Learn Hardcore Malay: Saya cari maklumat tentang visa kerja di laman sesawang kerajaan. - I look for information about work visas on the government website.

In this sentence, Saya cari maklumat… sounds natural, informal–neutral, and is perfectly correct. If you were writing a formal letter or an academic text, you might prefer Saya mencari maklumat…

How would I say “I am looking for information…” more explicitly, not just “I look for”?

Malay usually doesn’t mark tense (past/present/future) the way English does, and cari by itself can mean:

I look for / I am looking for / I will look for, depending on context.

If you want to make the “right now / in progress” meaning more explicit (present continuous), you can add sedang:

Saya sedang mencari maklumat tentang visa kerja di laman sesawang kerajaan.
= I am currently looking for information about a work visa on the government website.

You’ll usually see sedang with the meN- form (mencari), not with cari:

Saya sedang cari maklumat… is possible in very informal speech, but Saya sedang mencari… sounds more standard.

What’s the difference between Saya cari maklumat and Saya mencari maklumat?

They are extremely close in meaning; both mean “I am looking for / I look for information.”

The main differences are nuance and formality:

Saya cari maklumat
- Uses the root verb cari
- Very common in speech
- Informal–neutral tone
- Shorter and more relaxed
Saya mencari maklumat
- Uses the prefixed verb mencari
- Sounds more complete and slightly more formal
- Common in writing, news, reports, and polite speech

In casual everyday conversation, Malays often say Saya cari…. In a formal email to an official, many people would write Saya mencari….

Do I need the word sedang here? When should I use it?

You don’t need sedang; the sentence is already correct without it. Malay usually relies on context, not tense markers, so:

Saya cari maklumat…
can naturally be understood as “I’m looking for information…” in the right context.

Use sedang when you specifically want to emphasize that the action is happening right now / in progress:

Saya sedang mencari maklumat tentang visa kerja…
= I am (currently) in the process of looking for information about a work visa…

For general habits or non‑specific time, you normally don’t use sedang:

Saya selalu mencari maklumat tentang… = I often look for information about…

What does maklumat mean exactly, and is it the same as “information”?

Yes, maklumat roughly corresponds to information.

maklumat = information, data, details

Examples:

maklumat peribadi = personal information
maklumat lanjut = further information / more details
pusat maklumat = information centre

There is also informasi in Malay, borrowed from English information, but maklumat is often more standard and widely used, especially in government and formal contexts.

In your sentence, maklumat is the most natural choice:

Saya cari maklumat tentang visa kerja…
= I’m looking for information about a work visa…

Can I say informasi instead of maklumat here?

You can say informasi, and people will understand you:

Saya cari informasi tentang visa kerja…

However:

maklumat is more standard Malay and is generally preferred in official, government, and formal texts.
informasi sounds more like a modern loanword and may feel a bit more “technical” or influenced by English.

In the context of a government website, maklumat matches the usual formal style better.

What does tentang mean, and can I replace it with something else?

tentang means about / regarding / concerning.

Examples:

buku tentang sejarah Malaysia = a book about the history of Malaysia
mesyuarat tentang projek baru itu = a meeting about the new project

Two common near‑synonyms are:

mengenai
berkenaan (dengan)

So you could also say:

Saya cari maklumat mengenai visa kerja…
Saya cari maklumat berkenaan visa kerja…

They are very close in meaning. tentang is straightforward and widely used; mengenai and berkenaan can sound a bit more formal or written, especially in official documents.

Why is it visa kerja and not something like visa untuk kerja or visa pekerjaan?

visa kerja is a common, compact noun phrase:

visa = visa
kerja = work / job

So visa kerja literally = work visa.

Other possibilities:

visa untuk kerja
- Literally: visa for work
- Grammatically OK, but longer and less standard as a set phrase.
visa pekerjaan
- pekerjaan = employment / job (a more formal noun form)
- Understandable, but visa kerja is the much more common collocation.

In practice, you’ll mostly see:

visa kerja = work visa
permit kerja = work permit
permit pekerjaan is also possible but more formal / technical.

Is di laman sesawang kerajaan the only way to say “on the government website”? Can I use di website kerajaan?

