Di kalangan tetamu, ada saudara-mara yang tiba awal dan ada yang pulang lewat.

Among the guests, there are relatives who arrive early and some who go home late.

Breakdown of Di kalangan tetamu, ada saudara-mara yang tiba awal dan ada yang pulang lewat.

• pulang: to return
• dan: and
• awal: early
• lewat: late
• tiba: to arrive
• ada: to exist
• tetamu: the guest
• yang: who
• saudara-mara: the relative
• di kalangan: among

Questions & Answers about Di kalangan tetamu, ada saudara-mara yang tiba awal dan ada yang pulang lewat.

What does di kalangan mean here, and how is it different from antara or dalam kalangan?

Di kalangan literally means “among / within the group of”. In this sentence, Di kalangan tetamu = Among the guests.

Comparisons:

• di kalangan – very common in both spoken and written Malay; neutral and natural.

  • Di kalangan tetamu, … = Among the guests, …

• dalam kalangan – slightly more formal/literary, often in writing or official contexts.

  • Dalam kalangan pelajar, ramai yang… = Among the students, many (of them) …

• antara – also means among / between, shorter and very common.

  • Antara tetamu, ada saudara-mara… = Among the guests, there are relatives…

In most everyday contexts, di kalangan and antara are interchangeable in meaning here. The original sentence could be rewritten as:

• Antara tetamu, ada saudara-mara yang tiba awal… – still natural.

Why is tetamu not repeated or marked as plural (e.g. tetamu-tetamu or para tetamu)?

In Malay, many nouns do not need a special plural form when the context clearly implies plurality.

• tetamu can mean “a guest” or “guests”, depending on context.
• Here, Di kalangan tetamu obviously refers to more than one guest (a group), so tetamu is understood as plural.

You might also see:

• para tetamu – literally “all the guests” / “the guests (as a group)”
• tetamu-tetamu – reduplicated form; can be used for emphasis or clarity, but often sounds a bit bookish or overdone in casual speech.

So:

• Di kalangan tetamu = natural, default choice.
• Di kalangan para tetamu = more formal, slightly grand.
• Di kalangan tetamu-tetamu = grammatically possible but not usually needed here.

What exactly does saudara-mara mean? Is it singular or plural?

Saudara-mara means “relatives / extended family members”.

Notes:

• It is formed by reduplication: saudara
  • mara.
• It refers collectively to family members beyond the immediate nuclear family: cousins, uncles, aunts, etc.
• It functions as a plural / collective noun in practice. You normally understand it as “relatives (plural)”.

So ada saudara-mara here means “there are (some) relatives…”, not “there is one relative”.

Why is ada used here, and what is its function in ada saudara-mara…?

In this sentence, ada works as an existential verb, roughly equivalent to English “there is / there are”.

• ada saudara-mara yang tiba awal
  ≈ “there are relatives who arrived early”

Function of ada here:

• It introduces the existence of something in a given context (“among the guests, there exist some relatives…”).
• Without ada, the sentence would feel incomplete or unnatural, because Malay usually needs an explicit “exist / have” idea in this kind of structure.

Compare:

• Di kalangan tetamu, ada saudara-mara yang tiba awal.
  Among the guests, there are relatives who arrived early.

Removing ada:

• Di kalangan tetamu, saudara-mara yang tiba awal…
  – feels like a fragment, not a full sentence.

What is the role of yang in saudara-mara yang tiba awal?

Yang introduces a relative clause, similar to “who / that / which” in English.

• saudara-mara = relatives
• yang tiba awal = who arrived early

So:

• saudara-mara yang tiba awal = “relatives who arrived early”

Structure:

• Noun
  • yang
    • clause describing that noun

Examples:

• tetamu yang pulang lewat = the guests who went home late
• guru yang baik = the teacher who is kind / good
• rumah yang besar = the house that is big

In this sentence, yang tightly links saudara-mara with the description tiba awal.

In ada yang pulang lewat, what does yang refer to, since there is no noun before it?

This is a very common Malay pattern:

• ada yang + verb / phrase
  ≈ “there are some (who) …”

Here, yang refers back to the previously mentioned group (saudara-mara, or more broadly, tetamu). The noun is omitted because it is understood from context.

