Learn Hardcore Malay: Nanti kita makan salad buah di tasik. - Later we will eat fruit salad at the lake.

Nanti roughly means “later / in a while / sometime after now”. In this sentence it sets a vague future time, usually not very far away and relatively informal.

nanti = later, soon, in a bit (often conversational)
akan = will, shall (more neutral/formal, marks future more explicitly)
kemudian = later, afterwards (often more sequential: “after that”)

You could say:

Nanti kita makan salad buah di tasik. – We’ll eat fruit salad at the lake later. (natural, casual)
Kita akan makan salad buah di tasik. – We will eat fruit salad at the lake. (more explicit future, a bit more formal or written)
Lepas itu, kita makan salad buah di tasik kemudian. – After that, we’ll eat fruit salad at the lake later/afterwards. (sequential)

In daily speech, nanti is very common to talk about the (near) future without sounding too stiff.

Why is it kita and not kami? What’s the difference?

Both kita and kami mean “we / us”, but they differ in inclusiveness:

kita = inclusive we (includes the person you are talking to)
kami = exclusive we (does not include the person you are talking to)

So:

Nanti kita makan salad buah di tasik.
= We (you and I, maybe others too) will eat fruit salad at the lake later.
Nanti kami makan salad buah di tasik.
= We (but not you) will eat fruit salad at the lake later.

Because the sentence sounds like an invitation / plan that includes the listener, kita is the natural choice.

Why is there no word like “will” in the Malay sentence?

Malay usually does not require a separate word for tense (past / present / future). Time is understood from:

context
time expressions (like nanti, tadi, esok, sudah, etc.)

In this sentence, nanti itself already signals that the action is in the future. So:

Nanti kita makan salad buah di tasik.
literally: “Later we eat fruit salad at the lake.”
understood as: “We will eat fruit salad at the lake later.”

You can add akan (will) – Nanti kita akan makan… – but it is not necessary in normal conversation.

Why is there no “the” or “a” before tasik? How do articles work in Malay?

Malay has no articles like English “a / an / the”. Nouns can stand alone:

tasik – lake / the lake / a lake (meaning comes from context)
buku – book / a book / the book

In di tasik, the phrase is interpreted as “at the lake” simply because it’s a specific situation both speakers understand. If you wanted to be more specific, you’d add extra information:

di tasik itu – at that lake
di tasik besar – at the big lake
di tasik ini – at this lake

How is the noun phrase salad buah structured? Why not buah salad?

In Malay, the head noun usually comes first, then the describing word (modifier) comes after it.

So:

salad (head) + buah (modifier)
→ salad buah = fruit salad

Literal feel: “salad (of) fruit”.

Some other examples:

kuih kacang – peanut cake / pastry
air limau – lime drink
baju tidur – sleep clothes = pyjamas

If you said buah salad, it would feel more like “salad-type fruit”, which is not the usual way to say “fruit salad”.

Does salad buah mean one salad or many salads? How do you show plural in Malay?

On its own, salad buah is number-neutral:

salad buah can mean “a fruit salad / the fruit salad / fruit salad (in general)”.
Whether it’s one bowl or several depends on context.

To make it clearly plural, you can:

add a number or quantifier:
- dua salad buah – two fruit salads
- banyak salad buah – many fruit salads
sometimes repeat the noun (reduplication):
- salad-salad buah – fruit salads (more common with other nouns than with “salad”, but possible)

In everyday speech, people often still just say salad buah, and you figure out singular/plural from the situation.

Can I say Nanti kita akan makan salad buah di tasik instead? Is that better or wrong?

You can say:

Nanti kita akan makan salad buah di tasik.

It is grammatically correct. It just sounds more formal / more explicit than needed in casual talk, because you now have both:

nanti (later)
akan (will)

Both signal futurity, so using them together is a bit redundant in everyday conversation, though not ungrammatical. In spoken, friendly contexts, people would usually say either:

Nanti kita makan salad buah di tasik. (most natural)
or
Kita akan makan salad buah di tasik. (if you really want to mark “will”)

What does di do in di tasik, and how is it different from ke tasik?

di and ke are both common prepositions, but they show different relationships:

di = “at / in / on” (location, where something is)
ke = “to / towards” (direction, movement to a place)

So:

di tasik – at the lake (location)
ke tasik – to the lake (movement)

Your sentence:

Nanti kita makan salad buah di tasik.
= Later we’ll eat fruit salad at the lake (we’re already there at that time).

If you talked about going there, you’d say:

Nanti kita pergi ke tasik dan makan salad buah.
= Later we’ll go to the lake and eat fruit salad.

Can I change the word order, like Nanti di tasik kita makan salad buah?

Yes, you can change the order a bit for emphasis, as long as it stays clear. For example:

Nanti kita makan salad buah di tasik.
(neutral: “Later we’ll eat fruit salad at the lake.”)
Nanti di tasik kita makan salad buah.
(emphasises “at the lake”: “Later, at the lake, we’ll eat fruit salad.”)

Malay word order is generally Subject–Verb–Object–(Place/Time), but place/time expressions can move around for focus or style, especially in speech. Just avoid changing it so much that it becomes confusing.

Can I drop kita and just say Nanti makan salad buah di tasik?

Yes, that is possible in casual speech:

Nanti makan salad buah di tasik.

Malay often drops the subject pronoun when it’s obvious from context. This feels like:

“Later (we’ll) eat fruit salad at the lake.”

Depending on the situation, it might refer to “we”, “you”, or even “people in general”. Using kita makes it clear that:

it’s “we (including you)”
it sounds like a direct invite / plan

So both are grammatical; with kita is clearer and friendlier as an invitation.

How do I pronounce nanti and tasik? Anything tricky for an English speaker?

Pronunciation is quite straightforward and mostly phonetic:

nanti: nan-tee
- na as in “nut” but shorter/cleaner
- n-ti continuous, with a clear t
- stress is fairly even: NAN-ti (not nahn- or naan-).
tasik: tah-sik (in many Malay accents, especially in Malaysia, the final k is a glottal stop [ʔ] rather than a strong English “k”)
- ta like “tub” but with a more open a (like “father” but shorter)
- sik like “sick”
- in casual Malaysian speech: ta-sik → ta-siʔ (you kind of cut off the sound at the end)

Nothing is heavily reduced like in English; each vowel is usually clearly pronounced.

Is this sentence formal or informal? Could I say it to my boss?

The sentence Nanti kita makan salad buah di tasik. is:

Informal–neutral in tone
Very natural among friends, family, colleagues of similar status

With a boss or in a more formal context, it’s still understandable, but you might:

use kami instead of kita if the boss is not included in the plan
add a more polite frame, e.g.:
- Nanti kami akan makan salad buah di tasik. (reporting a plan)
- Nanti kita boleh makan salad buah di tasik kalau tuan/puan setuju.
  – Later we can eat fruit salad at the lake if you agree.

So the original sentence is not rude; it’s just quite casual.