Learn Hardcore Malay: Ibu juga lega apabila jerebu hilang dan anak-anak boleh bermain di luar semula. - Mother is also relieved when the haze disappears and the children can play outside again.

In the sentence Ibu juga lega apabila jerebu hilang dan anak-anak boleh bermain di luar semula, what does juga mean and what nuance does it add?

Juga means also / too / as well. It shows that the mother’s relief is in addition to something or someone else.

Ibu juga lega…
→ The mother is also relieved… (maybe other people are relieved too, or she previously felt something else like worry, and now she also feels relief.)

Nuance:

Focus on the subject:
Ibu juga lega… often implies: The mother, too, is relieved (like others).
Focus on the emotion:
Ibu lega juga… can sound more like: The mother is relieved too (in addition to other feelings she has).

In everyday use, Ibu juga lega… is the more straightforward way to say The mother is also relieved.

What is the function of apabila here, and how is it different from bila or ketika?

Apabila is a conjunction meaning when (introducing the time something happens).

apabila jerebu hilang
→ when the haze disappeared

Comparison:

apabila
- More formal/standard, common in writing, news, essays.
- Neutral “when” for events in the past, present, or future.
bila
- More informal/colloquial in Malaysia and Singapore.
- Often used in speech: Bila jerebu hilang…
- In very formal writing, apabila is preferred instead of bila.
ketika
- Often translates as when / while / at the time when.
- Emphasises a period of time, not just the moment something happens.
- Example: Ketika jerebu tebal, anak-anak tidak boleh bermain di luar.
  → When the haze was thick, the children couldn’t play outside.

In this sentence, apabila simply marks the condition/time: At the time when the haze disappeared…

There is no past tense marker in jerebu hilang. How do we know it means “the haze disappeared” and not “the haze disappears”?

Malay usually does not mark tense with verb changes like English. Instead, context (and sometimes time words) tells you if it is past, present, or future.

jerebu hilang literally: the haze disappear / is gone
In this context, combined with lega (relieved) and boleh bermain di luar semula (can play outside again), it is understood as a completed event: the haze has disappeared / disappeared.

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

jerebu sudah hilang – the haze has already disappeared
jerebu baru hilang – the haze has just disappeared
jerebu akan hilang – the haze will disappear (future)

But in natural Malay, plain forms like “jerebu hilang” often carry a past meaning when the context suggests it.

Is hilang here a verb or an adjective? Could we also say menghilang?

In jerebu hilang, hilang functions like an intransitive verb meaning to disappear / to be gone / to vanish.

jerebu hilang
→ the haze disappeared / the haze is gone

About “menghilang”:

menghilang also exists and can mean to disappear.
Example: Jerebu menghilang perlahan-lahan. – The haze disappeared slowly.
However, for states or conditions that change, Malay very often uses the bare form (no prefix), especially in simple sentences:
- air naik – the water rises
- harga turun – the price goes down
- lampu padam – the light goes out
- jerebu hilang – the haze disappears

So jerebu hilang is very natural and idiomatic. Jerebu menghilang is also grammatically correct but sounds a bit more descriptive or literary in this context.

Why is anak-anak repeated? Does it always mean “children”? Can I just say anak?

The repetition anak-anak is an example of reduplication, which commonly marks plural in Malay.

anak – child / offspring
anak-anak – children

Here, anak-anak clearly means children, and the context (playing outside) supports the plural reading.

You can say just anak in some situations:

To mean a single child:
Anak itu bermain di luar. – The child is playing outside.
Sometimes as a generic (not specifying number), especially in headlines or signs:
- Keselamatan anak di jalan raya – Children’s safety on the road (general topic)

But in everyday sentences, if you want to clearly say children (more than one), anak-anak is the natural choice.

Also note:

kanak-kanak – specifically “children” (often younger kids), slightly more formal and used in things like:
- taman permainan kanak-kanak – children’s playground
- buku kanak-kanak – children’s book

What is the role of boleh in anak-anak boleh bermain di luar semula? Is it like “can” or “may”? How is it different from dapat?

Boleh is a modal verb meaning can / may / is allowed to. Here it expresses permission or possibility:

anak-anak boleh bermain di luar semula
→ the children can play outside again
(they are now allowed to or it is now possible because the haze is gone)

Comparison with “dapat”:

boleh
- can / may / be allowed to / be able to (general)
- Focus can be on permission or general possibility.
- Saya boleh pergi. – I can / may go.
dapat
- manage to / succeed in / can (manage to do at that time)
- Often emphasises ability in that situation or success in doing something.
- Saya dapat menyelesaikan kerja itu. – I managed to finish that work.

In this sentence, boleh is better because the idea is “now they are able/allowed to play outside again”, after not being able to during the haze.

Why do we say di luar and not just luar? What is the difference between di luar and ke luar?