You have several natural options. All of these are understandable:

di laman sesawang kerajaan
di laman web kerajaan
di laman sesawang kerajaan Malaysia
di laman web kerajaan Malaysia
di website kerajaan (very informal / English‑influenced)

Some notes:

laman sesawang and laman web both mean website / web page;
laman sesawang is a more “pure Malay” term promoted in Malaysia.
website is a direct English loan; common in informal speech and writing.
kerajaan = government (general)
Kerajaan Malaysia = the Government of Malaysia (specific; capitalized).

On an actual government site, you’re most likely to see laman web rasmi (official website), for example:

di laman web rasmi kerajaan Malaysia

What exactly does laman sesawang mean? Is it commonly used?

laman sesawang literally breaks down as:

laman = yard, space, area, page
sesawang = web (from sawang, “spider web”)

So together, laman sesawang = web page / website.

Usage:

Common in Malaysian government and official language.
In everyday casual speech, many people simply say website or laman web instead.
In written formal Malay, especially official announcements, laman sesawang is quite normal.

So in your sentence, di laman sesawang kerajaan fits a formal / official style.

Why is the preposition di used with laman sesawang? Is it like “in” or “on”?

di is the general preposition for location, often translated as in, at, on depending on context.

di rumah = at home
di sekolah = at school
di jalan = on the road / in the street
di internet = on the internet

So:

di laman sesawang kerajaan literally = at/on the government website.

Malay doesn’t distinguish in / on / at the way English does; di covers all of them. You choose in / on / at in English based on English rules, but in Malay it stays di.

Should kerajaan be capitalized here? What’s the difference between kerajaan and Kerajaan Malaysia?

In your sentence:

Saya cari maklumat tentang visa kerja di laman sesawang kerajaan.

kerajaan is not capitalized because it’s used as a common noun: “the (unspecified) government.”

If you refer to a specific government as a proper name, you capitalize:

Kerajaan Malaysia = the Government of Malaysia
Kerajaan Negeri Selangor = the State Government of Selangor

So if you specifically mean the Malaysian government’s website, you could write:

…di laman sesawang Kerajaan Malaysia.

Then Kerajaan Malaysia functions as a proper noun and is capitalized.

Could I drop Saya and just say Cari maklumat tentang visa kerja…?

Yes, you can drop Saya in some contexts. Malay often omits the subject pronoun when it’s clear from context, especially in speech or instructions.

Examples:

Cari maklumat tentang visa kerja di laman sesawang kerajaan.
= (You should) look for information about a work visa on the government website.
→ This sounds like an instruction, not a statement about yourself.
Sedang cari maklumat tentang visa kerja.
= (I’m) looking for information about a work visa.
→ In casual conversation, the I is understood.

In your original sentence, keeping Saya makes it clearly “I am looking…” rather than a general instruction.

Is the word order maklumat tentang visa kerja fixed, or can I say it another way?

maklumat tentang visa kerja is the most natural order:

maklumat (head noun)
tentang visa kerja (a phrase modifying “maklumat”)

Literal structure: information (about work visa).

Other orders are either ungrammatical or unnatural:

❌ tentang visa kerja maklumat – wrong word order.
✅ maklumat visa kerja – possible, but sounds more like a technical label (“work visa information”) and is less explicit than maklumat tentang visa kerja.

General rule: in Malay, the main noun comes first, and descriptions / modifiers come after it. So:

maklumat tentang X = information about X
maklumat visa kerja = “work visa information” (more compact, used in headings, menus, etc.)

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral? How would it sound in very formal Malay?

The original:

Saya cari maklumat tentang visa kerja di laman sesawang kerajaan.

This sounds neutral to slightly informal, mainly because of the root verb cari instead of mencari.

A more formal / official version could be:

Saya sedang mencari maklumat tentang visa kerja di laman web rasmi Kerajaan Malaysia.

You can adjust formality by:

Using mencari instead of cari.
Optionally adding sedang.
Using more formal phrases like laman web rasmi Kerajaan Malaysia instead of just laman sesawang kerajaan or website kerajaan.