Learn Hardcore Malay: Tahun lepas, kakak saya belajar seni di universiti. - Last year, my older sister studied art at the university.

kakak by itself can be used as a polite way of addressing a slightly older woman (like “miss” / “older sis”).
In family context, kakak clearly means older sister.
It does not mean younger sister; that would be adik perempuan (younger sister) or just adik if context is clear.

So in this sentence, Malaysians will naturally take kakak saya as my older sister, not just my sister in general.

Why is it kakak saya and not saya kakak?

In Malay, the normal pattern for possession is:

[thing/relative] + [possessor]

So you say:

kakak saya = my older sister
rumah saya = my house
kawan saya = my friend

Putting saya first, as in saya kakak, sounds wrong and ungrammatical in this context. There are other ways to say my sister, like:

kakak saya (most natural)
kakak aku (informal, using aku)
saya punya kakak (colloquial, emphasising possession, a bit like “the sister that belongs to me”)

But saya kakak is not correct here.

Is there any tense marker for belajar? How do we know it’s past tense?

Malay verbs like belajar do not change form for tense. The tense is usually shown by time words around the verb.

Here:

Tahun lepas (last year) tells us the action happened in the past.
belajar itself is a neutral verb form; it can be study / studies / studied depending on context.

Examples:

Saya belajar seni.
Could be I study art or I am studying art (present), depending on context.
Tahun lepas saya belajar seni.
Clearly Last year I studied art.

So there is no -ed ending or similar; Malay relies on words like dulu (before), sekarang (now), nanti (later), sudah / telah (already) to show time.

Can belajar mean both to study and to learn?

Yes. belajar covers both English ideas:

to study (as a student)
- Dia belajar perubatan. = He/She studies medicine.
to learn (acquire a skill/knowledge)
- Saya belajar bahasa Melayu. = I’m learning Malay.

In kakak saya belajar seni di universiti, the context (university) makes it natural to translate belajar as studied or was studying in the sense of being enrolled in a course/major.

Is seni just “fine arts”, or can it mean “art” in general?

seni can be:

art in a general sense
- seni lukis = visual art / painting
- seni muzik = musical art
the arts as an academic area
- fakulti seni = faculty of arts

In belajar seni di universiti, it usually implies something like:

studied art (as a subject/major), often understood as fine arts, visual arts, or art-related fields.

If you wanted to be more specific, you’d add another word:

seni halus = fine arts
seni reka = design
seni persembahan = performing arts

Why is the time expression Tahun lepas at the beginning with a comma?

Malay word order is quite flexible. You can say:

Tahun lepas, kakak saya belajar seni di universiti.
Kakak saya belajar seni di universiti tahun lepas.

Both are correct and natural. Putting Tahun lepas at the beginning:

Emphasizes when it happened.
Is common in both spoken and written Malay.
The comma is often used in writing to show a pause, but in casual writing it’s sometimes omitted:
- Tahun lepas kakak saya belajar seni di universiti. (also acceptable)

So the position of Tahun lepas is flexible, and the comma is mainly for readability in writing.

What’s the difference between tahun lepas and tahun lalu?

Both mean last year, and both are widely understood.

tahun lepas
- Very common in Malaysia.
tahun lalu
- Common in both Malaysia and Indonesia.
- Sometimes sounds a bit more formal or bookish in some contexts, but it’s also used in everyday speech.

In everyday Malaysian Malay, tahun lepas feels completely natural and is probably more frequent.

Why is it di universiti and not something like pada universiti?

In Malay:

di is the usual preposition for location:
- di rumah = at home
- di sekolah = at school
- di universiti = at university
pada is used more for:
- time: pada hari Isnin (on Monday)
- abstract “at/to/onto” in more formal or literary contexts
- Some specific patterns, e.g. pada pendapat saya (in my opinion)

For a physical/institutional place like a university, di is the natural choice: di universiti.

There is no “the” in di universiti. How do we know if it’s “at the university” or “at a university”?

Malay generally does not use articles like a / an / the. Whether you translate it in English as at a university or at the university depends on context, not on a specific Malay word.

di universiti can mean:
- at university (general)
- at a university
- at the university

If you really need to stress that it’s some university, not a specific one, you can say:

di sebuah universiti = at a (certain) university

But in most normal conversation, di universiti is enough, and context fills in the rest.

Is the sentence formal, informal, or neutral? Would people actually say this in conversation?

The sentence is natural and neutral. People could definitely say it in conversation.

saya is the neutral/formal I / my, suitable for:
- speaking to strangers
- speaking in class
- polite everyday conversation

It’s not super formal or stiff, and not slangy either. In a more informal context, you might hear:

Tahun lepas, kakak aku belajar seni kat universiti.
- aku = informal I / my
- kat = colloquial form of di

But the original sentence is perfectly natural in everyday polite Malay.

Could the sentence mean that my sister only took an art class, not that she majored in art?

The sentence is slightly ambiguous, just like in English:

kakak saya belajar seni di universiti
can mean:
- She majored in art / studied art as her main field.
- She studied art at university (could be a course or a specialization).

If you want to be clearer:

Kakak saya ambil jurusan seni di universiti.
= My older sister majored in art at university.
Kakak saya ada ambil kelas seni di universiti.
= My older sister took an art class at university.

The original sentence is naturally interpreted as she studied art as a subject at university, but how deep (one course vs. major) depends on context.

Could I replace saya with aku here? How would that change the tone?

Yes, grammatically you could say:

Tahun lepas, kakak aku belajar seni di universiti.

Differences in tone:

saya
- Neutral and polite.
- Safe with almost anyone: teachers, colleagues, strangers, older people.
aku
- Informal, more intimate.
- Used with close friends, siblings, or people the same age (in many regions).
- Can sound rude or too casual if used with strangers or older people, depending on context and local norms.

So kakak saya is the safer, more generally appropriate form. kakak aku sounds more casual, like you’re talking to a close friend.