Learn Hardcore Malay: Adik saya meminjam pemadam saya tanpa izin, jadi saya menegurnya dengan lembut. - My younger sibling borrows my eraser without permission, so I gently scold him/her.

It can be a younger brother, a younger sister, or a younger cousin (if treated like a sibling in the family context).
If you need to be specific, you can say:
- adik lelaki – younger brother
- adik perempuan – younger sister

In this sentence, Adik saya just means my younger sibling; the gender is understood from context.

Why is it adik saya and not saya adik? How do possessives work here?

In Malay, the possessed noun usually comes first, and the owner (pronoun) comes after it:

adik saya = my younger sibling (literally: sibling I)
pemadam saya = my eraser

You don’t say saya adik to mean “my younger sibling”; saya adik would sound like “I am a younger sibling” in some contexts.

Other examples:

rumah saya – my house
kereta dia – his/her car

What’s the difference between meminjam, pinjam, and meminjamkan?

All come from the root pinjam (borrow / loan), but the usage differs:

meminjam – to borrow something
- Adik saya meminjam pemadam saya. – My younger sibling borrowed my eraser.
meminjamkan – to lend something (to someone)
- Saya meminjamkan pemadam saya kepada adik saya. – I lent my eraser to my younger sibling.
pinjam (without meN-) is the base form. In casual speech, people often say:
- Adik saya pinjam pemadam saya. – Colloquial, very common in speech.

So:

meminjam = borrow
meminjamkan = lend
pinjam = basic form; fine in informal speech, but in formal writing meminjam is preferred.

Is pemadam only “eraser”, or can it mean other things too?

Pemadam literally means “something that erases/puts out”, so it has a few meanings depending on context:

pemadam (pencil eraser) – what’s meant in your sentence
pemadam api – fire extinguisher
butang pemadam – delete key / erase button

To be clearer about the school item, people often say:

pemadam pensel or getah pemadam – pencil eraser

In your sentence, with meminjam pemadam saya, it’s naturally understood as “my (pencil) eraser”.

Do I need to repeat saya in pemadam saya, or can I just say Adik saya meminjam pemadam tanpa izin?

Both are possible, but they have slightly different emphasis:

Adik saya meminjam pemadam saya tanpa izin – emphasizes that
- it was my younger sibling, and
- it was my eraser.
Adik saya meminjam pemadam tanpa izin – still understandable in context, but doesn’t explicitly say the eraser belongs to you; it could be an eraser.

In natural speech, repeating saya is very normal and helps avoid ambiguity.

What does tanpa izin literally mean, and are there other common ways to say “without permission”?

tanpa izin literally means “without permission”:

tanpa – without
izin – permission / authorization

Other common alternatives:

tanpa kebenaran – without authorization (slightly more formal)
tak minta izin dulu – didn’t ask permission first (very conversational)

But in standard, neutral Malay, tanpa izin is perfectly natural and common.

What does jadi do here? Is it the same word as “to become”?

Yes, jadi has a few functions:

As a verb: “to become”
- Dia jadi doktor. – He/She became a doctor.
As a conjunction meaning “so / therefore” – this is how it’s used in your sentence:
- … tanpa izin, jadi saya menegurnya …
- “… without permission, so I scolded him/her …”

In spoken Malay, jadi as “so” is very common and fairly neutral in tone.

What is the structure of menegurnya? Why is there -nya at the end instead of using dia?

menegurnya is made of:

menegur – to scold/rebuke/correct (from tegur)
-nya – attached pronoun meaning him/her/it

So saya menegurnya = I scolded/corrected him/her.

You could also say:

Saya menegur dia dengan lembut. – also correct.

Differences:

menegurnya sounds a bit more compact and slightly more formal/written.
menegur dia is very normal in speech.

The meaning is basically the same in this context.

Can -nya also mean “his/her/its” in other sentences? How does that work?

Yes. -nya is a flexible third-person pronoun that can mean:

Object pronoun – him/her/it
- Saya menegurnya. – I scolded him/her.
Possessive pronoun – his/her/its
- bukunya – his/her book
- rumahnya – his/her house
It can also have some extra discourse/pragmatic uses, but for now, remember:
- attached to a verb → often “him/her/it” (object)
- attached to a noun → often “his/her/its” (possessive)

Does menegur always mean “to scold”? I thought tegur can also mean “to greet”.

You’re right; tegur (and menegur) has a few related meanings, depending on context:

To greet / to say hello
- Dia menegur saya di jalan. – He/She greeted me on the street.
To reprimand / to correct / to call someone out
- Guru menegur murid yang lewat. – The teacher scolded / reprimanded the student who was late.

In your sentence, because of tanpa izin and dengan lembut, menegurnya clearly means to gently correct / mildly scold. It’s softer than marah or memarahi (“to be angry at / to tell off harshly”).

How does dengan lembut work? Is this how Malay forms adverbs like “gently”?

Yes. In Malay, a very common way to express “-ly” adverbs is:

dengan + adjective

So:

dengan lembut – gently (with softness/gentleness)
dengan perlahan – slowly
dengan cepat – quickly

You could also say secara lembut, but dengan lembut is more natural in everyday usage.

Note: in some informal speech, people might drop dengan and just say lembut saja, but dengan lembut is the clear standard form.

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

Malay generally does not mark tense with verb changes (no -ed, etc.). Time is understood from:

Context
Time words like tadi (earlier), sudah / dah (already), semalam (last night), etc.

In your sentence, we understand it as past because it describes a completed event in a narrative context. If you wanted to make the pastness explicit, you could say:

Tadi adik saya meminjam pemadam saya tanpa izin, jadi saya menegurnya dengan lembut.
– Earlier my younger sibling borrowed my eraser without permission, so I gently scolded him/her.

But grammatically, meminjam and menegur themselves don’t change for tense.

Could I say saya menegurnya lembut without dengan? Would that be correct?

In informal spoken Malay, people sometimes say things like:

Saya cakap lembut. – I spoke gently.
Saya tegur dia lembut-lembut. – I gently corrected/scolded him/her.

So saya menegurnya lembut might be heard in casual conversation.

However, in standard / written Malay, dengan lembut is clearer and more correct:

saya menegurnya dengan lembut – preferred in writing and formal contexts.