Learn Hardcore Malay: Anak kecil itu berlari di sekeliling tasik.

anak kecil itu – the most common, neutral way to say “that/the little child”.
- Noun phrase: anak kecil (little child)
- itu placed after the noun phrase makes it specific/definite, like “that/the.”
itu anak kecil – grammatically OK but less common in standard neutral speech.
- Often used for emphasis or in certain spoken styles: “that little child (over there)” with a pointing or contrastive feel.

For a simple descriptive sentence, anak kecil itu is the natural choice.

How do I know if anak kecil is singular or plural? Could this mean “the little children”?

Malay usually does not mark plural on nouns. Anak kecil by itself is neutral:

anak kecil – little child / little children (depends on context)

To make it clearly plural, you typically:

Reduplicate the noun:
- anak-anak kecil – little children
Or add a word like beberapa (several), banyak (many), etc.:
- beberapa orang anak kecil – several little children

In Anak kecil itu berlari di sekeliling tasik, native speakers would usually understand it as one child unless the context had clearly established multiple children.

What’s the difference between anak kecil and budak kecil?

Both can mean “little child,” but there are nuances and regional preferences.

anak kecil
- More neutral and slightly more formal.
- Common in both Malaysia and Indonesia, easily understood everywhere.
budak kecil (more common in Malaysian usage)
- budak can mean child, but also “kid,” and in some contexts “servant/worker” (older or specific usage).
- In everyday Malaysian speech, budak kecil = little kid.
- In Indonesian, budak primarily means slave (old-fashioned / historical), so it is not used for “child.” Indonesians would say anak kecil.

So in a pan-Malay/Indonesian context, anak kecil is safer and more neutral.

Why is it berlari and not just lari? What does the ber- prefix do?

The root verb is lari (run). berlari is the ber- form of that verb.

berlari is the standard, “proper” verb form in many contexts:
- Anak kecil itu berlari… – The little child ran / is running…
lari can also work as a verb, especially in casual speech:
- Anak kecil itu lari… – same meaning, but more colloquial/simpler.

The prefix ber- often:

Marks an intransitive verb (no direct object): berlari, berjalan, berenang.
Can give a sense of “doing the action” or “being in a state.”

Here, berlari is just a normal way to say “to be running / to run.”

Malay verbs don’t change for tense, so how do I know if berlari means “is running”, “ran”, or “will run”?

You get the tense/aspect from context and sometimes from time words:

Past:
- Anak kecil itu tadi berlari di sekeliling tasik. – The little child earlier ran around the lake.
- tadi, semalam (yesterday), kelmarin (the day before yesterday), etc.
Present (progressive):
- Anak kecil itu sedang berlari di sekeliling tasik. – The little child is currently running around the lake.
- sedang highlights ongoing action.
Future:
- Anak kecil itu akan berlari di sekeliling tasik. – The little child will run around the lake.
- akan, nanti, esok, etc.

In your sentence without any markers, berlari could be translated as “ran” or “is running” depending on the wider context.

Is di sekeliling tasik a fixed phrase? What’s the role of di and sekeliling?

It’s not one fixed idiom; it’s a regular prepositional phrase:

di – preposition indicating location: at / in / on
sekeliling – around / surrounding
tasik – lake

So:

di tasik – at the lake
di sekeliling tasik – around the lake (in the area surrounding the lake)

You generally need di here.
sekeliling tasik on its own is more like “the area around the lake” as a noun phrase, whereas di sekeliling tasik clearly functions as “around the lake” (as a location of the running).

Can I say mengelilingi tasik instead of di sekeliling tasik? What’s the difference?

Yes, but the structure changes:

berlari di sekeliling tasik – run around the lake
- Focus on location: the child is running in the area around the lake.
mengelilingi tasik – go / move around (encircle) the lake
- mengelilingi is a transitive verb, “to go around / encircle [something].”
- Implies covering a full circuit more strongly.

So you could say:

Anak kecil itu berlari mengelilingi tasik.
– The little child ran around (encircling) the lake.

Both are correct; di sekeliling tasik sounds more like describing where the running is happening, while mengelilingi tasik highlights the lake as the object being circled.

Why is it tasik and not danau or some other word for “lake”?

This is largely regional:

tasik
- Standard in Malay (Malaysia / Brunei / southern Thailand).
- Common word: tasik = lake.
danau
- More commonly used in Indonesian, especially in certain regions.
- In Indonesian: danau = lake, tasik is rare/archaic.

So tasik marks the sentence as Malay (Malaysian-style) rather than Indonesian.
In Indonesian, you’d more naturally say: Anak kecil itu berlari di sekeliling danau.

Why is the adjective kecil after anak? Could I say kecil anak itu?

In Malay, adjectives normally come after the noun:

anak kecil – little child
tasik besar – big lake
rumah baru – new house

Putting the adjective before the noun is generally ungrammatical in simple noun phrases.
So:

✅ anak kecil itu – the little child
❌ kecil anak itu – incorrect in standard Malay

(There are some special or poetic constructions where order can shift, but as a learner you should always put descriptive adjectives after the noun.)

If I wanted to emphasize that the child is currently in the middle of running, how would I change the sentence?

You’d normally add sedang to mark a progressive action:

Anak kecil itu sedang berlari di sekeliling tasik.
– The little child is (right now) running around the lake.

sedang works like “is/are … -ing” in English, making it clear that the action is ongoing at the moment being talked about.