Breakdown of Saya nasihatkan abang supaya berhenti merokok demi kesihatan paru-parunya.
Questions & Answers about Saya nasihatkan abang supaya berhenti merokok demi kesihatan paru-parunya.
The base word is nasihat (advice). From this you can get several common verb forms:
- menasihati seseorang – to advise someone
- menasihatkan seseorang supaya… – to advise someone to do something
- memberi nasihat kepada seseorang – to give advice to someone
In everyday Malay, especially in Malaysia, speakers often drop the meN- prefix in casual speech when the subject is clear, so:
- Saya nasihatkan abang… ≈ Saya menasihatkan abang…
The suffix -kan marks this as a transitive verb taking a direct object (abang). It often appears when there is a clause or result after it (here: supaya berhenti merokok “so that he stops smoking”).
So these are all possible, with slightly different style/register:
- Saya nasihatkan abang supaya… (natural conversational style)
- Saya menasihati abang supaya… (more formal/written)
- Saya memberi nasihat kepada abang supaya… (more explicit, slightly wordier)
All three mean basically the same thing here.
Literally, abang means “older brother” (an older male sibling). But in Malay, kinship terms are also used as pronouns and forms of address.
Depending on context, abang in this sentence could mean:
“my older brother” (talking about him to someone else)
- English: “I advised my older brother to stop smoking…”
“you” (older man / husband / boyfriend) when spoken by a younger woman or wife directly to him
- English: “I advised you to stop smoking…”
Why no saya (my)? Because Malay often omits possessive saya with close kinship terms; it’s understood from context:
- abang ≈ “(my) older brother” / “(dear) husband”
- If you really need to be explicit (e.g. in writing or when it might be ambiguous), you can say abang saya (“my older brother”).
So abang here is either the person she’s talking to (you), or a third person (her brother), depending on the broader context.
supaya introduces a purpose or desired result, similar to “so that / in order that” in English.
- Saya nasihatkan abang supaya berhenti merokok…
= “I advised [him/you] so that [he/you] would stop smoking…”
Key points:
- supaya
- clause/verb phrase = “so that / in order that”
- It links the act of advising to the intended outcome (stopping smoking).
Close alternatives:
- agar – very similar to supaya, often a bit more formal or literary; you could say
Saya nasihatkan abang agar berhenti merokok… - untuk – often “to / for (the purpose of)”; very common before verbs and nouns
Saya nasihatkan abang untuk berhenti merokok… is also acceptable, but supaya/agar sound a bit more like a result clause (“so that he will…”). - bagi – regional and more colloquial in some varieties, similar to untuk.
Here supaya nicely expresses that stopping smoking is the intended result of the advice.
Yes, you see:
- berhenti – to stop, to cease
- merokok – to smoke (from rokok, cigarette; meN- verb: merokok)
The sequence berhenti + [verb/activity] is very common and means “to stop doing [that activity]”:
- berhenti merokok – stop smoking
- berhenti bercakap – stop talking
- berhenti bekerja – stop working / quit one’s job
No extra word like “to” is needed between them; Malay just puts them together. You could say berhenti daripada merokok in careful, formal language, but berhenti merokok is the normal everyday form.
demi roughly means “for the sake of / in the interest of” and often carries a slightly emotional or serious tone, sometimes hinting at sacrifice or strong motivation.
- demi kesihatan paru-parunya
= “for the sake of his/her lung health”
Compared to other options:
- untuk kesihatan paru-parunya – “for his/her lung health”
More neutral; just states the purpose. - kerana kesihatan paru-parunya – “because of his/her lung health”
Focuses on cause, not necessarily on intention or sacrifice.
Using demi emphasizes that the advice is motivated by genuine concern for the person’s health. It sounds somewhat more formal or serious than untuk.
- sihat = healthy (adjective)
- kesihatan = health (noun)
kesihatan is formed with the circumfix ke- … -an, which often turns adjectives or verbs into abstract nouns:
- bersih (clean) → kebersihan (cleanliness)
- kuat (strong) → kekuatan (strength)
- adil (fair) → keadilan (justice)
So kesihatan paru-parunya means “the health of his/her lungs”, not “the healthy lungs”. You generally wouldn’t say demi sihat paru-parunya; you need the noun kesihatan there.
paru-paru is the usual word for “lungs” in Malay. It is a reduplicated noun:
- Historical/root form: paru
- Modern standard: paru-paru (“lungs” as a paired organ)
Reduplication in Malay (N → N-N) often marks plural, but for some body parts that naturally come in pairs, the doubled form is simply the standard lexical item:
- paru-paru – lungs
- (others are less regular; mata (eye/eyes), telinga (ear/ears) don’t work the same way)
Grammatically, paru-paru behaves like a single noun referring to the organ set, even though in English we call them “lungs” (plural). So:
- kesihatan paru-parunya = “the health of his/her lungs” (natural English plural),
but in Malay it’s just one noun phrase, no extra plural marking needed.
The suffix -nya attaches to a noun and often indicates third-person possession (“his/her/its/their”) or sometimes definiteness.
In paru-parunya:
- paru-paru – lungs
- -nya – his/her/its (here: the smoker’s)
So paru-parunya ≈ paru-paru dia ≈ “his/her lungs”.
Differences and nuances:
- paru-parunya is compact and often sounds a bit more natural or neutral in many contexts, especially in writing.
- paru-paru dia is also correct and a bit more colloquial/direct. You might choose it if you want to avoid ambiguity or emphasise dia.
- -nya does not mark gender; it could mean his, her, or its. Malay usually leaves gender to context.
Other examples of possessive -nya:
- ibunya – his/her mother
- rumahnya – his/her house
- keretanya – his/her car
Overall, it’s neutral to slightly formal, with a warm, caring tone:
- saya – neutral/polite “I” (not informal like aku).
- abang – a kinship term used as a form of address; intimate or family-like (older brother/husband/boyfriend).
- demi kesihatan paru-parunya – uses a slightly formal/preachy word (demi) and an abstract noun (kesihatan), which sounds serious or concerned.
So the mix is:
- Linguistically fairly neutral (not slang).
- Socially intimate (because of abang) and caring/serious (because of demi kesihatan…).
It’s very suitable for a younger woman talking seriously to her older brother or husband, or for narrating such a situation.
Yes, some parts are optional, with small nuance changes.
- Removing the reason phrase:
- Full: Saya nasihatkan abang supaya berhenti merokok demi kesihatan paru-parunya.
- Without reason: Saya nasihatkan abang supaya berhenti merokok.
The core meaning “I advised him/you to stop smoking” is still complete. You’ve just left out the explicit reason.
- Removing or changing supaya:
- Saya nasihatkan abang berhenti merokok. – acceptable; in speech many people omit supaya here. It’s more like “I told/encouraged him to stop smoking”, without emphasizing the “so that…” link.
- Saya nasihatkan abang untuk berhenti merokok. – also possible; untuk is a bit more like “to stop smoking” (purpose), not so much “so that he will stop”.
All of these are grammatical. The original version with supaya and demi kesihatan paru-parunya simply makes the purpose and the caring motivation more explicit.