Di televisyen, saya menonton cerita tentang gurun di negara tropika.

On television, I watch a story about deserts in a tropical country.

Breakdown of Di televisyen, saya menonton cerita tentang gurun di negara tropika.

• saya: I
• di: in
• menonton: to watch
• televisyen: the television
• tentang: about
• di: on
• cerita: the story
• negara: the country
• gurun: the desert
• tropika: tropical

Questions & Answers about Di televisyen, saya menonton cerita tentang gurun di negara tropika.

Why is di used twice, but translated as “on” in one place and “in” in another?

Di is a very general location preposition in Malay. It covers meanings that in English are split into “in,” “on,” and “at.”

• di televisyen → literally “at/on the television” → natural English: “on television”
• di negara tropika → literally “at/in tropical country/countries” → natural English: “in tropical countries”

Other examples:

• di sekolah – at school
• di meja – on the table
• di rumah – at home / in the house

So di itself doesn’t change; the English preposition changes depending on what sounds natural in English.

Does the sentence have to start with “Di televisyen”? Could I say “Saya menonton cerita…” instead?

You can say it both ways:

• Di televisyen, saya menonton cerita tentang gurun di negara tropika.
• Saya menonton cerita tentang gurun di negara tropika di televisyen.

Both are grammatically correct. The difference is emphasis:

• Starting with Di televisyen puts a bit more focus on where you watched it (on TV).
• Starting with Saya menonton is the more neutral, “default” order, just saying what you did.

The comma after Di televisyen simply marks a slight pause after moving that phrase to the front.

What’s the difference between menonton, melihat, and tengok?

All three are related to seeing/watching, but they’re used differently:

• menonton – to watch something like TV, a movie, a show, a performance

  • saya menonton televisyen – I watch TV
  • kami menonton filem itu – we watched that movie

• melihat – to see / to look at (more neutral, slightly more formal)

  • dia melihat gambar itu – he/she looked at that picture
  • saya melihat anjing di jalan – I saw a dog on the street

• tengok – very common colloquial verb for to look / to watch (informal speech)

  • saya tengok TV – I watch TV
  • jom tengok! – let’s look! / let’s watch!

In your sentence, menonton is the most natural because it’s about watching something on TV.

What exactly does cerita mean here? Is it a “story,” “movie,” or “program”?

Literally, cerita means “story”. But in everyday use it can refer to:

• a narrative (story, tale)
• a movie / drama / TV show (because these tell stories)
• the content or plot of something

So in context, menonton cerita tentang gurun is naturally understood as:

• watching a show/program/movie/documentary whose story is about deserts.

If you want to be more specific, you can use:

• filem – a movie
• rancangan / program – a TV program
• dokumentari – a documentary

e.g. Saya menonton dokumentari tentang gurun di televisyen.

How do I know the tense? Does menonton mean “watched,” “am watching,” or “will watch”?

Malay verbs do not change form for tense. Menonton itself is tenseless. The time is understood from context or from extra words:

• saya menonton cerita…
  
  • could be I watch / I am watching / I watched depending on context

You can add time markers:

• sedang menonton – am/was in the middle of watching
  
  • saya sedang menonton cerita… – I am/was watching a story…
• telah / sudah menonton – have already watched
  
  • saya sudah menonton cerita… – I have already watched the story…
• akan menonton – will watch
  
  • saya akan menonton cerita… – I will watch the story…

In isolation, your sentence is most naturally taken as past (“I watched”) or habitual (“I (often) watch”), but grammar alone doesn’t fix the tense.

If we mean “deserts in tropical countries,” why don’t we mark the plurals, like gurun-gurun or negara-negara?

Malay usually doesn’t require an explicit plural marker. Singular vs. plural is often understood from context.

• gurun – desert / deserts
• negara – country / countries

Reduplication makes the plural explicit, but is optional:

• gurun-gurun – deserts
• negara-negara tropika – tropical countries

Saying di negara tropika can mean:

• in a tropical country,
• in tropical countries (in general),

depending on context. If you really want to stress the plural, di negara-negara tropika is clearer.

Is tropika an adjective like “tropical,” and is the word order always “negara tropika”?

Yes. In negara tropika:

• negara = country
• tropika = tropical

So negara tropika = “tropical country” (or “tropical countries” in context).

In Malay, adjectives usually come after the noun:

• rumah besar – big house
• baju merah – red shirt
• negara tropika – tropical country

You would not say *tropika negara. The usual order is noun + describing word.

What’s the difference between tentang and mengenai? Could I say “cerita mengenai gurun”?

Both tentang and mengenai can mean “about / regarding / concerning.”

Your sentence can use either:

• cerita tentang gurun
• cerita mengenai gurun

Differences (small and mostly stylistic):

• tentang

  • very common
  • neutral, fits spoken and written language

• mengenai

  • slightly more formal or “official” in tone
  • common in news, reports, formal writing

In everyday speech, tentang is often the first choice, but mengenai is clearly correct too.

Do I always need to say saya? Can I just say “Menonton cerita tentang gurun…”?

You can drop the subject pronoun in Malay when it’s obvious from context:

• Menonton cerita tentang gurun di negara tropika.
  → could mean: I/you/he/she/we watched a story about deserts in tropical countries.

However:

• In formal writing or clear narrative, including saya is more normal and precise.
• In casual conversation, dropping the pronoun is very common if everyone knows who is being talked about.

So both are possible, but Saya menonton… is safer when you want to be explicit.

Why is it di televisyen and not pada televisyen?

In standard Malay:

• di is used for places/locations/mediums (including TV, radio, the internet).
• pada is mostly used for:
  • time (pada pukul 3 – at 3 o’clock),
  • abstract locations (pada pendapat saya – in my opinion),
  • persons/pronouns (pada saya – to me / for me).

So:

• di televisyen – correct and natural
• pada televisyen – sounds wrong or very unnatural in Malay

You’ll also commonly hear di TV in informal speech.

Are televisyen and TV interchangeable?

Yes, and you’ll often hear TV in everyday speech:

• di televisyen – on television (more formal/standard)
• di TV – on TV (very common in speech, informal writing)

Both are understood the same way. Televisyen is the full Malay spelling, while TV is the usual short form.

Why is the word for “desert” gurun here and not padang pasir?

Both can refer to a desert:

• gurun – standard word for “desert”
• padang pasir – literally “field of sand,” also used for “desert”

Nuance:

• gurun is concise and common in neutral / educated usage.
• padang pasir has a slightly more descriptive / imagery-based feel (“a wide field of sand”), and you may hear it often in speech or older texts.

In your sentence, gurun is perfectly standard and natural.

Is the comma after “Di televisyen” necessary in Malay?

It’s not strictly required, but it’s common and recommended when you move a location/time phrase to the front.

Compare:

• Di televisyen, saya menonton cerita… – with a comma, showing a pause.
• Di televisyen saya menonton cerita… – also grammatically okay, just no marked pause.

The comma doesn’t change the meaning; it only helps the reader see the structure more clearly.