Kamus Inggeris-Melayu saya selalu di atas meja belajar.

My English-Malay dictionary is always on the study table.

Breakdown of Kamus Inggeris-Melayu saya selalu di atas meja belajar.

• adalah: to be
• selalu: always
• saya: my
• di atas: on
• kamus: the dictionary
• Inggeris-Melayu: English-Malay
• meja belajar: the study table

Questions & Answers about Kamus Inggeris-Melayu saya selalu di atas meja belajar.

Why is there no word for is in Kamus Inggeris-Melayu saya selalu di atas meja belajar?

Malay usually drops the verb to be (is/am/are) in simple sentences with nouns or adjectives.

• English: My English–Malay dictionary is always on the study desk.
• Malay: Kamus Inggeris-Melayu saya selalu di atas meja belajar.

Between kamus … saya (subject) and di atas meja belajar (location), Malay does not need a linking verb. You only use verbs like ialah / adalah in more formal or specific structures, not in this everyday location sentence.

So the sentence is complete and correct without an explicit is.

Why is saya after Kamus Inggeris-Melayu, instead of before it like my dictionary?

In Malay, possessive pronouns usually come after the noun they modify:

• kamus saya = my dictionary
• buku kamu = your book
• kereta mereka = their car

So:

• Kamus Inggeris-Melayu saya literally: English–Malay dictionary my
  Natural English: my English–Malay dictionary

Putting saya before the noun (like saya kamus) is wrong in standard Malay.
There is a structure saya punya kamus (literally I have dictionary / my dictionary), but that is more colloquial or emphatic and not what you see in this sentence.

What exactly does selalu do here, and where can it go in the sentence?

Selalu means always (a frequency adverb).

In this sentence it modifies the whole idea of the dictionary being on the desk:

• Kamus Inggeris-Melayu saya selalu di atas meja belajar.
  = My English–Malay dictionary is always on the study desk.

Normal placement is before the phrase it describes:

• Saya selalu lupa. – I always forget.
• Dia selalu lewat. – He/She is always late.
• Kamus saya selalu di atas meja. – My dictionary is always on the table.

You would not normally move selalu to the end in this sentence; … di atas meja belajar selalu sounds odd in standard Malay.

What is the difference between di atas and atas? Why use di atas here?

• atas by itself means top / up / above as a general direction or position.
• di is a location preposition meaning at / in / on.

When you combine them:

• di atas = on (top of), above, on (as a surface location).

In this sentence:

• di atas meja belajar = on the study desk / on top of the study desk.

You normally use di atas (with di) in full sentences to mark a specific location.
Bare atas is more like a noun or direction word and often needs di in front in standard sentences.

Could I say … selalu di meja belajar instead of … selalu di atas meja belajar?

Yes, you can, with a slight nuance difference.

• di atas meja belajar
  literally on top of the study desk – clearly on the surface.
• di meja belajar
  more like at the study desk; it can still mean on the desk, but it focuses more on that general area.

In everyday speech, many people would say:

• Kamus Inggeris-Melayu saya selalu di meja belajar.

It’s still natural and clear. Di atas just makes the “on top of” idea more explicit.

What does meja belajar literally mean? Is it just desk?

Literally:

• meja = table / desk
• belajar = to study / to learn

So meja belajar = study table / study desk.

In context it is basically (my) study desk – the desk used for studying or doing homework.
If you only said meja, it could be any table: dining table, coffee table, etc. Meja belajar specifies its function.

Why is there a hyphen in Inggeris-Melayu? What does that tell me?

The hyphen connects two language names:

• Inggeris = English
• Melayu = Malay

Kamus Inggeris-Melayu means an English–Malay dictionary (English ↔ Malay).

This pattern is common:

• kamus Inggeris-Melayu – English–Malay dictionary
• kamus Melayu-Inggeris – Malay–English dictionary
• kamus Perancis-Inggeris – French–English dictionary

The order can show direction or just the language pair, depending on context or how the book is marketed.

Is the word order Kamus Inggeris-Melayu saya fixed, or can I move saya?

For a natural, neutral phrase, the order is:

• [Noun + modifiers] + possessive pronoun

So:

• Kamus Inggeris-Melayu saya
  = kamus (noun) + Inggeris-Melayu (modifier) + saya (possessor)

You would not say Saya kamus Inggeris-Melayu to mean my English–Malay dictionary; that sounds wrong.

You could say:

• Kamus saya – my dictionary (type unspecified).
• Kamus saya yang Inggeris-Melayu – my dictionary that is English–Malay (more complex, emphasizes which one).

But in normal use, Kamus Inggeris-Melayu saya is the standard, compact way to say my English–Malay dictionary.

How do I know this sentence is in the present tense and not past or future?

Malay does not mark tense the same way English does; the bare verb or copula-less structure is usually understood as present / general unless a time word changes it.

Here, there is:

• no past marker like dulu (previously, used to),
• no future marker like nanti or akan.

So selalu + the basic structure is understood as a general fact / present habit:

• Kamus Inggeris-Melayu saya selalu di atas meja belajar.
  = My English–Malay dictionary is always on the study desk.

To make it clearly past, you could add:

• Dulu, kamus Inggeris-Melayu saya selalu di atas meja belajar.
  = In the past, my English–Malay dictionary was always on the study desk.

Does kamus here mean one dictionary or several dictionaries? There is no a or the.

Malay normally does not use articles like a / an / the.

• kamus by itself is usually understood as a dictionary or the dictionary, depending on context.
• In Kamus Inggeris-Melayu saya, the presence of saya (my) strongly suggests one specific dictionary you own.

To make it clearly plural, you can add a plural marker:

• kamus-kamus = dictionaries (reduplication)
• beberapa kamus = several dictionaries
• semua kamus = all the dictionaries

But in this sentence, kamus Inggeris-Melayu saya is naturally interpreted as my (one) English–Malay dictionary.