Breakdown of Doktor pernah kata alergi saya akan jadi lebih teruk kalau bilik tidak dibersihkan.
Questions & Answers about Doktor pernah kata alergi saya akan jadi lebih teruk kalau bilik tidak dibersihkan.
Pernah marks something that has happened at least once before (“has ever / has once (before)”).
- Doktor pernah kata…
= The doctor has (at some point before) said…
Nuances:
- pernah = focuses on past experience (at least once).
- sudah / telah = focuses on completion (already / have done), not on “experience”.
If you say:
- Doktor kata alergi saya akan jadi… – Neutral “The doctor said…”.
- Doktor pernah kata… – “The doctor has said (this before)” – you’re reminding someone of a previous statement.
All three relate to “say”, but differ in style and usage:
kata
- Very common in everyday spoken Malay.
- Doktor kata…, Mak kata… are very natural.
cakap
- Also very common in speech, slightly more colloquial.
- Doktor cakap… feels a bit more casual than Doktor kata… in some regions.
berkata
- More formal / literary. Often used in writing, news reports, narratives.
- E.g. Doktor berkata bahawa… in a news article.
In your sentence, Doktor pernah kata… is normal neutral spoken Malay. You could also say:
- Doktor pernah cakap alergi saya… (colloquial)
- Doktor pernah berkata bahawa alergi saya… (more formal).
You can insert bahawa but it’s optional:
- Doktor pernah kata alergi saya akan jadi… (informal/neutral, very common)
- Doktor pernah kata bahawa alergi saya akan jadi… (more formal, explicit)
Bahawa = “that” introducing a clause. In everyday speech it’s usually dropped unless you want to sound formal or very clear.
Akan is a future marker, roughly “will”.
- alergi saya akan jadi lebih teruk
= my allergy will become worse
In Malay, future time can often be inferred from context, so akan is not always required:
- Alergi saya jadi lebih teruk kalau bilik tidak dibersihkan.
Still understood as future because of the kalau (“if”) condition.
Differences:
- With akan: more explicitly future, a bit clearer or slightly more formal.
- Without akan: more colloquial and faster speech, but still correct.
So akan is not strictly necessary, but it is very natural here.
Both jadi and menjadi can mean “to become” here.
- akan jadi lebih teruk – very common in speech, neutral.
- akan menjadi lebih teruk – a bit more formal / written.
Meaning is the same: will become worse.
In everyday conversation, jadi is more frequent; menjadi often appears in more formal writing.
Malay comparatives are usually formed with lebih + adjective:
- lebih besar – bigger
- lebih baik – better
- lebih teruk – worse
So:
- teruk = bad, severe
- lebih teruk = more bad → worse
Related options:
- semakin teruk – getting worse, increasingly bad
- bertambah teruk – becoming more severe
In your sentence, lebih teruk is the direct equivalent of English “worse”.
All three can mean “if”, but they differ in tone:
kalau
- Most common in spoken Malay, neutral in everyday conversation.
- Fits perfectly in your sentence.
jika
- More formal / written, but still common.
sekiranya
- Quite formal and slightly heavier; often in official writing, notices, etc.
So you could also say:
- …akan jadi lebih teruk jika bilik tidak dibersihkan. (more formal)
- …akan jadi lebih teruk sekiranya bilik tidak dibersihkan. (very formal/polite)
Kalau is chosen here because the sentence sounds like normal spoken Malay.
Dibersihkan is a passive verb: di- + bersih + -kan → “be cleaned”.
So bilik tidak dibersihkan = “the room is not cleaned / the room is not being cleaned”.
Malay often uses passive when:
- The doer (who cleans) is unknown, general, or not important.
- The focus is on the object or the state (here: the room’s cleanliness).
Yes, you can make it active, but then you must mention or imply the subject:
- kalau saya tidak membersihkan bilik – if I don’t clean the room
- kalau mereka tidak membersihkan bilik – if they don’t clean the room
- kalau orang tidak membersihkan bilik – if people don’t clean the room
The original sentence keeps it general and focuses on the condition of the bilik (room) itself.
Tidak usually comes immediately before the verb or adjective it negates:
- tidak dibersihkan – is not cleaned
- tidak bersih – not clean
- tidak besar – not big
You would not say bilik dibersihkan tidak to mean “the room is not cleaned”.
So the word order bilik tidak dibersihkan is the correct one.
Malay often omits possessive pronouns when the owner is obvious from context.
In real conversation, it’s usually clear we’re talking about your room, so bilik alone is fine. You can say bilik saya to make it explicit:
- …kalau bilik saya tidak dibersihkan. – if my room is not cleaned.
Both are grammatically correct.
The version without saya just sounds more general and is common when the possessor is already understood.
The most standard way to say “my X” in Malay is noun + pronoun:
- alergi saya – my allergy
- telefon saya – my phone
- rumah saya – my house
Alternative forms:
- saya punya alergi
- Literally “my have allergy”.
- Very colloquial / informal, used in some dialects and casual speech.
- alergi aku, alergi kami
- Using other pronouns (aku, kami, etc.), which change level of formality or inclusion.
For neutral, standard Malay, alergi saya is the best choice.
Malay verbs do not conjugate for tense (no -ed, -s, etc.).
Instead, time/aspect is shown with particles and context, like here:
- pernah – indicates past experience (“has ever / has once before”).
- akan – indicates future (“will”).
- kalau – a conditional “if” that also implies a future situation.
So:
- Doktor pernah kata… – the saying happened before (past experience).
- …akan jadi lebih teruk… – the worsening is in the future.
The verb kata itself never changes form; only the particles around it tell you the time.
Yes. Both orders are correct:
- Doktor pernah kata alergi saya akan jadi lebih teruk kalau bilik tidak dibersihkan.
- Kalau bilik tidak dibersihkan, doktor pernah kata alergi saya akan jadi lebih teruk.
Putting kalau… first can slightly emphasize the condition. The meaning remains the same.
The original sentence is natural and leans toward conversational/neutral.
For more formal written Malay (e.g. in a letter or medical note), you might see:
- Doktor pernah mengatakan bahawa alergi saya akan menjadi lebih teruk sekiranya bilik tidak dibersihkan.
Changes for formality:
- mengatakan instead of kata
- bahawa explicitly included
- menjadi instead of jadi
- sekiranya instead of kalau
But for everyday spoken Malay, your original sentence is perfectly fine.
In your sentence, Doktor is capitalized because it’s the first word of the sentence.
In general:
- As a common noun in the middle of a sentence: doktor (lowercase) – “a doctor / the doctor”.
- As part of a title before a name: Doktor Ali, Doktor Ahmad – capitalized.
Here it could be either:
- a specific doctor that both speakers know (“the doctor”)
- or possibly a title (“Doctor [so‑and‑so]”), depending on context.