.
→ Context makes it clear you mean “to me”.

You could also say:

Tolong pinjamkan saya telefon awak sebentar.

Here, saya directly follows the verb and works like an indirect object (“lend me your phone”), so kepada isn’t needed.

All of these are understandable. The original sentence with kepada saya is clear and grammatical, but slightly more explicit than many everyday versions.

Is the word order “telefon awak kepada saya” fixed? Could I move kepada saya earlier?

Word order in Malay is somewhat flexible, especially with short phrases. These variations are all grammatically possible:

Tolong pinjamkan telefon awak kepada saya sebentar.
Tolong pinjamkan telefon awak sebentar kepada saya.
Tolong pinjamkan kepada saya telefon awak sebentar.

All mean essentially the same thing: “Please lend your phone to me for a moment.”

Naturalness:

(1) is very natural and straightforward.
(3) is also fine and heard quite often.
(2) is grammatical but slightly less common-sounding because sebentar usually comes near the end.

So you don’t have to keep kepada saya right after telefon awak, but the original word order is very typical and easy to process.

What level of politeness or familiarity does awak have? When should I use it?

Awak is a familiar / informal “you.” Its feel can vary slightly by region, but broadly:

Good for:
- Friends
- Peers around your age
- People you know reasonably well
Not ideal for:
- Much older people you don’t know well
- People you should show more respect to (teachers, bosses, elders, customers, etc.)

More polite or formal options:

anda – polite, somewhat formal, often used in writing, advertising, customer-facing speech.
Using titles or kinship terms instead of “you”:
- Encik / Cik / Puan (Mr / Miss / Mrs/Ms)
- Abang / Kakak (older brother/sister; very common polite forms in Malaysia)
- Name: Tolong pinjamkan telefon Ali kepada saya sebentar.

So Tolong pinjamkan telefon awak kepada saya sebentar is polite but informal, suitable for someone you’d comfortably say “you” to in English without special respect terms.

How polite does this whole sentence sound? Is it soft or quite direct?

The sentence is:

Polite because of tolong (“please”)
Informal because of awak (“you” in a familiar tone)
Direct in structure (an imperative: “Please lend …”)

Compared with English, it feels like:

“Please lend me your phone for a moment.”
→ Polite but straightforward.

To sound more formal or extra polite, you might say:

Boleh tak saya pinjam telefon awak sebentar?
= Could I borrow your phone for a moment?
Boleh saya pinjam telefon anda sebentar?
= Can I borrow your phone for a moment? (more formal “anda”)

Those versions use a question form (“can I…?”) instead of a command, which can feel softer.

What does sebentar mean exactly? How is it different from sekejap or seketika?

Sebentar means “for a short while / for a moment.”

Closely related words:

sekejap – very common in everyday speech; often a bit more casual.
- Tunggu sekejap. = Wait a moment.
seketika – can sound a bit more formal or literary, depending on context.
sejenak – also “for a moment / briefly,” often in more formal or written language.

In this sentence, you could naturally replace sebentar with sekejap:

Tolong pinjamkan telefon awak kepada saya sekejap.

Both are fine, but:

sebentar → neutral, slightly more “standard”
sekejap → very common in casual Malaysian Malay speech

Does telefon mean any phone or only a mobile phone?

Telefon by itself means “telephone/phone” in general; it can be:

a mobile phone
a landline
any kind of telephone device, depending on context

In modern everyday usage, if you’re asking someone to lend you their telefon, it’s almost always understood as their mobile phone, because that’s what people usually carry.

If you want to be more specific, you might hear:

telefon bimbit – mobile phone (literally “portable phone”)
telefon tangan – handphone (colloquial)
English loan handphone / henfon (spoken)

But in most real situations, telefon alone is enough.

How would I say “Can I borrow your phone for a moment?” as a question instead of a request/command?

Two very common and natural ways:

Boleh saya pinjam telefon awak sebentar?
= Can I borrow your phone for a moment?
Boleh tak saya pinjam telefon awak sebentar?
= Can I borrow your phone for a moment? (with a softening tak; very colloquial)

You can also make it slightly more formal:

Boleh saya pinjam telefon anda sebentar?
Boleh tak saya pinjam telefon encik/puan sebentar? (using a title)

These are structurally questions and are often perceived as a bit softer than an imperative with tolong.

Why does the sentence start with a verb? Where is the subject?

This sentence is an imperative (a request/command), and in Malay:

Imperatives often omit the subject (“you”), just like in English:
- English: “Please lend me your phone” (subject “you” is implied)
- Malay: Tolong pinjamkan telefon awak kepada saya sebentar.

So:

Implied subject: (awak) = you
Verb: pinjamkan
Objects/complements: telefon awak kepada saya sebentar

In full non-imperative form, it might look like:

Awak tolong pinjamkan telefon awak kepada saya sebentar.
(You, please lend your phone to me for a moment.)

But in commands/requests, it’s completely normal and natural to start directly with Tolong + verb.

How could someone reply to this request politely, either agreeing or refusing?

Some natural replies:

Agreeing:

Ya, boleh. = Yes, you can.
Ya, silakan. = Yes, go ahead.
Boleh, nah. (while handing the phone) = Sure, here.
Ok, ambil dulu. = Okay, take it (for now).

Refusing (politely):

Maaf, tak boleh. = Sorry, I can’t.
Maaf, bateri saya hampir habis. = Sorry, my battery is almost dead.
Maaf, saya sedang tunggu panggilan penting. = Sorry, I’m waiting for an important call.

Adding maaf (“sorry”) helps soften a refusal and keep it polite.