Di is a preposition meaning at / in / on, used for location.
Ke is a preposition meaning to, used for direction/movement.

di luar – outside (location)
→ bermain di luar – play outside (be located outside while playing)
ke luar – to the outside / out (movement)
→ pergi ke luar – go outside / go out

In the sentence:

anak-anak boleh bermain di luar semula
→ the children can play outside again (focus on where they play)

If you were describing them moving from inside to outside, you might say:

Anak-anak keluar untuk bermain. – The children go out to play.
or Anak-anak pergi ke luar untuk bermain. – The children go outside to play.

What does semula mean in di luar semula, and how is it different from lagi or kembali?

Semula means again / back (to the previous state).
In this context:

bermain di luar semula
→ to play outside again (returning to the previous habit of playing outside)

Comparison:

semula
- Emphasises returning to an earlier state or condition.
- Common with verbs showing “restoring” or “doing something over”:
  - buat semula – do again / redo
  - susun semula – rearrange
lagi
- Very common word for again / more / still.
- In many everyday sentences, lagi can replace semula without much change in meaning:
  - bermain di luar lagi – also understood as play outside again.
- But lagi is also used for “still”:
  - Dia masih sakit lagi. – He is still sick.
kembali
- Literally return / come back.
- More explicit about physically or metaphorically going back:
  - Dia kembali ke rumah. – He returned home.
  - Keadaan kembali normal. – The situation returned to normal.

In this sentence, semula nicely captures the idea of resuming an old activity after a break.

Why is there no pronoun like dia or mereka? Why do we just have Ibu and anak-anak?

In Malay, it is very common to:

Use nouns (like kinship terms) instead of pronouns, and
Omit pronouns when the subject is already clear.

Here:

Ibu juga lega… – The mother is also relieved…
Using Ibu can be:
- A specific mother (e.g. the children’s mother), or
- In some contexts, referring to “Mom” from the speaker’s perspective.
anak-anak boleh bermain… – the children can play…
Once anak-anak is mentioned, repeating mereka (they) is not necessary.

You could use pronouns, but it would sound less natural to keep repeating them:

Ibu juga lega apabila jerebu hilang dan mereka boleh bermain di luar semula.
Grammatically correct (and “mereka” clearly refers to the children), but the original is smoother and more typical.

Malay often prefers simple noun phrases when the participants are obvious from context.

Could we change the word order to Apabila jerebu hilang, Ibu juga lega dan anak-anak boleh bermain di luar semula? Is that still correct?

Yes, that is grammatically correct and very natural.

Two patterns:

Ibu juga lega apabila jerebu hilang…
- Main clause first, then the “when” clause.
- Focuses first on the mother’s feeling.
Apabila jerebu hilang, Ibu juga lega…
- The time/condition comes first, then the result.
- Emphasises: When the haze disappears, (then) the mother is relieved and the children can play outside again.

Both are standard. In writing, when the apabila-clause comes first, putting a comma after it (as you did) is normal:
Apabila jerebu hilang, Ibu juga lega…

Is Ibu here just “mother” as a common noun, or is it like a name/title? Why is it capitalised?

Ibu means mother, but it can behave both as a common noun and as a title/name, depending on context.

Common noun “a/the mother”
- Seorang ibu sedang menunggu di luar. – A mother is waiting outside.
- In this usage, sometimes written ibu (lowercase) in the middle of a sentence.
As a specific person / title like “Mom / Mother”
- When Ibu refers to a specific mother (often “our/my mother”), it is often capitalised, especially in school texts, children’s stories, or respectful writing:
  - Ibu sedang memasak. – Mom is cooking.
- Similar to capitalising Ayah (Father), Mama, etc., when they function as a kind of name.

In your sentence, Ibu is capitalised because it likely refers to a specific mother figure in the story, not just any mother.

Why do we use bermain instead of just main? Is main wrong?

Both bermain and main exist, but their usage depends on formality and region.

bermain – the standard/formal form
- Used in written Malay (essays, textbooks, news) and in formal speech.
- Anak-anak boleh bermain di luar semula. – fully standard.
main – colloquial/informal variant (especially in spoken Malay)
- In casual conversation, many speakers drop the ber- prefix:
  - Anak-anak boleh main di luar. – very natural in speech.
- In formal writing, bermain is preferred.

So main is not “wrong”; it’s informal, while bermain matches the more formal or standard style of the whole sentence (which uses apabila, etc.).

Why is there no yang in jerebu hilang? Could we say jerebu yang hilang?

Yang is mainly used to introduce relative clauses or to link a noun to a description.

baju yang saya beli – the shirt that I bought
orang yang tinggi itu – that tall person

In jerebu hilang, hilang is just a normal predicate (verb), and jerebu is the subject:

jerebu (subject)
hilang (verb: disappeared / is gone)

So:

jerebu hilang – the haze disappeared / the haze is gone
(complete, simple clause – no yang needed)

If you say jerebu yang hilang, it becomes a noun phrase like “the haze that disappeared” and you usually need more after it:

Jerebu yang hilang itu tidak kembali lagi.
– The haze that disappeared did not return again.

So in the original sentence, jerebu hilang (without yang) is the correct, straightforward structure.