Questions & Answers about Kiraan saya salah.
Literally:
- kiraan – a calculation / count / tally (a noun from the verb kira “to count / to calculate”)
- saya – my / I (here it works like “my”)
- salah – wrong / incorrect / mistaken
So word‑for‑word it’s roughly “calculation my wrong” → “My calculation is wrong.”
In Malay, possessors usually come after the thing they possess.
- kiraan saya = my calculation (literally “calculation my”)
- buku saya = my book
- kereta saya = my car
Putting saya before the noun (e.g. saya kiraan) is not correct for “my calculation” in standard Malay.
Malay normally doesn’t use a verb like “to be” in simple “A is B” sentences. You just put the noun and adjective (or noun) together:
- Kiraan saya salah. – My calculation is wrong.
- Dia tinggi. – He/She is tall.
- Buku itu mahal. – That book is expensive.
There is a word “adalah”, but it is not used like “is” in everyday, simple sentences. It’s mostly used in formal writing or to link to a noun phrase, not an adjective like salah.
You’ll see “adalah” sometimes, but:
- “Kiraan saya adalah salah” sounds formal and a bit awkward, because salah is an adjective.
- In natural speech and most writing, people just say “Kiraan saya salah.”
If you want something a bit more formal but still natural, you could say:
- Kiraan saya tidak betul. – My calculation is not correct.
But adding “adalah” here is usually unnecessary.
In this sentence, “salah” works like an adjective:
- salah = wrong / incorrect
Malay adjectives can often be used more flexibly than in English, and salah can sometimes feel a bit like a verb (“to be wrong / to be at fault”), but in “Kiraan saya salah”, it’s best to think of it as meaning “wrong, incorrect.”
Both can mean “wrong / mistaken,” and often they can replace each other, but there are tendencies:
salah
- Wrong, incorrect, an error (factual or logical).
- Also “at fault / guilty.”
- Kiraan saya salah. – My calculation is wrong.
silap
- More like a mistake, slip, oversight. Often sounds a bit softer.
- Saya silap. – I was mistaken / I made a mistake.
- Maaf, saya tersilap. – Sorry, I made a mistake.
For this sentence, “Kiraan saya salah” is the most common, but “Kiraan saya silap” is also understandable.
Yes, you can drop “saya” if the context already makes it clear whose calculation you’re talking about.
- Kiraan salah. – The calculation is wrong / The counting is wrong.
Use this when it’s obvious from the situation (e.g. you’re both looking at the same calculation). Add “saya” when you want to make it clear it’s your calculation:
- Kiraan saya salah. – My calculation is wrong.
It’s neutral and polite.
- saya is the standard, polite word for “I / me / my.”
- The sentence is fine in formal and informal contexts.
If you used aku (informal “I”) instead, you’d have to change the structure:
- You don’t say kiraan aku in very formal settings, but it’s normal in casual speech:
- Kiraan aku salah. – My calculation is wrong. (informal, between friends)
All are related to kira (to count / to calculate), but with different forms:
kira – verb: to count / to calculate
- Saya kira duit. – I count the money.
kiraan – noun: calculation, count, tally, reckoning
- Kiraan saya salah. – My calculation is wrong.
kira-kira
- As a verb/adverb: to estimate / approximately
- Kira-kira 10 orang. – About 10 people.
pengiraan – more explicitly “the act/process of calculating” or “calculation” in a slightly more formal or technical sense.
- Pengiraan cukai ini rumit. – This tax calculation is complicated.
In this sentence, “Kiraan saya salah” is the normal, natural choice.
Break it into syllables: ki-ra-an.
- ki – like “key”
- ra – like “rah”
- an – a short “un/uhn” kind of sound, with n clearly pronounced
Important points:
- There are three vowels: i‑a‑a → you should hear all of them: [kee-rah-ahn], not just “keeran.”
- Stress is usually on the second-to-last syllable: ki-RA-an.
So the whole sentence is roughly: [kee-RA-ahn sah-LAH].
A few natural options:
- Kiraan saya semua salah. – All my calculations are wrong.
- Semua kiraan saya salah. – All my calculations are wrong.
You might also see kiraan-kiraan as an explicit plural form:
- Kiraan-kiraan saya salah. – My calculations are wrong.
But in everyday usage, Malay rarely needs to mark plural with -kan / reduplication if words like semua (all) or context already show it’s plural.
kiraan is formed by taking the verb kira and adding the suffix -an:
- kira (to count / to calculate) → kiraan (a count, a calculation)
This verb + -an = noun pattern is very common in Malay:
- baca (to read) → bacaan (reading, something read)
- dengar (to hear) → dengaran (hearing, sounds heard)
So “Kiraan saya salah” literally uses a derived noun meaning “my calculation.”