Learn Hardcore Malay: Kereta saya rosak teruk hari ini.

Putting saya before kereta (saya kereta) is ungrammatical in standard Malay for “my car”. You could say kereta saya or, in a more casual style, kereta aku, but the noun almost always comes first.

There is no word like “is” or “was” in the sentence. How do I know the tense in Malay?

Malay usually does not use a separate verb for “to be” (like “is/was/am”) before adjectives or stative verbs.

Kereta saya rosak teruk.
Literally: Car my badly damaged/broken.

There is no “is/was” in Malay here. The time is understood from context or from time words like:

hari ini – today
tadi – earlier / just now
semalam – yesterday
sudah / telah – already (often makes it feel more past)

So:

Kereta saya rosak teruk hari ini.
= My car got badly damaged / broke down badly today.
Kereta saya sudah rosak teruk.
= My car is already badly damaged / has already broken down badly.

Is rosak a verb or an adjective here?

Rosak can function as both, depending on how you think about it:

As an adjective: broken, damaged, not working
- Kereta itu rosak. = That car is broken.
As a stative verb: to get broken / to break down
- Kereta saya rosak tadi. = My car broke down earlier.

Malay doesn’t always make a strong distinction between adjectives and “stative” verbs. In your sentence, you can understand it both as:

“my car is badly damaged” (adjective sense), or
“my car broke down badly” (stative-verb sense),

with the exact nuance supplied by context and time words like hari ini.

What is the role of teruk in rosak teruk? Is it like “very”?

Teruk by itself means bad / severe / terrible.

In rosak teruk, it functions as an intensifier of rosak, similar to:

“badly broken”,
“severely damaged”,
“really in bad shape”.

Compare:

Kereta saya rosak.
= My car is broken / damaged.
Kereta saya rosak teruk.
= My car is badly / severely damaged. (Much stronger)

So teruk adds the idea of severity, not just simple “very”. For “very broken” you might also hear:

rosak teruk sekali – extremely badly damaged
rosak sangat – very damaged (more colloquial / spoken)

Could I say rosak dengan teruk to mean “badly damaged”?

Normally, no. You wouldn’t say rosak dengan teruk in standard Malay.

In Malay, intensifiers like teruk, sangat, sekali usually come directly after the adjective/stative verb, without dengan (“with”):

✅ rosak teruk – badly damaged
✅ rosak sangat – very damaged (colloquial)
✅ rosak teruk sekali – extremely badly damaged

Using dengan is more common with manner adverbs derived with -nya (and even then, it often sounds more formal):

dengan cepat – quickly
dengan mudah – easily

But rosak dengan teruk sounds odd; stick to rosak teruk.

Can I move hari ini to the front, like Hari ini, kereta saya rosak teruk?

Yes. Malay allows some flexibility with time expressions.

All of these are grammatical, with slightly different emphasis:

Kereta saya rosak teruk hari ini.
Neutral; focus on “my car”; “today” is extra info at the end.
Hari ini kereta saya rosak teruk.
Emphasizes today. “As for today, my car broke down badly.”
Kereta saya hari ini rosak teruk.
Possible, but less common and can sound a bit clunky in isolation.
It’s more natural when contrasting:
- Kereta saya semalam okay, tapi kereta saya hari ini rosak teruk.
  = My car was fine yesterday, but today it’s badly damaged.

Most learners should stick to patterns (1) and (2); they are most natural and common.

How would I say clearly “My car broke down earlier today” rather than just “is badly damaged today”?

You can make the event of breaking down clearer by adding a time word like tadi (“earlier / just now”) or specifying where it happened:

Kereta saya rosak tadi.
= My car broke down earlier / just now.
Kereta saya rosak teruk tadi di jalan raya.
= My car broke down badly on the road earlier today.
Pagi tadi kereta saya rosak teruk.
= This morning my car broke down badly.

The original sentence Kereta saya rosak teruk hari ini can mean either:

“My car broke down badly at some point today,” or
“Today my car is in a badly damaged condition,”

and context normally makes it clear.

Malay doesn’t have words for “a” or “the” here. How do I know if it’s “a car” or “my car” or “the car”?

Malay generally does not use articles like English a / an / the.

The meaning is determined by:

Possessive pronouns
- kereta saya – my car
- kereta kamu – your car
- kereta dia – his/her car
Context
- Ada kereta rosak teruk hari ini.
  = There is a car that is badly damaged today.
  (No article; “a car” is inferred.)
Demonstratives for “this/that/the specific one”
- kereta itu – that car / the car
- kereta ini – this car / the car here

So in your sentence, kereta saya clearly means “my car” without needing an article.

Is saya always the right word for “I/my”? What about aku?

Both saya and aku mean I / me, and their possessive forms are:

kereta saya – my car (formal/neutral, polite)
kereta aku – my car (informal, intimate)

Saya:

Used in formal situations, with strangers, at work, with elders.
Safe choice for learners; rarely sounds rude.

Aku:

Used with close friends, siblings, sometimes with a partner.
Can sound too casual or even rude if used in the wrong context.

In your sentence, Kereta saya rosak teruk hari ini is neutral and polite, suitable almost everywhere.

How do you pronounce kereta saya rosak teruk hari ini?

Approximate pronunciation (in simple English-like spelling):

kereta – kuh-REH-tah
saya – SAH-yah
rosak – ROH-sak
teruk – tuh-ROOK
hari – HAH-ree
ini – EE-nee

Stress is usually on the second-to-last syllable:

keREta
SAya
ROsak
teRUK (some speakers also say TEruk; both are heard)
HAri
Ini

R is usually tapped/lightly rolled, similar to the Spanish single r.