Murid dengar suara guru di kelas.

The pupil listens to the teacher's voice in class.

Breakdown of Murid dengar suara guru di kelas.

• di: in
• kelas: the class
• guru: the teacher
• murid: the pupil
• suara: the voice
• dengar: to hear

Questions & Answers about Murid dengar suara guru di kelas.

Is murid singular (“student”) or plural (“students”) in this sentence?

In Malay, murid by itself is number‑neutral. It can mean:

• “a student / the student” (singular), or
• “students / the students” (plural),

depending on context.

If you want to make it clearly plural, you have a few options:

• murid-murid – students (reduplication is a common way to mark plural)
• para murid – the students (more formal)
• semua murid – all (the) students

So:

• Murid dengar suara guru di kelas.
  = A student hears the teacher’s voice in class. / Students hear the teacher’s voice in class.
• Murid-murid dengar suara guru di kelas.
  = The students hear the teacher’s voice in class.

Why isn’t there a word for “the” (like “the student” or “the teacher”)?

Malay generally does not use articles like “a / an / the”.
Whether something is definite or indefinite is usually understood from context, not from a specific word.

So:

• murid can be: a student, the student, (the) students, etc.
• guru can be: a teacher, the teacher, (the) teachers.

If you really need to make it clearly definite, you can add words like:

• itu – that / the (more like pointing to something specific)
  
  • murid itu – that student / the student
  • guru itu – that teacher / the teacher

But in a sentence like Murid dengar suara guru di kelas, you normally don’t need any article; context decides how you translate “the” or “a” into English.

Why is it dengar and not mendengar? Are both correct?

Both dengar and mendengar are correct, but they differ in style and formality:

• dengar

  • Base verb (root)
  • Very common in informal or neutral speech
  • Often used in everyday conversation and simple written Malay

• mendengar

  • The meN- prefix + root dengar
  • Sounds more formal or standard, often used in written texts, news, essays, etc.

So you could say:

• Murid dengar suara guru di kelas. (neutral, everyday)
• Murid mendengar suara guru di dalam kelas. (more formal / written style)

Meaning is essentially the same: “The student(s) hear(s) the teacher’s voice in class.”

How do I change this to past or future tense, like “heard” or “will hear”?

Malay verbs do not change form for tense.
To express past, present, or future, you normally add time words.

From your sentence:

• Murid dengar suara guru di kelas.
  → can mean “The student hears / heard the teacher’s voice in class”, depending on context.

To be clearer:

• Past:

  • Tadi murid dengar suara guru di kelas.
    = Earlier / just now the student(s) heard the teacher’s voice in class.
  • Semalam murid dengar suara guru di kelas.
    = Yesterday the student(s) heard the teacher’s voice in class.

• Present (continuous / in progress):

  • Sekarang murid sedang dengar suara guru di kelas.
    = Now the student(s) are listening to the teacher’s voice in class.
    (sedang indicates an ongoing action.)

• Future:

  • Nanti murid akan dengar suara guru di kelas.
    = Later the student(s) will hear the teacher’s voice in class.
    (akan is a common future marker.)

So tense is shown by adverbs, not by changing dengar.

Does suara guru literally mean “teacher’s voice”? How does possession work here?

Yes. suara guru literally means “voice (of the) teacher”, which we translate naturally as “the teacher’s voice.”

Malay often shows possession using [noun + noun]:

• buku murid – the student’s book / students’ book
• kereta ayah – father’s car / dad’s car
• suara guru – the teacher’s voice

There is no extra word like “of” or ’s; just place the possessor after the thing owned.

You can also add -nya sometimes:

• suaranya – his/her voice
• suara gurunya – the teacher’s voice (a bit more specific or emphasizing “the teacher’s own voice” in some contexts)

But in your sentence, suara guru is completely natural and clear.

Could I say “Murid dengar guru di kelas” without suara? Would that still be correct?

Yes, Murid dengar guru di kelas is also grammatically correct, but the nuance is slightly different:

• Murid dengar suara guru di kelas.
  = The student(s) hear the teacher’s voice in class. (focus on the sound/voice)

• Murid dengar guru di kelas.
  = The student(s) listen to / pay attention to the teacher in class.
  (more about listening to the person than to the “voice” as a sound)

In many situations, both would be understood similarly (the students are paying attention), but suara makes it explicit that we are talking about the sound/voice.

What exactly does kelas mean here? “Classroom” or “class (lesson)”?

kelas can mean both, depending on context:

1. Classroom (place):

   • Kami duduk di kelas. – We sit in the classroom.

2. Class / lesson (event/session):

   • Saya ada kelas Bahasa Melayu. – I have a Malay class.

In Murid dengar suara guru di kelas, it can naturally be understood as:

• “in class” (during the lesson), or
• “in the classroom.”

English usually decides based on what sounds natural:
→ “The students hear the teacher’s voice in class / in the classroom.”

If you really want to emphasize the physical room, you can also say:

• di dalam kelas – inside the classroom.

What is the function of di in di kelas? How is it different from ke or dalam?

di is a location preposition, usually translated as “at / in / on” depending on context.

• di kelas – at / in class, in the classroom
• di rumah – at home
• di sekolah – at school

Other related words:

• ke – “to” (direction / movement towards a place):

  • Murid pergi ke kelas. – The student goes to class.

• dalam – “inside (of)” (more about interior):

  • dalam kelas – inside the class / inside the classroom.

Often you will see di dalam together:

• di dalam kelas – (located) inside the classroom.

In your sentence, di kelas is the normal, simple way to say “in class / in the classroom.”

Can I move di kelas to another position, like at the beginning of the sentence?

Yes. Malay word order is fairly flexible for adverbial phrases like di kelas.
All of these are natural:

• Murid dengar suara guru di kelas.
• Di kelas, murid dengar suara guru.
• Murid di kelas dengar suara guru. (slightly different emphasis: the students in class hear the teacher’s voice, implying maybe some others don’t)

The basic pattern S–V–O–(adverb) is:

• [Murid] [dengar] [suara guru] [di kelas].
  Subject – Verb – Object – Place

Moving di kelas to the front often adds a bit of emphasis on the location (“In class, the students hear…”).

How would I say “The students are listening to the teacher in class” to emphasize that it is happening now?

To make it clearly ongoing / in progress, Malay commonly uses sedang before the verb:

• Murid sedang dengar suara guru di kelas.
  = The students are listening to the teacher’s voice in class.

You can also use the more formal verb:

• Murid sedang mendengar suara guru di kelas.

If you want to make plural very clear:

• Murid-murid sedang mendengar suara guru di kelas.
  = The students are listening to the teacher’s voice in class.

Is guru the normal everyday word for “teacher”, or should I say cikgu?

Both are common, but their usage differs slightly:

• guru

  • General word for “teacher”
  • Common in writing, official contexts, job titles
  • e.g. guru Bahasa Melayu – Malay language teacher

• cikgu

  • Very common in spoken Malay, especially for school teachers
  • Also used like a form of address:
    
    • Cikgu, saya tak faham. – Teacher, I don’t understand.

In your sentence:

• Murid dengar suara guru di kelas. – fine, neutral/standard.
• Murid dengar suara cikgu di kelas. – feels more like casual school context.

Both are correct; choice depends on tone (formal vs informal) and context.