Learn Hardcore Malay: Saya pula mahu berehat di rumah malam ini. - I, on the other hand, want to rest at home tonight.

Saya mahu berehat di rumah malam ini.
= A simple statement: “I want to rest at home tonight.”
Saya pula mahu berehat di rumah malam ini.
= Adds contrast or shift: “I, on the other hand, want to rest at home tonight.”

You would normally use pula when:

someone else has just said what they will do, and now it’s your turn, or
you want to highlight that your choice is different from others’.

If you are speaking first with no comparison or context, you would usually not use pula.

What’s the difference between pula and juga here? Could I say Saya juga mahu berehat di rumah malam ini?

Yes, you can say Saya juga mahu berehat di rumah malam ini, but the nuance changes:

juga = “also / too”.
Saya juga mahu berehat di rumah malam ini.
→ “I also want to rest at home tonight (like someone else does).”
pula = “as for … / on the other hand / meanwhile”.
Saya pula mahu berehat di rumah malam ini.
→ “I, however / as for me, want to rest at home tonight (maybe while others do something else).”

So:

Use juga when you want to join what others are doing.
Use pula when you want to contrast or shift to a different person’s action.

Where does pula usually go in a sentence? Can I move it to another position?

Pula normally comes right after the noun or pronoun it is referring to.

Common patterns:

Saya pula …
Kamu pula … (you, on the other hand…)
Dia pula … (he/she, on the other hand…)
Ali pula …
Anak-anak pula …

You generally do not move it around like this:

❌ Pula saya mahu berehat di rumah malam ini. (sounds wrong)
❌ Saya mahu pula berehat di rumah malam ini. (changes meaning and sounds odd here)

So in this sentence, Saya pula is the natural and correct placement.

What does mahu mean exactly? How is it different from hendak, nak, or ingin?

Mahu means “to want (to)” and is neutral and common.

Comparisons:

mahu – standard, neutral:
Saya mahu berehat. = I want to rest.
hendak – very similar to mahu, slightly more formal in some regions, also used in writing and older style speech. In many contexts, mahu and hendak are interchangeable.
nak – informal / colloquial contraction of hendak. Very common in casual speech:
Saya nak berehat. (spoken)
ingin – “wish to / would like to / desire to”, often sounds more polite or emotional, and is common in formal or written contexts:
Saya ingin berehat. = I would like to rest.

In this sentence, mahu just states a clear intention: “I want to rest…”

Why is it berehat and not just rehat? What does the ber- prefix do?

rehat = “rest” (usually a noun)
berehat = “to rest” (verb), formed with the ber- verb prefix.

So:

Saya mahu berehat. = “I want to rest.” (verb)
Saya perlukan rehat. = “I need (a) rest.” (noun)

In standard Malay, berehat is the proper verb form.

In informal speech, many people do say:

Saya mahu rehat.

This is widely understood, but berehat is more correct and more formal.

Does di rumah automatically mean “at my home”, or do I need to say di rumah saya?

In everyday Malay, di rumah usually implies “at home (my home)” by default, unless context says otherwise.

Saya mahu berehat di rumah malam ini.
→ Normally understood as “I want to rest at home (my home) tonight.”

If you specifically mean someone else’s house or want to be explicit, you can say:

di rumah saya – at my house
di rumah dia – at his/her house
di rumah kawan saya – at my friend’s house

But in neutral context, di rumah alone is enough to mean “at home”.

Why is it di rumah (“at home”) and not ke rumah (“to home”)?

Because the sentence focuses on where the resting happens, not on the movement.

di = “at / in / on” (location)
→ di rumah = at home
ke = “to / towards” (direction)
→ ke rumah = (going) to the house / home

So:

Saya mahu berehat di rumah malam ini.
= I want to rest at home tonight.

If you wanted to emphasise the movement instead, you might say:

Saya mahu balik ke rumah malam ini.
= I want to go back home tonight.

How is tense shown here? Why does this sentence mean something like “(I) want to rest at home tonight” without a tense change on the verb?

Malay verbs do not change form for tense (no -ed, -s, etc.).

Tense and time are shown by:

time words (like malam ini = tonight / this night), and
context.

In Saya pula mahu berehat di rumah malam ini:

mahu expresses a current intention or desire.
malam ini sets the time: tonight.

So together, the natural English equivalent is:

“As for me, I want to rest at home tonight.” (future plan for tonight)

Grammatically, Malay doesn’t say “will want” or “wanted”; you infer that from the time phrase malam ini and the situation.

Can I move malam ini to the beginning, like Malam ini saya pula mahu berehat di rumah?

Yes, that is perfectly correct and quite natural.

Saya pula mahu berehat di rumah malam ini.
→ Neutral word order, time at the end.
Malam ini saya pula mahu berehat di rumah.
→ Emphasises “Tonight” (as for tonight, I on the other hand want to rest at home).

Malay often puts time expressions:

at the beginning: Malam ini, Esok, Nanti petang, etc.
or at the end of the sentence.

Both are grammatical; the difference is mainly emphasis.

Is the di in di rumah always necessary? Could I just say rumah?

In a sentence like this, di is necessary to show location.

di rumah = at home (location)
Just rumah = “house/home” as a noun (subject or object), not as a location.

With berehat, you would normally say:

✅ berehat di rumah – rest at home

You cannot normally say:

❌ berehat rumah – ungrammatical in standard Malay.

There are some verbs where the preposition is often dropped in colloquial speech:

balik rumah = go back home (instead of balik ke rumah)

But for berehat, you need di to mark the place.

Can I drop saya and just say Mahu berehat di rumah malam ini?

Yes, in casual speech you often drop the subject pronoun when it is obvious from context.

Mahu berehat di rumah malam ini.
→ Literally “(Want to) rest at home tonight.”
The listener will understand it as “I want to rest…” or “we want to rest…”, depending on context.

However, you cannot use pula without something for it to attach to:

❌ Pula mahu berehat di rumah malam ini. (wrong)

Pula must follow a noun or pronoun:

✅ Saya pula mahu berehat di rumah malam ini.
✅ Kami pula mahu berehat di rumah malam ini.

So if you want to keep the contrastive meaning from pula, you also need to keep the subject (like Saya).