Learn Hardcore Malay: Walau di mana pun keluarga saya tinggal nanti, kami mahu makan malam bersama setiap hari. - No matter where my family lives in the future, we want to have dinner together every day.

walau – even though / even if / no matter (short form of walaupun)
di – at / in / on (location preposition)
mana – where
pun – an emphasis particle; with question words it often means ever (whoever, wherever, etc.)
keluarga – family
saya – my / I (here: my)
tinggal – live / reside / stay
nanti – later / in the future
kami – we (excluding the listener)
mahu – want / would like to
makan – eat
malam – night (so makan malam = dinner / to have dinner)
bersama – together
setiap – every / each
hari – day

A fairly literal rendering would be:

Even where‑ever my family live later, we want to eat dinner together every day.

Natural English:

Wherever my family lives in the future, we want to have dinner together every day.

What does “walau di mana pun” mean, and why is it formed that way?

Walau di mana pun is a fixed pattern meaning “no matter where / wherever”.

walau – even if / although / no matter (here setting up a concessive clause: “even if X, still Y.”)
di mana – where (literally “at where”)
pun – particle that, with question words, adds the meaning “ever / any”:
- siapa pun – whoever
- apa pun – whatever
- bila pun – whenever
- di mana pun – wherever

So walau di mana pun ≈ “even (if) at wherever (place)”, i.e. “no matter where”.

You could also see:

Walau di mana keluarga saya tinggal nanti… (without pun) – still understandable, but pun makes the “no matter where” sense stronger and more natural.

What is the difference between walau and walaupun here? Can I use both?

walau is basically a shortened, more casual form of walaupun. Both can often be translated as “even though / although / even if”.

In this sentence:

Walau di mana pun keluarga saya tinggal nanti, …
Walaupun di mana pun keluarga saya tinggal nanti, …

Both are grammatically acceptable. Walau sounds slightly lighter and is very common in speech and informal writing. Walaupun can feel a bit more complete or formal, but the difference is small here.

So:

Use walau or walaupun – both are fine.
Don’t change the rest of the structure when you switch; di mana pun stays the same.

What exactly does the particle pun do in “di mana pun”? Is it like English “-ever” in “wherever”?

Yes, that’s a good way to think about it.

With interrogative (question) words, pun turns them into an indefinite / “-ever” form:

siapa – who → siapa pun – whoever
apa – what → apa pun – whatever
bila – when → bila pun – whenever
mana – which / where (in some patterns) → mana pun – whichever / wherever
di mana – where → di mana pun – wherever

Functionally:

di mana = where?
di mana pun = wherever / no matter where

So pun here does not mean “also” (which is another function of pun in other contexts). Here, it’s an indefinite / “ever” marker attached to mana.

Why is “nanti” placed after “tinggal”? Could I move it to another position?

nanti means “later / in the future” and behaves like a time adverb. In this sentence it modifies tinggal (live, reside):

keluarga saya tinggal nanti ≈ “my family will live (later / in the future)”

In Malay, nanti is fairly flexible in position. All of these are possible, with slight shifts of focus:

Walau di mana pun keluarga saya tinggal nanti, …
– Very natural; nanti clearly goes with tinggal.
Walau di mana pun nanti keluarga saya tinggal, …
– Still okay; now nanti is earlier, but context still makes it “where my family will live later”.
Nanti, walau di mana pun keluarga saya tinggal, kami…
– Here nanti is more like “In the future, regardless of where my family lives, we…”.

The original placement is probably the clearest and most natural for expressing “where my family will live (in the future)”.

Does “nanti” talk about the time of living or the time of eating dinner? Could it be ambiguous?

Grammatically, nanti is inside the first clause:

Walau di mana pun keluarga saya tinggal nanti, …

So the default reading is:

“no matter where my family will live in the future” (future time of living)

The second clause:

kami mahu makan malam bersama setiap hari
– already has setiap hari (every day) and mahu (want), which naturally suggest an ongoing, future‑oriented habit. It doesn’t strictly need nanti.

