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Di laman sesawang itu, ada butang carian untuk mencari semua festival budaya.

Di laman sesawang itu, ada butang carian untuk mencari semua festival budaya.
On that website, there is a search button to find all cultural festivals.
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Questions & Answers about Di laman sesawang itu, ada butang carian untuk mencari semua festival budaya.

Why does the sentence start with Di laman sesawang itu? Can di here mean “on” as well as “in/at”?

Yes. Di is the basic preposition for physical or abstract location, and it often covers “in / at / on” depending on context.

  • Di rumah – at home
  • Di sekolah – at school
  • Di internet – on the internet
  • Di laman sesawang itu – on that website

Malay doesn’t distinguish prepositions as finely as English does. Di just marks a location; you pick “in / at / on” in English based on what sounds natural.

What is laman sesawang exactly? Is it the same as website?

Laman sesawang is the standard Malay term for “website / web page”.

  • Laman – page, site, area
  • Sesawang – literally “web” (as in spider web), used for the World Wide Web

Common variants you may see:

  • Laman sesawang – very standard / formal Malay (especially in Malaysia)
  • Laman web – also common, slightly more transparent to English speakers
  • Everyday speech may just borrow English: website or websait (informal).

So di laman sesawang itu ≈ “on that website” or “on that web page”.

Why is it laman sesawang itu and not itu laman sesawang? What does itu do here?

Itu is a demonstrative meaning “that”. In Malay, the usual pattern is:

Noun + itu = that [noun]
Noun + ini = this [noun]

So:

  • laman sesawang itu – that website
  • laman sesawang ini – this website

Putting itu before the noun (itu laman sesawang) is possible but more marked; it can sound like you are pointing out “that website (over there)”, with extra emphasis or a slightly literary tone. The neutral, everyday way is laman sesawang itu.

What is the function of ada in ada butang carian? Is it like “there is / there are”?

Yes. Here ada works as an existential verb, meaning “there is / there are”.

  • Ada butang carian. – There is a search button.
  • Ada banyak orang di sana. – There are many people there.

You can also take ada to mean “have / has” in some structures, but in this sentence it’s more natural to translate it as “there is”.

A more literal “has” version of the sentence would be:

  • Laman sesawang itu mempunyai butang carian… – That website has a search button…
Why is it butang carian and not something like butang mencari or butang cari?

Because carian is a noun, while cari / mencari are verbs.

  • cari – to search (root verb)
  • mencari – to search (with meN- prefix; often more formal/neutral)
  • carian – a search (noun formed from cari with suffix -an)

In Malay, when you combine two nouns, you normally put the describing noun after the main noun:

  • butang carian – search button (button of search)
  • kotak carian – search box
  • fungsi carian – search function

Butang mencari / butang cari would sound odd, because butang (button) wants a noun after it, not a verb.

Is carian the same as pencarian?

Both come from the root cari (to search), but there is a nuance:

  • carian – “a search”, usually in technical / interface contexts
    • butang carian – search button
    • hasil carian – search results
  • pencarian – “the act/process of searching; a quest”
    • pencarian kerja – job search
    • pencarian jati diri – search for identity

In a website interface, carian is much more common than pencarian.

Why do we say untuk mencari and not just mencari or untuk cari?

Untuk means “for / in order to / to (do something)”.
The pattern is:

untuk + verb = to (do something), in order to (do something)

So:

  • untuk mencari – to search (in order to search)
  • untuk belajar – to learn
  • untuk makan – to eat

All of these are possible, with slightly different feel:

  1. untuk mencari – standard and neutral; suitable in writing.
  2. untuk cari – more colloquial, often heard in speech.
  3. Just mencari after butang carian would be odd in this position; you normally need untuk to clearly express purpose here:
    • …ada butang carian untuk mencari semua festival budaya. ✅
    • …ada butang carian mencari semua festival budaya. ❌ (sounds ungrammatical)
Why is it mencari and not the root cari here?

Both cari and mencari mean “to search”, but:

  • cari (root):

    • Often used in imperatives or very casual speech:
      • Cari buku itu. – Look for that book.
    • Can appear after certain auxiliaries or as a more informal style.

  • mencari (meN-

    • cari):

    • Feels more complete and is the default in many neutral or formal contexts.
    • Works very naturally after untuk in standard Malay:
      • untuk mencari semua festival budaya

So untuk mencari is the safest and most natural choice in a written, neutral sentence. Untuk cari is understood, but less formal.

How does untuk mencari semua festival budaya work grammatically? What’s the word order?

Breakdown:

  • untuk – for / in order to / to
  • mencari – to search
  • semua – all
  • festival budaya – cultural festivals

Word order:

  1. untuk + verb – purpose:
    • untuk mencari – in order to search
  2. semua comes before the noun phrase:
    • semua festival budaya – all cultural festivals

So the structure is:

untuk + VERB + semua + NOUN + modifier
untuk + mencari + semua + festival budaya

You cannot move semua to the end:

  • mencari festival budaya semua ❌ (wrong)
  • mencari semua festival budaya ✅
Why is it festival budaya and not budaya festival? How does this noun phrase work?

Malay usually follows this pattern:

Head noun + describing word

So:

  • festival budaya – literally “festival [of] culture” = cultural festival
  • buku sejarah – history book
  • guru bahasa – language teacher

If you reverse it to budaya festival, it sounds ungrammatical, like saying “culture festival” in the sense of two separate nouns without the right relation. The normal, idiomatic phrase is festival budaya.

Synonyms you might see:

  • festival budaya
  • pesta budaya (also common)
  • festival kebudayaan (more formal/literary)
Does semua festival budaya automatically mean plural? Do we need something like festival-festival?

Semua already implies plurality (“all”), so you do not need reduplication here.

  • festival – festival
  • festival-festival – festivals (plural, with reduplication)
  • semua festival – all festivals (plural is already clear)
  • semua festival budaya – all cultural festivals

In practice:

  • With semua, banyak, beberapa, etc., you usually don’t reduplicate:
    • banyak festival budaya – many cultural festivals
    • beberapa festival budaya – several cultural festivals

Reduplication (festival-festival) is used when you want to mark plural without a quantifier, or for stylistic emphasis.

Could the sentence be reordered? For example, can I say Ada butang carian di laman sesawang itu untuk mencari semua festival budaya?

Yes. Both of these are grammatical:

  1. Di laman sesawang itu, ada butang carian untuk mencari semua festival budaya.
    – On that website, there is a search button to search for all cultural festivals.

  2. Ada butang carian di laman sesawang itu untuk mencari semua festival budaya.
    – There is a search button on that website to search for all cultural festivals.

The meaning is the same.
Version (1) foregrounds the location (“On that website”), while version (2) foregrounds the existence of the button (“There is a search button…”). Both are natural.

If the context is already clear, can I drop itu and just say di laman sesawang, ada butang carian…?

You can, but the nuance changes slightly.

  • di laman sesawang itu – on that specific website (definite)
  • di laman sesawang – on a website / on the website (more generic, or relying on context)

If you are talking about a particular known website, laman sesawang itu is clearer and more precise. Dropping itu makes it sound a bit more general or less specifically anchored.

How would I say “That website has a search button to find all cultural festivals” more directly, using “has” instead of “there is”?

You can use mempunyai or ada as “has”:

  1. Laman sesawang itu mempunyai butang carian untuk mencari semua festival budaya.
    – That website has a search button to search for all cultural festivals.

  2. More colloquial, still common:

    • Laman sesawang itu ada butang carian untuk mencari semua festival budaya.

Sentence (1) is more formal/neutral; sentence (2) is very natural in everyday speech.