Breakdown of Pelancong itu kagum dengan makanan di tepi jalan dan budaya tempatan.
Questions & Answers about Pelancong itu kagum dengan makanan di tepi jalan dan budaya tempatan.
Itu literally means that, but in many contexts it works like the English definite article the.
- pelancong itu
- literal: that tourist
- natural translation: the tourist
In a narrative or descriptive sentence like this, Malay often uses itu simply to indicate a specific person that the speaker has in mind, so the tourist is the best translation. It does not necessarily mean physical distance (that tourist over there) unless the context makes that clear.
kagum is an adjective meaning amazed / impressed. Malay adjectives can often function like stative verbs (describing a state).
So:
- Pelancong itu kagum
literally: The tourist amazed/impressed (in a stative sense)
natural English: The tourist was amazed or The tourist is amazed
Malay does not need a separate verb like to be (am / is / are / was) before adjectives:
- Dia letih. → He/She is tired.
- Mereka lapar. → They are hungry.
- Pelancong itu kagum. → The tourist is/was amazed.
The tense (is vs was) is understood from context, not from a special verb form.
By itself, the sentence is tense-neutral. It could mean:
- The tourist is amazed by the street food and local culture.
or - The tourist was amazed by the street food and local culture.
Malay usually relies on context or time expressions instead of changing verb forms. For example:
- Semalam, pelancong itu kagum… → Yesterday, the tourist was amazed…
- Setiap kali dia melancong, dia kagum… → Every time he/she travels, he/she is amazed…
If you need to make the time clear, you add time words such as semalam (yesterday), tadi (earlier), sekarang (now), esok (tomorrow), and so on.
After kagum, Malay normally uses dengan to introduce what you are amazed by:
- kagum dengan sesuatu → amazed by something
So:
- Pelancong itu kagum dengan makanan di tepi jalan…
→ The tourist was amazed by the street food…
You can see other prepositions in some styles:
- kagum akan – more formal/literary
- kagum terhadap – formal, often in writing
But in everyday modern Malay, kagum dengan is the most common and natural.
Leaving out dengan in this structure would sound incomplete or incorrect to native ears.
In English you might say amazed by rather than amazed with, but Malay dengan covers several English prepositions, including by, with, and using.
In this specific structure kagum dengan X, the best English equivalent is amazed by X. So:
- kagum dengan makanan → amazed by the food
- kagum dengan hasil kerja kamu → amazed by your work
So, while dengan can sometimes mean with, here it is better understood as by in English.
Yes. Word by word:
- makanan – food
- di – at / in / on
- tepi – side / edge
- jalan – road / street
So makanan di tepi jalan literally means food at the side of the road, which is how Malay commonly describes what English calls street food.
In natural translations, we turn that into street food, but the Malay phrase is very transparent: it refers to food sold or eaten at stalls, carts, or small shops along the roadside.
The most common and clear phrase is exactly what you see here:
- makanan di tepi jalan – literally food by the roadside, understood as street food
You might also hear:
- makanan jalanan – a more compact form, influenced by Indonesian and sometimes used in Malay, but makanan di tepi jalan is very standard and unambiguous.
For learners, makanan di tepi jalan is safe, clear, and natural.
In Malay, adjectives normally come after the noun, opposite to English.
- budaya tempatan
- budaya – culture
- tempatan – local
→ local culture
Other examples:
- makanan sedap → delicious food
- rumah besar → big house
- bahasa Melayu → Malay language
So the pattern is generally:
- noun + adjective, not adjective + noun.
Yes. makanan can mean:
Food in a general, uncountable sense:
- Saya suka makanan pedas. → I like spicy food.
A range of dishes / different kinds of food (plural-like meaning):
- Terdapat banyak makanan di pasar malam.
→ There are many foods/dishes at the night market.
- Terdapat banyak makanan di pasar malam.
In kagum dengan makanan di tepi jalan, it can be understood as the street food in general, including the different dishes available. Malay does not mark plural with an ending like -s; plural is understood from context.
Pelancong by itself is number-neutral: it can be tourist or tourists, depending on context.
To specify:
- seorang pelancong – one tourist / a tourist
- beberapa orang pelancong – several tourists
- para pelancong – the tourists (formal, often in writing or announcements)
In the sentence:
- Pelancong itu kagum…
we normally read it as The tourist was amazed… (singular), because itu often makes it feel like one specific person. But in the right context it could also mean The tourists were amazed….
Yes, you can reverse the order of the two things the tourist is amazed by:
- Pelancong itu kagum dengan budaya tempatan dan makanan di tepi jalan.
- Pelancong itu kagum dengan makanan di tepi jalan dan budaya tempatan.
Both are grammatically correct. The change only affects emphasis:
- First version slightly highlights budaya tempatan first.
- Second version (your original sentence) slightly highlights makanan di tepi jalan first.
Malay conjunction dan simply links the two noun phrases in either order.
kagum is neutral and very common in both spoken and written Malay. It’s perfectly fine in everyday conversation.
Some related words:
- terkejut – surprised (more like shocked, not necessarily impressed)
- terpesona – mesmerised / enchanted (more poetic or emotional)
- takjub – astonished (more formal or literary)
For standard everyday amazed / impressed, kagum is usually the best choice.
You keep the same structure and add the negator tidak before kagum:
- Pelancong itu tidak kagum dengan makanan di tepi jalan.
→ The tourist is not impressed with/by the street food.
Pattern:
- [subject] + tidak + [adjective] + dengan + [thing]
- Saya tidak kagum dengan filem itu. → I’m not impressed with that movie.