Learn Hardcore Malay: Kami mendirikan khemah biru di antara dua pokok tinggi. - We set up a blue tent between two tall trees.

In this sentence, kami mendirikan khemah biru..., the speaker is saying that they and their group set up the tent, but the listener was not part of that activity.

If the listener had also helped set up the tent, a more natural choice would be:

Kita mendirikan khemah biru di antara dua pokok tinggi.
→ We (you and I / you and us) put up the blue tent between two tall trees.

So kami vs kita depends on whether the listener is included in the “we.”

What does mendirikan mean exactly, and how is it formed?

Mendirikan comes from the root diri (to stand / to stand up) and is formed like this:

meN- (prefix) + diri (root) + -kan (suffix) → mendirikan

In this context, mendirikan means “to erect / to set up / to put up” (something so that it stands), for example:

mendirikan khemah – to set up a tent
mendirikan bangunan – to build a building
mendirikan syarikat – to establish a company

The meN-…-kan pattern often means “to cause something to be / to make something do the root action.”
So mendirikan is roughly “to make (something) stand / to erect.”

Could I just say dirikan khemah or pasang khemah instead of mendirikan khemah?

Yes, you’ll hear other forms:

Dirikan khemah
- dirikan is the imperative (command) form: “put up (the) tent!”
- As a full sentence describing an action, you’d usually keep the meN- form:
  - Kami mendirikan khemah. (We set up the tent.)
Pasang khemah
- pasang literally means “to install / to fit / to fix in place.”
- Very common in everyday speech:
  - Kami pasang khemah biru di antara dua pokok tinggi.

Nuance:

mendirikan khemah – a bit more formal or descriptive, sounds like “erect a tent.”
pasang khemah – very natural in casual conversation, roughly “put up a tent.”

Both are correct; pasang khemah is more colloquial, mendirikan khemah is slightly more formal/neutral.

Is khemah the only word for “tent”? What about tenda?

Both exist:

khemah – common in Malaysia; standard Malay.
tenda – you may hear it (and see it in Indonesian), but in Malaysia khemah is more standard and neutral.

In Malaysian Malay lessons, khemah is the default word you should learn and use for “tent.”

Why is it khemah biru and not biru khemah for “blue tent”?

In Malay, adjectives usually come after the noun:

khemah biru = tent blue → blue tent
pokok tinggi = tree tall → tall tree
baju baru = shirt new → new shirt

Putting the adjective before the noun, like biru khemah, is incorrect in standard Malay.
So the normal pattern is:

[noun] + [adjective]

This is one of the biggest word order differences from English.

Is di antara one word or two? Can I just use antara by itself?

It should be written as two words: di antara.

Usage:

di antara = in between, in the middle of (spatial, physical location)
- Kami mendirikan khemah biru di antara dua pokok tinggi.
antara on its own often means “between / among” in a more abstract or non‑spatial sense:
- antara kawan dan keluarga – between friends and family
- antara pilihan-pilihan ini – among these options

In spatial location phrases like “between two trees”, di antara is the standard:

✅ di antara dua pokok tinggi – between two tall trees
❌ antara dua pokok tinggi (grammatically possible, but sounds incomplete as a place phrase in this exact sentence; native speakers strongly prefer di antara here).

Also, avoid writing diantara as one word; the standard form is di antara.

Why is it dua pokok tinggi and not something like dua pokok-pokok tinggi to show plural?

Malay normally doesn’t need a plural ending when a number is present.

pokok = tree / trees (singular or plural from context)
dua pokok = two trees → the number “dua” already shows plural, so there’s no need for pokok-pokok.

Reduplication (pokok-pokok) is used to indicate plural or variety when there’s no number word:

pokok-pokok tinggi – tall trees (in general, more than one, unspecified number)

So:

dua pokok tinggi – two tall trees (natural, correct)
dua pokok-pokok tinggi – wrong / unnatural (double-marking plurality)

Do I need a classifier, like dua batang pokok tinggi, instead of just dua pokok tinggi?

You can use a classifier, but you don’t have to here.

dua pokok tinggi – two tall trees (perfectly fine)
dua batang pokok tinggi – two tall trees (with the classifier batang)

batang is a classifier for long, cylindrical or upright things (trees, poles, sticks, etc.).
In everyday speech:

dua pokok tinggi is already clear and natural.
dua batang pokok tinggi adds a bit more “counting” flavor, but doesn’t really change the meaning.

For learning purposes, dua pokok tinggi is simple and correct; classifiers are optional in many cases in Malay.

Does tinggi describe both trees, or just the second one?

In dua pokok tinggi, tinggi describes the noun phrase as a whole:

dua pokok tinggi = two trees (which are tall)
→ both trees are understood to be tall.

It’s similar to English “two tall trees” – you naturally assume both are tall.

If you wanted to emphasise it even more, you could use:

dua pokok yang tinggi – literally “two trees that are tall,” but in this simple sentence dua pokok tinggi is already the normal, natural way to say it.

How do we know this sentence is in the past? There’s no tense marker like in English.

Malay normally does not change the verb form for tense.
The sentence:

Kami mendirikan khemah biru di antara dua pokok tinggi.

can mean:

We set up the blue tent… (past)
We are setting up the blue tent… (present)
We will set up the blue tent… (future, in some contexts)

The exact time is usually clear from context or from time words like:

semalam – yesterday
tadi – earlier
esok – tomorrow

You can also add optional aspect markers:

Kami sudah mendirikan khemah... – We have already set up the tent.
Kami akan mendirikan khemah... – We will set up the tent.

But the base verb mendirikan itself never changes form for tense.

Is mendirikan khemah natural in everyday conversation, or would people say something else?

It’s correct, but you’ll often hear slightly different phrasing in casual speech.

Common options:

Kami pasang khemah biru... – very natural, conversational.
Kami dirikan khemah biru... – also used; sounds a bit more direct and less formal than mendirikan.
Kami mendirikan khemah biru... – perfectly good; a bit more formal/neutral, common in writing or careful speech.

So if you’re camping and talking informally with friends, pasang khemah is extremely common.
For textbooks, descriptions, or more formal narration, mendirikan khemah is very acceptable and correct.