So:

• ada yang pulang lewat
  ≈ “there are (some) who went home late”
  ≈ “and some (of them) left late”

Expanded (less natural, but clearer):

• ada saudara-mara yang pulang lewat = there are relatives who went home late.

Ellipsis like this is very natural in Malay: once the group (saudara-mara / tetamu) is clear, yang can stand in for “those (people) who…”.

What is the difference between tiba and datang? Could we say datang awal instead of tiba awal?

Both tiba and datang relate to arriving / coming, but their usage is slightly different.

• tiba

  • More formal / neutral.
  • Often used for arrival in a more “event-like” or scheduled sense (trains, flights, guests at an event).
  • Common in written Malay and announcements.
  • tiba awal = arrive early.

• datang

  • More everyday / general “come”.
  • Often focuses on the motion towards the speaker/location.
  • datang awal is understandable and used in conversation, but sounds a bit more casual.

In this sentence, tiba awal sounds slightly more formal and fits the event/guest context nicely. A conversational variant might be:

• Di kalangan tetamu, ada saudara-mara yang datang awal dan ada yang balik lewat.

What is the nuance of pulang compared to balik or pergi?

All three are related to movement, but with different directions/nuances:

• pulang

  • Means “go home / return (to one’s home/place of origin)”.
  • Often slightly more formal than balik.
  • pulang lewat = go home late.

• balik

  • Also “go back / go home / return”, more informal and very common in speech.
  • balik lewat = go home late.

• pergi

  • Means simply “go (away from here)”, not specifically “go home” or “return”.
  • You wouldn’t normally say pergi lewat in this context to mean “went home late”.

So pulang lewat here specifically means “they went home late (from the event)”, not just “they left late” in any direction.

What is the difference between lewat and lambat in expressions like pulang lewat?

Both can relate to lateness, but they are used a bit differently:

• lewat

  • Often used with time, especially in relation to an expected or usual time.
  • Common with arrive/leave/sleep/eat etc.
  • pulang lewat = go home later than usual / late at night or later than expected.

• lambat

  • Often means slow / late (in starting/doing something).
  • Very common for being late to an appointment or doing something late.
  • datang lambat = come late (to an event, class, etc.)

You could say:

• pulang lewat – emphasises the time was late.
• balik lambat – common speech; could mean both “went home late” or “took a long time to go home / was slow to go home”, depending on context.

In this sentence, pulang lewat sounds very natural: some went home late (time-wise).

Could we change the word order to Ada saudara-mara di kalangan tetamu yang tiba awal…? Would that still be correct?

Grammatically, Ada saudara-mara di kalangan tetamu yang tiba awal… is possible, but:

• It sounds a bit heavier and slightly less natural in this context.
• It can introduce minor ambiguity about whether “di kalangan tetamu” modifies saudara-mara or yang tiba awal.

The original:

• Di kalangan tetamu, ada saudara-mara yang tiba awal…
  • First sets the scope (“among the guests”).
  • Then states what exists in that group (“there are relatives who arrived early”).

Fronting Di kalangan tetamu is a very common way to set the scene or context in Malay. It’s stylistically smooth and clear.

Is the comma after tetamu necessary, and what is its function?

The comma after tetamu is not strictly grammatically required, but it is:

• Very helpful to mark a pause and separate the prepositional phrase (Di kalangan tetamu) from the main clause (ada saudara-mara…).
• Stylistically common in writing, mirroring natural speech rhythm.

Without a comma:

• Di kalangan tetamu ada saudara-mara yang tiba awal…
  – still grammatically fine, just less visually separated.

With a comma, the structure is clearer:

• Context: Di kalangan tetamu,
• Statement: ada saudara-mara yang tiba awal dan ada yang pulang lewat.

What level of formality does this sentence have? How would it sound in more casual spoken Malay?

The sentence is in neutral–slightly formal Malay:

• Vocabulary like tiba and pulang leans a bit towards standard/formal usage.
• Structure with di kalangan also feels quite standard.

A more casual spoken version might be:

• Antara tetamu, ada saudara-mara yang datang awal dan ada yang balik lewat.
  (Among the guests, some relatives came early and some went home late.)

Or even more colloquial in some regions:

• Antara tetamu tu, ada saudara-mara yang datang awal, ada juga yang balik lewat.

The original sentence is good for written Malay, formal speech, or neutral narrative.