Learn Hardcore Malay: Pada musim cuti, ramai pelancong asing datang ke bandar kami. - During the holiday season, many foreign tourists come to our city.

In informal or spoken Malay, people sometimes say simply musim cuti, ramai pelancong asing… and drop pada.
In formal writing (essays, exams, news), it’s better to keep pada.

So:

Pada musim cuti, ramai pelancong asing datang ke bandar kami. ✔ (standard, formal)
Musim cuti, ramai pelancong asing datang ke bandar kami. ✔ (informal, conversational)

What exactly does musim cuti mean? Is it like “school holidays”?

Literally:

musim = season
cuti = holiday, time off

So musim cuti = holiday season / vacation period.

It doesn’t automatically mean only school holidays, but it often refers to periods when many people are off work or school, for example:

end-of-year holidays
long school breaks
festive seasons when people travel

If you specifically want school holidays, you can say:

musim cuti sekolah = the school holiday period

Examples:

Pada musim cuti sekolah, jalan raya selalu sesak.
During the school holidays, the roads are always jammed.

Why is there a comma after musim cuti? Could I put the time phrase at the end instead?

Pada musim cuti is a time expression placed at the start of the sentence. In Malay, it’s very common to put time or place adverbials at the beginning for emphasis or clarity. A comma is typically used after such an introductory phrase, especially in writing:

Pada musim cuti, ramai pelancong asing datang ke bandar kami.

You can also move the time phrase to the end:

Ramai pelancong asing datang ke bandar kami pada musim cuti.

Both are correct and mean the same thing.
The difference is only in focus:

At the beginning: emphasizes the time (“During the holidays, [this happens]”).
At the end: emphasizes the event (many tourists come to our town, and this happens during the holidays).

What does ramai mean? Why not banyak pelancong asing?

Both ramai and banyak can translate as many/a lot of, but they are used with different types of nouns:

ramai = many (for people)
- ramai pelancong (many tourists)
- ramai murid (many students)
- ramai orang (many people)
banyak = many/much/a lot of (for things, non-people)
- banyak kereta (many cars)
- banyak makanan (a lot of food)
- banyak masalah (many problems)

Since pelancong (tourist) is a person, ramai is the natural choice:

ramai pelancong asing ✔
banyak pelancong asing sounds off or incorrect in standard Malay.

Where is the word “they” in this sentence? How do we know it’s plural?

In Malay, you usually don’t need a separate word for they if the subject is already clear.

ramai pelancong asing = many foreign tourists
This whole phrase is the subject of the verb datang (come).

So the structure is:

[Ramai pelancong asing] (subject) datang (verb) ke bandar kami (place).

Plurality is shown by ramai (“many”), not by changing the noun form; Malay nouns generally do not change for plural. There is no need to add a separate “they” pronoun:

English: During the holidays, many foreign tourists come to our town.
Malay: Pada musim cuti, ramai pelancong asing datang ke bandar kami.

Can I say pelancong-pelancong asing to show that “tourists” is plural?

Malay sometimes uses reduplication (repeating a noun) to show plurality, e.g.:

orang → orang-orang (people)
kereta → kereta-kereta (cars)

However, in most everyday contexts, you don’t need to reduplicate when you already have a word that shows plural, such as ramai, banyak, beberapa (a few), semua (all), etc.

In this sentence:

ramai pelancong asing already clearly means many tourists.

Using ramai pelancong-pelancong asing is grammatically possible, but it sounds heavy and unnatural in normal speech. Native speakers would just say:

ramai pelancong asing ✔ (most natural)

Why is it pelancong asing and not asing pelancong? What is the usual word order for nouns and adjectives?

In Malay, the usual order is:

Noun + adjective

So:

pelancong asing = foreign tourists
bandar besar = big city
baju merah = red shirt
rumah baru = new house

Putting the adjective before the noun (like asing pelancong) is not normal; it would sound wrong to native speakers in this context.

So:

pelancong asing ✔
asing pelancong ✖ (incorrect as a normal noun phrase)

Does asing mean “foreign” or “strange”? Is there a difference?

Asing can mean both foreign and strange depending on context.

Foreign / from another country
- pelancong asing = foreign tourists
- bahasa asing = foreign language
- pelabur asing = foreign investors
Strange / unfamiliar
- bunyi yang asing = a strange/unfamiliar sound
- tempat yang asing = a place that feels unfamiliar

To say “foreigner” as a person (not specifically a tourist), Malay often uses:

orang asing = foreigner (literally “foreign person”)

In your sentence, pelancong asing clearly means foreign tourists, not “strange tourists”.

Why is it datang ke bandar kami and not datang di bandar kami?

Datang means to come. For movement towards a place, Malay uses ke, meaning to/towards:

datang ke bandar = come to the town
pergi ke sekolah = go to school
berjalan ke rumahnya = walk to his/her house

Di is used for location (at/in/on), not movement:

di bandar kami = in our town / at our town
di sekolah = at school
di rumah = at home

So:

datang ke bandar kami = (they) come to our town ✔
datang di bandar kami ✖ sounds wrong because datang involves movement, so it needs ke, not di.

What is the difference between bandar kami and bandar kita?

Both kami and kita mean we/us/our, but they are used differently:

kami = we/us/our, excluding the person you are talking to
kita = we/us/our, including the person you are talking to

So:

bandar kami = our town (but not your town; you’re not from here)
bandar kita = our town (including you; we are all from this same town)

In the sentence:

bandar kami suggests the speaker is talking to someone who is not from their town (for example, talking to a foreigner or an outsider about “our town”).

If the speaker and listener are from the same town, they might naturally say:

Pada musim cuti, ramai pelancong asing datang ke bandar kita.

Why is datang not marked for tense? How do we know if it is present, past, or future?

Malay verbs do not change form for tense. Datang is the same word for come / came / will come. The tense is understood from context or from time expressions.

In this sentence:

Pada musim cuti suggests a general, repeated situation (whenever it’s the holiday season, this happens). So the most natural English translation is present simple:
During the holidays, many foreign tourists come to our town.

If you want to be more explicit about tense or aspect, you add particles:

akan datang = will come
- Pada musim cuti, ramai pelancong asing akan datang ke bandar kami.
  During the holidays, many foreign tourists will come to our town.
telah datang / sudah datang = have come / came (completed)
- Pada musim cuti yang lepas, ramai pelancong asing telah datang ke bandar kami.
  Last holiday season, many foreign tourists came to our town.

But in neutral statements about regular occurrences, the plain datang is usually enough.