If you really wanted nanti to modify the eating, you’d more naturally move it toward that clause, e.g.:

Walau di mana pun keluarga saya tinggal, nanti kami mahu makan malam bersama setiap hari.

Then the sense is more like: Wherever my family lives, later on we want to have dinner together every day.

Why is “kami” used instead of “kita” for “we”? What’s the difference?

Malay distinguishes between two kinds of “we”:

kami – we, us (excluding the listener)
> “we (but not you)”
kita – we, us (including the listener)
> “you and I / all of us including you”

In this sentence:

kami mahu makan malam bersama setiap hari
– “we (my family) want to eat dinner together every day”

Using kami implies that the speaker is talking about their family as a group that does not necessarily include the person being spoken to.

If the listener were part of this “we” (for example, the listener is also a family member), the speaker might use kita:

… kita mahu makan malam bersama setiap hari.
– “we (including you) want to eat dinner together every day.”

Does “makan malam” mean “to eat at night” or “dinner”? Is it a verb or a noun here?

makan malam literally means “eat night”, but in practice it is equivalent to “have dinner / dinner”.

It can function as:

A verb phrase:
- Kami akan makan malam pukul lapan.
  – “We will have dinner at eight.”
A noun‑like event:
- Makan malam tadi sangat sedap.
  – “The dinner just now was very delicious.”

In your sentence:

mahu makan malam – “want to have dinner” (verb phrase)

The structure:

mahu (want) + makan malam (to have dinner)

is parallel to English “want + to eat / to have dinner”.

Why is there no word like “will” before “makan malam”? Doesn’t mahu just mean “want”?

Malay does not use a verb conjugation for future tense like English (will / shall). Instead, future meaning is usually expressed by:

context and time expressions (nanti, esok, tahun depan, etc.)
volitional verbs such as mahu / hendak / nak / ingin (want, intend)
the optional marker akan (will)

In:

kami mahu makan malam bersama setiap hari

mahu mainly means “want to”, but with a clear time frame (especially in combination with something like nanti or a future context), it naturally implies future intention:

“we want to have dinner together every day (from then on / in the future)”

You could say:

Kami akan makan malam bersama setiap hari.
– “We will eat dinner together every day.”

But that slightly shifts it from intention/desire (mahu) to a more neutral prediction or plan (akan).

Could I use akan instead of nanti or together with it, like “akan tinggal nanti”?

You can use akan (will) to make the future more explicit, but you normally wouldn’t stack it redundantly with nanti in the same mini‑phrase.

Some options:

Walau di mana pun keluarga saya akan tinggal, kami…
– “Wherever my family will live, we…”
Walau di mana pun keluarga saya akan tinggal nanti, kami…
– Grammatically possible, but somewhat heavy/redundant: akan already marks future, and nanti also means “later.” This can sound wordy unless you want strong emphasis.
Walau di mana pun keluarga saya tinggal nanti, kami akan makan malam bersama setiap hari.
– Now akan modifies makan malam, making the future clearer there.

In everyday Malay, nanti plus context is usually enough; akan is often omitted unless you want to stress or clarify the future time.

What does “setiap hari” mean exactly? Are there alternatives like “tiap-tiap hari” or “hari-hari”, and do they feel different?

setiap hari means “every day”.

You’ll also see:

tiap-tiap hari – also “every day”; slightly more colloquial, often in spoken Malay.
tiap hari – like tiap-tiap hari, but with only one tiap; very common in casual speech.
hari-hari – literally “days and days”; often used colloquially to mean “every day / all the time.”

Nuance:

setiap hari – neutral, standard; fine in writing and speech.
tiap-tiap hari / tiap hari – more informal, everyday speech.
hari-hari – quite colloquial; can carry a sense of “so often / constantly” depending on tone.

In this sentence, setiap hari is a good, neutral choice.