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Doktor kata paru-paru sihat penting untuk kesihatan.

Doktor kata paru-paru sihat penting untuk kesihatan.
The doctor says healthy lungs are important for health.
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Questions & Answers about Doktor kata paru-paru sihat penting untuk kesihatan.

In English I would say “The doctor says that healthy lungs are important for health.”
Where is the word “that” in the Malay sentence?

Malay often omits “that” in this kind of sentence.

  • Doktor kata paru-paru sihat penting untuk kesihatan.
    Literally: Doctor say healthy lungs important for health.

If you want to include an explicit “that”, you can use bahawa:

  • Doktor kata bahawa paru-paru sihat penting untuk kesihatan.

Both versions are correct; bahawa sounds a bit more formal or careful, but in everyday speech it is usually dropped.

Why is there no word for “are” between “paru-paru sihat” and “penting”?

Malay does not need a separate verb “to be” (am/is/are) when linking a noun + adjective to another adjective or noun in a simple statement.

So:

  • Paru-paru sihat penting.
    ≈ Healthy lungs *are important.*

There is no equivalent to “are” here; the link is understood.

You can insert adalah in some contexts, but it’s more formal and usually used before a noun phrase, not a simple adjective:

  • Paru-paru sihat adalah faktor penting untuk kesihatan.
    (Healthy lungs are an important factor for health.)

In the original sentence, no “are” word is needed or natural.

What exactly does “paru-paru” mean? Is it a plural form like lungs?

Paru-paru means “lungs” (the organ).

Formally, paru is “lung” and paru-paru is the reduplicated form, which often signals plurality in Malay. But in practice:

  • For the organ, people normally just say paru-paru for “lungs”.
  • Paru alone is less common in everyday speech for the organ; you might see it in compounds or medical terms.

So you can treat paru-paru as the standard word for “lungs” rather than thinking too much about singular vs plural here.

Why is the adjective “sihat” (healthy) placed after “paru-paru”?

Malay word order for noun + adjective is:

Noun + Adjective

So:

  • paru-paru sihat
    = lungs healthy
    → healthy lungs

Other examples:

  • rumah besar = big house
  • buku baru = new book

Putting the adjective before the noun (sihat paru-paru) would be incorrect in standard Malay.

Can I say “paru-paru yang sihat” instead of “paru-paru sihat”? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say “paru-paru yang sihat”, and it is also correct.

  • paru-paru sihat
  • paru-paru yang sihat

Both mean “healthy lungs”.

Differences in nuance:

  • Without “yang” (paru-paru sihat)
    – shorter, more neutral, very common.
  • With “yang” (paru-paru yang sihat)
    – a little more explicit or “descriptive”, sometimes slightly more formal or emphatic, like “lungs that are healthy”.

In this sentence, both fit:

  • Doktor kata paru-paru sihat penting untuk kesihatan.
  • Doktor kata paru-paru yang sihat penting untuk kesihatan.
Why is it “Doktor kata” and not “Doktor berkata” or “Doktor mengatakan”?

All three exist, but they differ in style and structure.

  1. kata (base verb, very common in speech)

    • Doktor kata paru-paru sihat penting untuk kesihatan.
      Natural, informal–neutral.

  2. berkata (more formal, often used with kepada “to”)

    • Doktor berkata bahawa paru-paru sihat penting untuk kesihatan.
      The doctor said that healthy lungs are important for health.
      Feels more written/formal.

  3. mengatakan (transitive, must have a direct object – “say something”)

    • Doktor mengatakan bahawa paru-paru sihat penting untuk kesihatan.
      The phrase after bahawa is the “something” being said.
      Also more formal.

In casual or semi-formal speech and writing, “Doktor kata …” is very normal.

Does “Doktor” mean “the doctor” or “a doctor”? There’s no “the” or “a” in Malay.

Malay usually doesn’t use articles like a/an/the.

  • Doktor can mean:
    • the doctor (a specific doctor already known in context), or
    • a doctor (some doctor, not specified).

Context decides which is more natural in English translation.

If you really need to show that the doctor is specific, you can add words like:

  • doktor itu = that doctor / the doctor (specific)
  • seorang doktor = a doctor / one doctor (non-specific, counting one person)

But in many cases, just Doktor is enough.

Where is the past tense? How do I know if it means “The doctor said” or “The doctor says”?

Malay verbs usually don’t change form for tense. kata can mean “say”, “says”, or “said”, depending on context.

  • Doktor kata paru-paru sihat penting untuk kesihatan.
    Could be:
    • The doctor says healthy lungs are important for health.
    • The doctor said healthy lungs are important for health.

If you want to make the past more explicit, you can add time words:

  • Tadi doktor kata … = Earlier/the doctor said …
  • Semalam doktor kata … = Yesterday the doctor said …

You can also use auxiliaries like telah or sudah for past, but in everyday speech they’re not always necessary:

  • Doktor telah berkata bahawa … (formal)
What’s the difference between “sihat” and “kesihatan”?

  • sihat = healthy (adjective)

    • Dia sihat. = He/She is healthy.

  • kesihatan = health (noun)

    • kesihatan comes from sihat with the noun-forming prefix and suffix ke- … -an.

In the sentence:

  • penting untuk kesihatan = important for health

If you used sihat there, it wouldn’t be natural:
✗ penting untuk sihat is not the usual way to say “important for health”.

Can I say “penting bagi kesihatan” or “penting kepada kesihatan” instead of “penting untuk kesihatan”? Are they the same?

All three are grammatically acceptable, with slight stylistic differences:

  • penting untuk kesihatan
    Very common and natural; untuk = “for / for the purpose of”.

  • penting bagi kesihatan
    Also common, often a bit more formal or written; bagi ≈ “for / for the benefit of”.

  • penting kepada kesihatan
    Grammatically okay, but sounds more formal and less common in everyday speech.

In most general sentences, “penting untuk kesihatan” is the safest and most natural choice.

Could I move the words around, like “Untuk kesihatan, paru-paru sihat penting”? Is that still correct?

Yes, that is still grammatically correct:

  • Untuk kesihatan, paru-paru sihat penting.

This has a slightly different emphasis:

  • Original: Paru-paru sihat penting untuk kesihatan.
    – Focuses first on healthy lungs.
  • Reordered: Untuk kesihatan, paru-paru sihat penting.
    – Starts by highlighting for health, then states that healthy lungs are important.

The version with “Doktor kata …” would be:

  • Doktor kata, untuk kesihatan, paru-paru sihat penting.

This is fine, but the original word order is more neutral and more common.

Why is there no subject pronoun like “he” or “she” before “kata”? In English I’d say “The doctor, he says…”.

Malay normally doesn’t repeat the subject with a pronoun if the subject noun is already there and clear.

  • Doktor kata…
    Literally: Doctor say…
    Subject = Doktor.

You don’t need dia (“he/she”) here:

  • ✗ Doktor dia kata… (sounds wrong unless you’re using a particular dialect or special emphasis)
  • ✓ Doktor kata…

So the subject is just Doktor, and that is enough.