Breakdown of Kami melawat galeri seni yang baru dibuka dekat kampus.
Questions & Answers about Kami melawat galeri seni yang baru dibuka dekat kampus.
Malay distinguishes two kinds of we:
- kami = we (not including the listener) – “we” as a group separate from the person being spoken to.
- kita = we (including the listener) – “you and I / all of us here.”
In Kami melawat galeri seni..., kami implies that the speaker’s group visited the gallery, but the person being spoken to was not part of that group.
If the listener was also part of the visit, you would normally say:
- Kita melawat galeri seni yang baru dibuka dekat kampus.
= We (you and I / you included) visited the newly opened art gallery near campus.
No. Melawat is a transitive verb that directly takes its object without a preposition, similar to English visit:
- Kami melawat galeri seni.
= We visited the art gallery.
You do not say ✗ melawat ke galeri seni in standard Malay. That sounds odd or incorrect.
If you use pergi (go), then you need ke:
- Kami pergi ke galeri seni. = We went to the art gallery.
So:
- melawat + object (no ke)
- pergi + ke + place
Literally:
- galeri = gallery
- seni = art
So galeri seni = gallery (of) art → “art gallery.”
In Malay, the usual pattern is head noun + describing noun/adjective, often translated to English as “X of Y” or “Y X”:
- galeri seni = art gallery
- muzium seni = art museum
- pelajar universiti = university student
So seni comes after galeri because it specifies what kind of gallery it is. You would not normally say ✗ seni galeri for “art gallery.”
Yang introduces a relative clause, similar to English “that” / “which” in phrases like “the gallery that was newly opened.”
Structure:
- galeri seni = the art gallery
- yang baru dibuka = that was newly opened
Together:
- galeri seni yang baru dibuka
= the art gallery that was newly opened
Without yang, the sentence would feel ungrammatical or at least unnatural in standard Malay:
- ✗ Kami melawat galeri seni baru dibuka dekat kampus. (incorrect / very clumsy)
So yang is needed to link galeri seni to its describing clause baru dibuka.
Baru dibuka literally means “just / newly opened”:
- baru = new / just (recently)
- dibuka = was opened (passive form of buka, “open”)
In this position, baru has a time/aspect meaning: “recently” or “has just.” So:
- galeri seni yang baru dibuka
= the art gallery that has just been opened / that was recently opened
Baru can also mean new as an adjective in other contexts (e.g. baju baru = new shirt), but here it clearly has the meaning “just, recently.”
You may also see baharu in more formal writing (especially in Malaysia), but in everyday usage baru is far more common, and in this sentence baru is the natural choice.
Malay uses prefixes to show active vs passive, among other things.
- buka = open (base form)
- membuka = to open (active: someone opens something)
- dibuka = to be opened / was opened (passive: something is opened by someone)
In yang baru dibuka, the gallery is the thing being opened (by someone else), so the passive form dibuka is appropriate:
- galeri seni yang baru dibuka
= the art gallery that was newly opened (by someone)
If you used membuka instead, it would sound like the gallery itself was doing the opening, which doesn’t make sense:
- ✗ galeri seni yang baru membuka (ungrammatical in this meaning)
So di- marks a passive verb here.
Malay verbs generally do not change form for tense (no -ed, no past vs present forms). Tense and time are understood from:
- Context
- Time words (e.g. semalam = yesterday, tadi = earlier, akan = will, etc.)
- Words like baru suggesting recent completion.
In Kami melawat galeri seni yang baru dibuka dekat kampus., we know it is past because:
- melawat in context is typically a completed action (“visited”).
- baru dibuka suggests the gallery has just been opened, also describing a completed recent event.
If you want to make the past time explicit, you can add a time expression:
- Semalam kami melawat galeri seni yang baru dibuka dekat kampus.
= Yesterday we visited the newly opened art gallery near campus.
But the verb melawat itself does not change form.
Yes, word order matters, and galeri seni yang dibuka baru is not natural for “newly opened art gallery.”
- yang baru dibuka = that was just / newly opened
- baru modifies the verb dibuka → “recently opened.”
If you say dibuka baru, it sounds more like:
- “was opened only then / was opened recently, but with a strange emphasis,”
and is not the normal way to express “newly opened.”
So to say “newly opened” as a relative clause, the standard, natural form is:
- galeri seni yang baru dibuka
All of these exist, but they differ in level of formality and style.
dekat kampus
- Very common in colloquial Malay (especially in speech).
- Means “near campus / by the campus.”
- Grammatically acceptable in everyday usage, though less formal.
dekat dengan kampus
- Slightly more explicit: dekat dengan = near to.
- Also common in both spoken and written Malay.
- Feels a bit more standard.
di dekat kampus
- Literally “at near the campus.”
- Used, but can sound a little heavier or more formal depending on context.
In neutral, fairly natural Malay, you could say:
- ...yang baru dibuka dekat kampus. (very natural in speech and informal writing)
- ...yang baru dibuka dekat dengan kampus. (quite natural and standard)
So dekat kampus as in the sentence is fine and very normal, especially in conversation.
Yes, you can say:
- Kami pergi ke galeri seni yang baru dibuka dekat kampus.
= We went to the newly opened art gallery near campus.
Differences in nuance:
melawat = visit (with the idea of a purposeful visit)
- Focus on the act of visiting the place.
- Often used for visiting places (museums, factories, tourist sites) or people (visiting someone in hospital, etc.).
pergi ke = go to
- Focus on the movement/travel to the place.
- More neutral about what you did there.
So:
Kami melawat galeri seni...
= We visited the art gallery (emphasis on the visit itself).Kami pergi ke galeri seni...
= We went to the art gallery (emphasis on going there; context tells you you probably visited it).
Both are correct; the original with melawat slightly emphasizes the visit as an activity.
You simply replace kami with kita:
- Kita melawat galeri seni yang baru dibuka dekat kampus.
= We (including you) visited the newly opened art gallery near campus.
This implies the speaker and the listener were both part of the group that visited the gallery.
Malay allows time expressions quite flexibly. All of the following are acceptable:
- Semalam kami melawat galeri seni yang baru dibuka dekat kampus.
- Kami semalam melawat galeri seni yang baru dibuka dekat kampus. (less common, but possible)
- Kami melawat galeri seni yang baru dibuka dekat kampus semalam.
Most natural in everyday speech are:
- Semalam kami melawat...
- Kami melawat... semalam.
Putting the time word at the very beginning or at the end is especially common.
The sentence is mostly neutral and standard, with one element leaning informal:
- Kami melawat galeri seni yang baru dibuka → neutral / standard.
- dekat kampus → more colloquial than berdekatan dengan kampus or berhampiran kampus, but still very common.
In spoken Malay, this is perfectly natural.
In more formal writing, someone might slightly adjust it, for example:
- Kami melawat galeri seni yang baharu dibuka berdekatan dengan kampus.
But the original is absolutely fine for everyday use and most neutral contexts.