Learn Hardcore Malay: Saya dengar temu bual dengan pakar cuaca yang menjelaskan bagaimana mereka membuat ramalan. - I listen to an interview with a weather expert who explains how they make forecasts.

Saya – I
dengar – hear / heard
temu bual – interview
dengan – with
pakar cuaca – weather expert / meteorologist
- pakar – expert / specialist
- cuaca – weather
yang – that / who / which (relative pronoun)
menjelaskan – explaining / explained
- base verb: jelas – clear
- men‑…‑kan – causative / transitive verb form (to make clear, to explain)
bagaimana – how
mereka – they
membuat – to make
ramalan – prediction / forecast

Natural English: I heard an interview with a weather expert who explained how they make forecasts.

Why is dengar used and not mendengar? Are both correct?

Both dengar and mendengar are correct, but they differ slightly in style and formality.

dengar – base form; very common in everyday spoken Malay.
mendengar – full meN‑ verb form; more formal, often seen in writing or careful speech.

In this sentence:

Saya dengar temu bual… – sounds natural and conversational.
Saya mendengar temu bual… – sounds a bit more formal or written.

Meaning-wise, there is no big difference here; both mean I heard / I listened to. The choice is mainly about style and register.

What exactly does temu bual mean, and is it written as one word or two?

temu bual means interview (usually a journalistic or media interview).

temu – meeting
bual – chat / talk

So literally, temu bual is like a meeting‑chat, i.e. an interview.

Spelling:

In standard Malay in Malaysia: temu bual (two words) is preferred.
You will also see temubual (one word) in informal contexts, but temu bual is the more standard form in official writing.
In Indonesia, the common word is wawancara, not temu bual.

In this sentence, temu bual is a noun (an interview), not a verb.

Why is it dengar temu bual dengan pakar cuaca, and not dengar temu bual tentang pakar cuaca?

The preposition changes the meaning:

dengar temu bual dengan pakar cuaca
– heard an interview with a weather expert (the expert is the person being interviewed)
dengar temu bual tentang pakar cuaca
– heard an interview about a weather expert (the expert is the topic, not necessarily present in the interview)

In the original sentence, the intention is that the weather expert is the guest in the interview, so dengan (with) is correct and natural.

What does pakar cuaca literally mean, and could I use ahli instead of pakar?

pakar cuaca literally means weather expert.

pakar – expert / specialist
cuaca – weather

You can say ahli cuaca, but it is less common. Differences:

pakar – emphasizes expertise and specialization; very natural in professional or technical contexts.
ahli – member / expert; used in many compounds (e.g. ahli politik – politician, ahli sejarah – historian).

For a weather or climate specialist, pakar cuaca is more idiomatic than ahli cuaca in Malaysian usage.

What is the function of yang here? What exactly is it connecting?

yang in Malay is a relative pronoun, similar to who / that / which in English.

In the sentence:

…pakar cuaca yang menjelaskan bagaimana mereka membuat ramalan.

yang connects pakar cuaca to the clause menjelaskan bagaimana mereka membuat ramalan.

So:

pakar cuaca yang menjelaskan bagaimana mereka membuat ramalan
= the weather expert who explained how they make forecasts

Grammatically:

pakar cuaca – head noun
yang – introduces a relative clause
menjelaskan bagaimana mereka membuat ramalan – relative clause describing the expert

Does yang menjelaskan… describe the pakar cuaca or the temu bual?

It describes pakar cuaca (the weather expert).

Structure:

temu bual dengan pakar cuaca – an interview with a weather expert
pakar cuaca yang menjelaskan… – the weather expert who explained…

If it were describing the interview instead, you would expect a structure like:

temu bual yang menjelaskan… – the interview that explained…

But here, yang comes immediately after pakar cuaca, so it attaches to pakar cuaca, not temu bual.

Why is it menjelaskan and not just jelaskan?

menjelaskan is the proper finite verb form here:

jelas – clear (adjective)
menjelaskan – to explain / to make clear (verb)
(meN‑…‑kan pattern often means to cause to be [adjective])

In standard Malay, you normally use the meN‑ form as the main verb in sentences:

Pakar itu menjelaskan sesuatu. – The expert explained something.

jelaskan without meN‑ can appear:

as an imperative: Jelaskan! – Explain!
in some reduced or informal structures

But in this sentence, a full clause is needed:

pakar cuaca yang menjelaskan bagaimana… – the weather expert who explained how…

So menjelaskan is the correct and natural form.

What does bagaimana mean here, and why is it placed before mereka membuat ramalan?

bagaimana means how.

The phrase:

bagaimana mereka membuat ramalan
literally: how they make predictions

Word order is similar to English:

bagaimana (how) + subject (mereka) + verb phrase (membuat ramalan)

So this part is a content clause: how they make forecasts. In English and Malay, how normally comes at the start of such clauses, so bagaimana naturally appears before mereka membuat ramalan.

Why is mereka (they) used? Could I use dia instead?

mereka means they; dia means he / she.

Here are two possible interpretations:

mereka refers to a group (e.g. meteorologists, the weather department, the expert’s team).
- Then mereka is appropriate, because the expert is explaining how they (as a group) make forecasts.
The speaker just uses mereka vaguely to avoid specifying a person; this is also possible in Malay.

If the expert was talking only about his/her own way of making forecasts, you could say:

…yang menjelaskan bagaimana dia membuat ramalan.
– who explained how he / she makes forecasts.

So, dia is grammatically correct, but it changes the meaning from they to he/she. In the original, mereka suggests a group process or institutional method.

Is membuat ramalan a fixed expression? Could I just say meramal?

Both are used, but they differ slightly:

membuat ramalan – literally to make predictions / forecasts
- membuat – to make
- ramalan – prediction / forecast
  This sounds a bit more formal and is very common in news and academic contexts.
meramal – to predict / to forecast (verb derived from ramal)
Also common and natural.

You could say:

…bagaimana mereka membuat ramalan.
…bagaimana mereka meramal.

Both are acceptable. If you want to be more specific:

membuat ramalan cuaca – to make weather forecasts
meramal cuaca – to forecast the weather

In many contexts, they are interchangeable.

How do we know this sentence refers to the past (I heard) if there is no past tense marker?

Malay does not have verb conjugations for tense like English. The time reference is understood from:

context (previous sentences, situation), and
sometimes time adverbs like semalam (yesterday), tadi (earlier), akan (will), etc.

In this isolated sentence:

Saya dengar… could be translated as:
- I hear…, I am hearing…, or I heard…

In real usage, context would usually make it clear that this is a past event. English requires a tense choice, so we often translate it as I heard an interview….

If you wanted to be explicit about the past, you could add a time word:

Saya tadi dengar… – I just now heard…
Semalam saya dengar… – Yesterday I heard…

How formal or informal is this sentence? Would I use it in writing as well as speech?

The sentence is neutral and natural; it fits both speech and semi‑formal writing.

Informal/conversational:
- Saya dengar temu bual dengan pakar cuaca… – perfectly normal spoken Malay.
Slightly more formal writing version might be:
- Saya mendengar temu bual dengan seorang pakar cuaca yang menjelaskan bagaimana mereka membuat ramalan.

Changes you might see in more formal text:

mendengar instead of dengar
adding seorang (a / one [person]) before pakar cuaca

But the original sentence is already acceptable in many written contexts, especially in blogs, articles, and reports with a conversational tone.