Learn Hardcore Malay: Saya tidak mahu ketagih media sosial, jadi saya hadkan masa skrin saya setiap hari. - I don't want to be addicted to social media, so I limit my screen time every day.

Saya tidak mahu ketagih media sosial, jadi saya hadkan masa skrin saya setiap hari.

I don't want to be addicted to social media, so I limit my screen time every day.

Breakdown of Saya tidak mahu ketagih media sosial, jadi saya hadkan masa skrin saya setiap hari.

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Questions & Answers about Saya tidak mahu ketagih media sosial, jadi saya hadkan masa skrin saya setiap hari.

What exactly is ketagih here? Is it a verb like “to get addicted” or an adjective like “addicted”?

Ketagih is a stative word that behaves a bit like both a verb and an adjective.

In Saya tidak mahu ketagih media sosial, it’s closest to English “to be/get addicted to social media”.
Literally, it’s more like “in an addicted state”.

So you can think of the sentence as:

Saya tidak mahu [berada dalam keadaan] ketagih media sosial.
→ I don’t want to be in an addicted state to social media.

You will also see:

Saya ketagih kopi. – I’m addicted to coffee.
Dia ketagih permainan video. – He/She is addicted to video games.

Related word:

ketagihan – addiction (noun) or sometimes to be addicted (to something) in some contexts. E.g. ketagihan dadah – drug addiction.

Why is tidak used and not bukan in Saya tidak mahu ketagih media sosial?

Malay has two common “not” words: tidak and bukan.

tidak negates verbs and adjectives.
- Saya tidak mahu. – I do not want.
- Dia tidak lapar. – He/She is not hungry.
bukan negates nouns and pronouns, or is used for emphasis/contrast.
- Dia bukan doktor. – He/She is not a doctor.
- Ini bukan masalah saya. – This is not my problem.

In Saya tidak mahu ketagih media sosial:

mahu is a verb (“want”), and ketagih functions like an adjective/verb.
So tidak is the correct negator.

Using bukan here (Saya bukan mahu ketagih…) would sound wrong or at best very odd.

Why isn’t there a word like “am” or “to be” before ketagih? Why not Saya tidak mahu menjadi ketagih…?

Malay usually does not use a separate verb like “to be” (am/is/are) before adjectives.

Saya letih. – I am tired. (literally: I tired)
Dia lapar. – He/She is hungry.
Mereka ketagih media sosial. – They are addicted to social media.

So Saya tidak mahu ketagih… is perfectly natural:
→ I don’t want (to be) addicted…

You can say Saya tidak mahu menjadi ketagih media sosial, but:

menjadi = to become.
This adds a nuance of change: I don’t want to become addicted (in the future), slightly more process-focused.

Both are grammatically fine; the original is shorter and more natural in everyday speech.

What is the difference between mahu, hendak, ingin, and colloquial nak? Could I replace mahu here?

All of these can translate as “want”, but they differ in register and nuance.

mahu
- Neutral, common, standard.
- Works well in speech and writing.
- Saya tidak mahu ketagih media sosial.
hendak
- Also standard; somewhat more formal or “textbooky” in some regions.
- Often shortened to nak in casual conversation.
- Saya tidak hendak ketagih media sosial. (OK, a bit more formal)
- Saya tak nak ketagih media sosial. (very casual)
ingin
- More like “wish/desire”, slightly more formal or polite.
- Sounds a bit softer or more deliberate.
- Saya tidak ingin ketagih media sosial. (still okay, a bit “bookish”)

In this sentence, the most natural everyday choices are:

Saya tidak mahu ketagih media sosial… (neutral)
Saya tak nak ketagih media sosial… (colloquial)

In ketagih media sosial, why is there no preposition like kepada, akan, or dengan? Could I say ketagih kepada media sosial instead?

Both patterns exist:

ketagih + noun
- Saya ketagih media sosial.
- Dia ketagih kopi.
- Very common and perfectly natural.
ketagih + preposition + noun
- ketagih kepada media sosial
- ketagih akan dadah (more formal/literary)
- ketagih dengan permainan video (colloquial in some areas)

The most natural modern everyday choice is usually ketagih + noun without a preposition, just like in the sentence:

Saya tidak mahu ketagih media sosial…

What exactly does jadi do in ..., jadi saya hadkan masa skrin saya setiap hari? Is it the same as “so”, “therefore”, “because”?

In this sentence, jadi is a conjunction meaning “so / therefore / as a result”.

Saya tidak mahu ketagih media sosial, jadi saya hadkan masa skrin saya setiap hari.
→ I don’t want to be addicted to social media, so I limit my screen time every day.

