Saya pernah ponteng latihan renang.

I once skipped swim practice.

Breakdown of Saya pernah ponteng latihan renang.

• saya: I
• latihan renang: the swim practice
• pernah: once
• ponteng: to skip (school)

Questions & Answers about Saya pernah ponteng latihan renang.

What exactly does pernah mean here, and how is it different from sudah?

Pernah marks something as having happened at least once at some point in the past. It’s very close to English “have (ever) done” or “once did” in the sense of past experience.

• Saya pernah ponteng latihan renang.
  = I have skipped / I once skipped swimming practice (at some time before now).

Sudah focuses more on completion (“already done”), not on “at least once in my life”.

• Saya sudah makan. = I have already eaten.
• Saya pernah makan di sana. = I have eaten there before / I’ve eaten there at least once.

You can sometimes use sudah with things like ponteng, but it usually sounds odd or changes the nuance. Here, pernah is the natural choice because you’re talking about past experience, not just “it’s already done”.

Is ponteng a formal word? When should I use it?

Ponteng is informal / casual, but extremely common in everyday speech in Malaysia (and Singapore).

It specifically means “to skip / play truant / bunk off” (usually something you’re supposed to attend):

• ponteng sekolah – skip school
• ponteng kerja – skip work
• ponteng latihan renang – skip swimming practice

In formal writing (e.g. an official letter to a school), people would prefer something like:

• tidak hadir latihan renang – did not attend swimming practice
• tidak datang ke latihan renang – did not come to swimming practice

In conversation, though, ponteng is very natural and widely used.

Why is pernah placed after saya? Can I move it somewhere else?

The usual, natural order is:

[Subject] + [pernah] + [verb] + [object]
Saya pernah ponteng latihan renang.

You cannot move pernah around freely. The following are wrong or very unnatural:

• ✗ Saya ponteng pernah latihan renang.
• ✗ Pernah saya ponteng latihan renang. (only possible in special emphatic or literary contexts)

So for normal speech, keep pernah directly after the subject and before the verb.

What is the difference between latihan renang, kelas renang, and berenang?

They’re related but not the same:

• latihan renang
  Literally “swimming training/practice”.
  Often used for team training, practice sessions, or drills.

• kelas renang
  “Swimming class/lesson”.
  Sounds more like swimming lessons with an instructor.

• berenang
  A verb: “to swim”.

  • Saya suka berenang. = I like swimming / I like to swim.

So Saya pernah ponteng latihan renang suggests skipping a practice session, not just casually going for a swim.

Could I say Saya pernah ponteng renang and drop latihan?

You might hear people say something like ponteng renang in casual speech if the context is very clear, but it’s less specific and can sound a bit incomplete.

More natural and clear options are:

• Saya pernah ponteng latihan renang.
• Saya pernah ponteng kelas renang. (if you mean lessons)

For a learner, it’s safer and more idiomatic to keep “latihan” or “kelas” so it’s clear you’re talking about a session/lesson, not just “swimming” in general.

How would I say “I have never skipped swimming practice”?

Use tidak pernah (“have never / have not ever”):

• Saya tidak pernah ponteng latihan renang.
  = I have never skipped swimming practice.

Pattern:

[Subject] + tidak pernah + [verb] + [object]

Examples:

• Saya tidak pernah ponteng sekolah. – I have never skipped school.
• Saya tidak pernah makan durian. – I have never eaten durian.

There’s no past tense ending on ponteng. How do we know it’s in the past?

Malay does not conjugate verbs for tense (no -ed, no -s, etc.).
Past, present, and future are shown by:

• Time words (semalam, nanti, esok, tadi…)
• Aspect markers like sudah, telah, sedang, akan, pernah
• Context

Here, pernah is the clue that the action happened sometime in the past:

• Saya ponteng latihan renang. – I skip / I skipped swimming practice (tense depends on context).
• Saya pernah ponteng latihan renang. – I have skipped / I once skipped swimming practice (clearly past experience).

Can I use aku instead of saya here?

Yes, grammatically it’s fine:

• Aku pernah ponteng latihan renang.

The difference is formality / politeness:

• saya – neutral and polite; safe in almost all situations, including with adults, teachers, strangers.
• aku – more informal / intimate, used with close friends, family, or people on equal footing in casual settings.

Because ponteng is informal, Aku pernah ponteng latihan renang sounds very natural among friends.
With a teacher, Saya pernah ponteng latihan renang is safer.

Why is it latihan renang and not renang latihan?

In Malay, when you have two nouns together, the main noun (head) usually comes first, and the second noun modifies it:

• latihan renang = swimming training (training of swimming)
• kelas Bahasa Melayu = Malay language class (class of Malay language)

So:

• latihan (training) is the main thing.
• renang (swimming) tells you what kind of training.

Renang latihan would be incorrect or at least very unnatural in standard Malay.

Do I need a preposition like ke (“to”) after ponteng? Why is it not ponteng ke latihan renang?

With ponteng, you usually don’t use a preposition before the thing you’re skipping. You just follow it with a noun phrase:

• ponteng sekolah – skip school
• ponteng kerja – skip work
• ponteng kelas – skip class
• ponteng latihan renang – skip swimming practice

If you say ponteng ke latihan renang, it sounds like you’re saying “skip to swimming practice”, which doesn’t match the usual pattern. So:

• ✔ Saya pernah ponteng latihan renang. (correct and natural)
• ✗ Saya pernah ponteng ke latihan renang. (unnatural)