Learn Hardcore Malay: Pada musim kemarau, hutan dekat kampung saya mudah terbakar. - In the dry season, the forest near my village easily catches fire.

pada is typically used for:
- times and dates: pada pukul 8, pada hari Isnin, pada tahun 2020, pada musim kemarau
- some abstract “targets”: marah pada saya (angry at me)
di is mostly a location preposition (in, at, on):
di rumah, di sekolah, di hutan.

So in standard Malay you should not say di musim kemarau; pada is the natural choice.

Can you drop pada?

In careful/standard writing: usually no – keep pada.
In casual speech, some people may say Musim kemarau, hutan dekat kampung saya mudah terbakar, but that sounds more like “As for the dry season, the forest near my village burns easily” – a bit elliptical and informal.

Is musim kemarau a fixed phrase? What is the difference between musim kemarau and just kemarau?

Yes, musim kemarau is a common fixed phrase:

musim = season
kemarau = drought / dry (as a noun referring to a drought).

So:

musim kemarau = the dry season (the period of the year).
kemarau alone can mean “drought” or “dryness” as a condition.

In your sentence, we’re talking about a time of year, so musim kemarau is more natural than just kemarau.

You could see sentences like:

Kemarau tahun ini sangat panjang.
“This year’s drought is very long.”

But that’s describing the event/condition (drought), not the regular season.

How is hutan dekat kampung saya structured? Is dekat a preposition like “near”, or do I need di dekat or dekat dengan?

Hutan dekat kampung saya literally = “the forest near my village”.

Structure:

hutan = forest
dekat = near / close
kampung saya = my village

In colloquial Malay, dekat often acts like a preposition on its own:

hutan dekat kampung saya
rumah dekat sekolah
(forest near my village, house near the school)

In more standard/formal Malay, you will often see:

hutan di dekat kampung saya
hutan berhampiran kampung saya
hutan yang dekat dengan kampung saya

So your sentence is perfectly natural in everyday speech and neutral writing, but for very formal writing, di dekat or berhampiran is more textbook-like.

Why is it kampung saya and not saya kampung or something like “my village” before the noun like in English?

In Malay, possessors usually follow the noun:

kampung saya = my village
rumah mereka = their house
kereta dia = his/her car

This is the normal, neutral pattern: noun + possessor.

Alternatives you might hear:

saya punya kampung
Literally “the village that I own / my village”.
– common in informal speech, more colloquial, a bit longer.
kampung saya is what you should use in standard Malay.

So the structure kampung saya is the regular way to say “my village”.

What does mudah mean here? Can I use senang instead of mudah?

Mudah literally means “easy / easily”, functioning like an adverb here:

mudah terbakar = “easily burns / easily catches fire”.

Nuance:

mudah is common in neutral to formal contexts for “easy / easily”:
- mudah difahami = easily understood
- mudah rosak = easily damaged
senang also means “easy”, but:
- often used for “easy” in the sense of comfortable, convenient, not troublesome:
  - hidup senang = a comfortable life
  - kerja ini senang = this work is easy
- in many places it sounds more informal than mudah.

For “easily flammable / prone to burn”, mudah terbakar is more standard and idiomatic.
Senang terbakar would be understood, but it sounds more colloquial and less standard.

Is terbakar passive? What does the ter- prefix do here, and how is it different from membakar or dibakar?

Terbakar comes from bakar (to burn) with the prefix ter-.

Rough roles:

bakar = burn (root)
membakar = to burn (something), active voice:
Dia membakar sampah. = He burns the trash.
dibakar = is burned / was burned (passive voice):
Sampah itu dibakar. = The trash is burned / was burned.
terbakar = is on fire / to catch fire / to get burnt (often without a clear agent):
Rumah itu terbakar. = The house is on fire / The house burned.

In your sentence:

hutan … mudah terbakar = “the forest easily catches fire / is easily set on fire”.

The ter- form often expresses:

a spontaneous or unintentional result, or
a state (is burnt, is broken, etc.).

Here it describes a tendency or state: the forest is easily in a “burning” condition.

Why is there no word for “it” like in English “it burns easily”? Why isn’t there a pronoun?

Malay doesn’t use an “empty” subject pronoun like English it for weather, general statements, etc.

In your sentence, the subject is clearly hutan (“forest”), so there is no need for an extra “it”:

hutan dekat kampung saya mudah terbakar
= “the forest near my village burns easily.”

If you added a pronoun, it would be wrong or at least redundant.
Malay usually omits pronouns unless they actually refer to something that needs to be restated or is otherwise unclear.

Is the comma after kemarau necessary? Does it change the meaning?

The comma after musim kemarau marks a pause between the time phrase and the main clause:

Pada musim kemarau, hutan dekat kampung saya mudah terbakar.

This is similar to English:

“In the dry season, the forest near my village burns easily.”

In Malay, using or omitting this comma usually does not change the meaning. It’s mainly about readability and rhythm. Without the comma, it is still correct:

Pada musim kemarau hutan dekat kampung saya mudah terbakar.

In formal writing, many writers prefer the comma when a long fronted phrase (time, place, condition) comes before the main clause.

Could I say Pada musim kemarau, hutan di dekat kampung saya mudah terbakar instead? Is that more correct?

Yes, you can say:

Pada musim kemarau, hutan di dekat kampung saya mudah terbakar.

This is fully grammatical and sounds a bit more formal/standard because of di dekat:

di dekat = at/at the area near

Comparing:

hutan dekat kampung saya – very natural in everyday speech and neutral writing.
hutan di dekat kampung saya – slightly more formal, very “book Malay”.

Meaning-wise, they are basically the same. The difference is mostly style/register.

How do I know if hutan is singular or plural here? Does it mean “forest” or “forests”?

In Malay, nouns usually don’t change form for plural:

hutan can mean forest or forests depending on context.

If you need to be explicit:

hutan-hutan or beberapa hutan = several forests
sebuah hutan = one forest (using a classifier)

In your sentence:

hutan dekat kampung saya will usually be understood as:
- “the forest near my village” (if there is a known main forest), or
- “the forests near my village” (if context makes it clear there are several).

Malay relies on context, not plural endings, to convey singular vs plural.

What exactly does kampung mean? Is it just “village”, or does it have some extra cultural meaning?

Literally, kampung = village (especially a rural village).

But culturally, kampung also often carries the sense of:

“hometown” or “home village” (especially where your family comes from)
a place associated with family, roots, rural life, and often nostalgia.

So:

kampung saya = my village (literally), but also often “my home village / my hometown (village)”.

Related words:

desa – also means village, sometimes more formal/administrative.
perkampungan – settlement, grouping of villages; or a noun from kampung.

In everyday speech, kampung is the basic word for “village”.

Is mudah terbakar just “easily burns”, or does it work like an adjective meaning “flammable”?

Mudah terbakar can function:

Predicatively (as in your sentence):
- hutan … mudah terbakar
  = “the forest easily burns / easily catches fire”.
Attributively (before or after a noun) as an adjective meaning flammable:
- bahan mudah terbakar = flammable material
- cecair yang mudah terbakar = a flammable liquid

So yes, mudah terbakar is basically the standard way to say “flammable / easily combustible” in Malay, both as a predicate and as part of a noun phrase.