Common alternatives:

sebab itu – for that reason / so
oleh itu – therefore (more formal)
maka – thus (quite formal / literary)

jadi can also mean “to become” as a verb in other sentences (e.g. Dia jadi marah – He/She became angry), but here it’s clearly a linking word like English “so”.

What is hadkan exactly? Why not menghadkan? Are both correct?

The base word is had = limit. From this, Malay builds verbs:

hadkan – to limit (root + -kan)
menghadkan – also to limit (meN- + had + -kan), often more formal.

Both forms are used and understood.

In your sentence:

saya hadkan masa skrin saya
→ I limit my screen time.

You could also say:

saya menghadkan masa skrin saya

Differences:

hadkan
- Common in everyday speech.
- Very common in imperatives: Hadkan masa skrin anda. – Limit your screen time.
menghadkan
- More common in formal writing, news, academic contexts:
- Kerajaan menghadkan penggunaan telefon semasa memandu.

So the original sentence with hadkan is natural and not wrong; menghadkan would just sound a bit more formal.

How does masa skrin saya mean “my screen time”? Why is saya at the end instead of before the noun?

Malay usually shows possession with the possessive pronoun after the noun:

buku saya – my book
telefon saya – my phone
masa saya – my time

When the noun phrase is more complex, the whole phrase comes before the pronoun:

masa skrin saya
- masa – time
- skrin – screen
- saya – my
  → my screen time

So structurally it’s:

[masa skrin] saya – [screen time] my

You do not say saya masa skrin for “my screen time”; that would be wrong word order.

Is masa skrin the standard way to say “screen time”? Could I also say something like masa di depan skrin?

Masa skrin is a widely used modern phrase for “screen time”, especially in contexts like parenting, health, or tech usage:

Hadkan masa skrin anak-anak. – Limit children’s screen time.

Other possible expressions:

masa di depan skrin – time in front of the screen
masa di hadapan skrin – more formal version of the same
masa menggunakan skrin – time spent using screens

All of these are understandable, but:

masa skrin is short and sounds natural in many current Malaysian/Indonesian contexts, especially influenced by tech/education language.

So masa skrin saya is a good, natural choice.

Why is saya repeated: Saya tidak mahu… jadi saya hadkan…? Could I omit the second saya?

In Malay, it’s very common to repeat the subject pronoun in a new clause, even if it is the same person.

Saya tidak mahu ketagih media sosial, jadi saya hadkan masa skrin saya setiap hari.

This is clear and natural.

You can omit the second saya in casual speech:

Saya tidak mahu ketagih media sosial, jadi hadkan masa skrin saya setiap hari.

However:

Without saya, the second part can sound more like a general instruction or impersonal statement, similar to “so (one should) limit my screen time every day”, which is a bit odd.
Keeping saya makes it clear that I am the one doing the limiting.

So in this sentence, repeating saya is better.

Why does setiap hari (“every day”) come at the end? Could it be placed elsewhere in the sentence?

Malay time expressions (semalam, hari ini, esok, setiap hari, etc.) are flexible in position. Common places are:

At the beginning of the sentence:
- Setiap hari, saya hadkan masa skrin saya.
  – Every day, I limit my screen time.
At the end of the sentence:
- Saya hadkan masa skrin saya setiap hari.
  – I limit my screen time every day.

Both are natural. In your sentence, having setiap hari at the end is perfectly normal and quite common.

Note: You wouldn’t usually put setiap hari in the middle of the noun phrase like masa setiap hari skrin saya – that would sound wrong.

There’s no tense marker like “do / will / did”. How do we know the sentence means a present habit (“I limit my screen time every day”) and not something else?

Malay generally does not mark tense (past/present/future) on the verb the way English does. Instead, it relies on:

Time words: semalam (yesterday), esok (tomorrow), sekarang (now), setiap hari (every day), etc.
Context.

In Saya tidak mahu ketagih media sosial, jadi saya hadkan masa skrin saya setiap hari:

setiap hari clearly marks it as a habitual action:
→ (I) limit (my) screen time every day.

If you changed the time word, the interpretation changes:

semalam saya hadkan masa skrin saya
– Yesterday I limited my screen time.
esok saya akan hadkan masa skrin saya
– Tomorrow I will limit my screen time.

(Here akan makes the future very explicit, but often it can be omitted if the time word is clear.)

Is there any plural marking here? How do we know media sosial isn’t just one platform?

Malay normally does not mark plural with an -s like English.

buku – book / books
telefon – phone / phones
media sosial – social media (singular or plural depending on context)

If you really need to emphasize plurality, there are ways, but in most cases context is enough:

pelbagai media sosial – various social media (platforms)
banyak media sosial – many social media platforms

In this sentence:

ketagih media sosial naturally suggests social media in general (plural / uncountable idea), just like English “social media” often does.