Learn Hardcore Malay: Doktor gigi di pusat kesihatan kampus menasihatkan kami supaya hadkan gula dan minum air kosong. - The dentist at the campus health centre advises us to limit sugar and drink plain water.

There is a more technical term doktor pergigian (from pergigian “dentistry”), but in everyday speech doktor gigi is by far the most common and natural way to say “dentist”.

How is di pusat kesihatan kampus structured? Which word modifies which?

Break it down like this:

di = at / in (preposition)
pusat = centre
kesihatan = health
kampus = campus

Malay noun phrases usually go: Head noun + modifiers (no “of” needed).

So:

pusat kesihatan = health centre
(literally: centre (of) health)
pusat kesihatan kampus = campus health centre
(literally: health centre (of) campus)

So di pusat kesihatan kampus means “at the campus health centre”.

Could I say pusat kesihatan di kampus instead of pusat kesihatan kampus? Is there a difference?

Both are possible, but they feel slightly different:

pusat kesihatan kampus
= “the campus health centre”
Implies this centre belongs to or is part of the campus.
pusat kesihatan di kampus
= “a / the health centre on campus”
Focuses more on location: a health centre that is located on campus (not necessarily “owned” by the campus, at least not linguistically).

In your sentence, pusat kesihatan kampus sounds more natural because campuses typically have their own official health centre.

What’s the difference between menasihatkan kami and menasihati kami?

Both are grammatically correct and both mean “advised us”.

nasihat = advice (noun)
menasihatkan = to advise (someone), to give advice to (someone)
(meN- … -kan pattern)
menasihati = to advise (someone)
(meN- … -i pattern)

In practice:

menasihatkan kami is slightly more common in Malaysia in many contexts.
menasihati kami can sound a bit more formal / bookish, but it is also used.

You could also say:

memberi nasihat kepada kami = to give advice to us.

All three express essentially the same idea here.

Why is kami used instead of kita?

Malay distinguishes between two kinds of “we / us”:

kami = we/us (exclusive: not including the person you’re talking to)
kita = we/us (inclusive: including the person you’re talking to)

In the sentence, doktor gigi is not part of the group being advised. The meaning is “The dentist advised us (patients/students).”

So kami is correct because the group excludes the dentist.

If you said kita, it would sound like “The dentist advised us (including herself/himself)”, which doesn’t match the normal situation.

What exactly does supaya do in this sentence?

supaya is a conjunction that introduces a clause expressing:

purpose
intention
desired outcome
what someone wants or tells someone to do

Here, menasihatkan kami supaya … is roughly:

“advised us to …”
more literally: “advised us so that [we] …”

So the structure is:

menasihatkan kami = advised us
supaya hadkan gula dan minum air kosong = (that we should) limit sugar and drink plain water.

It’s similar to English “so that” or “so that (we) will / should …”, but often translates more naturally as “to” after verbs of advising, asking, telling, etc.

After supaya, why is there no kami? Shouldn’t it be supaya kami hadkan gula?

You can say:

… menasihatkan kami supaya kami hadkan gula dan minum air kosong.

That is grammatically correct.

However, Malay often omits repeated subjects when they are clear from context. Because kami is already the object of menasihatkan, it is understood that kami is also the subject of hadkan and minum.

So:

menasihatkan kami supaya hadkan gula…

is understood as:

“advised us (so that we) limit sugar …”

Repeating kami is optional and usually only needed for emphasis or clarity.

Why is it hadkan gula and not menghadkan gula?

Both forms exist:

had = limit (as a noun: boundary, limit)
hadkan = to limit (something)
menghadkan = to limit (something) – more “fully” derived verb

In real usage:

hadkan gula sounds more like a direct instruction / recommendation:
“limit sugar”
menghadkan gula is fine but more common when used in fuller, more formal structures, e.g.:
- Kami perlu menghadkan pengambilan gula.
  “We need to limit sugar intake.”

After supaya, Malay often uses a bare verb form that feels similar to an instruction:

supaya hadkan gula ≈ “so that (we) limit sugar / to limit sugar”

You could also say:

supaya kami menghadkan pengambilan gula, which is longer and more formal.

Why is minum used and not meminum?

For many common verbs, the base form is used in normal speech:

minum = to drink
meminum = also “to drink”, but sounds more formal/technical and is less common in everyday Malaysian usage.

In most contexts you’ll hear and say:

minum air, minum kopi, minum air kosong, etc.

meminum tends to appear in more formal writing or certain fixed expressions. In this sentence, minum air kosong is the most natural choice.

What does air kosong literally mean, and why does it mean “plain water”?

Literally:

air = water
kosong = empty / zero

So air kosong literally looks like “empty water”.

In Malaysian usage, air kosong means:

plain water, water without sugar, flavouring, or other additives
(usually plain drinking water, sometimes specifically plain boiled water, depending on context).

At restaurants in Malaysia, “air kosong” on the menu is “plain water” (often free or very cheap).

In Indonesian, the common term is air putih (“white/clear water”), but in Malaysia air kosong is the standard everyday term.

How do hadkan gula and minum air kosong relate grammatically to each other?

They are two coordinated verb phrases sharing the same (understood) subject (kami):

hadkan gula = (we) limit sugar
minum air kosong = (we) drink plain water

They are joined by dan (“and”):

supaya hadkan gula dan minum air kosong
= so that (we) limit sugar and (we) drink plain water.

So the dentist advised two actions:

limiting sugar
drinking plain water.

How do we know this sentence is in the past (“advised”) when there is no tense marker?

Malay generally does not mark tense (past / present / future) on the verb. The verb menasihatkan itself is neutral for time.

Time is inferred from:

context
time words (e.g. semalam “yesterday”, tadi “earlier”)
the situation: advice from a dentist is commonly reported as something that already happened.

If you want to make the past clearer, you can add a marker:

Doktor gigi… telah menasihatkan kami…
Doktor gigi… tadi menasihatkan kami…

But in normal narrative context, menasihatkan alone is enough, and is translated as “advised” in English.