Learn Hardcore Malay: Adakah awak menyimpan semua fail tugasan dalam satu folder khas? - Do you store all assignment files in one special folder?

Without Adakah, the basic clause is:
Awak menyimpan semua fail tugasan dalam satu folder khas.
(“You keep all the assignment files in one special folder.”)
Adding Adakah to the front turns it into a question:
Adakah awak menyimpan … ?
“Do you keep … ? / Are you keeping … ?”

It’s not exactly the same as English “do”, but functionally similar: it signals that what follows is a question that expects “yes” or “no”.

Notes:

Adakah is more common in formal writing, careful speech, or exams.
In everyday conversation, many people simply use the statement form + rising intonation, without Adakah.

Can I leave out Adakah and just say Awak menyimpan semua fail tugasan dalam satu folder khas? as a question?

Yes. In normal conversation you would very often drop Adakah and rely on intonation and a question mark:

Awak menyimpan semua fail tugasan dalam satu folder khas?
(said with a rising tone at the end)

This is perfectly natural and common in speech and informal writing.

You can also use other, even more colloquial patterns, for example:

Awak simpan semua fail tugasan dalam satu folder khas ke?
Awak ada simpan semua fail tugasan dalam satu folder khas tak?

So:

With Adakah → more formal/neutral, written, careful.
Without Adakah (just intonation or extra particles like ke, tak) → everyday spoken Malay.

Why is the pronoun awak used here? How is it different from anda or kamu?

Awak is a 2nd person singular pronoun (“you”) that is:

Common in Malaysian Malay,
Generally friendly / neutral,
Often used between peers or when you don’t want to sound too formal or too rough.

Comparison:

awak – friendly/neutral, common in Malaysia; can feel slightly intimate in some contexts.
anda – more formal, polite, impersonal; common in advertisements, instructions, customer-facing language (e.g. banks, government forms). Often avoided in close personal conversations.
kamu – can sound neutral in some regions and Christian contexts, but in much of Malaysia it may sound a bit distant, “textbooky”, or even slightly rude/condescending if used wrongly.
kau/engkau – very informal or rough; used among close friends, or can be harsh if misused.

In this sentence, awak suggests a fairly neutral, friendly tone, not super-formal, not super-slangy.

What exactly does menyimpan mean here, and why not just simpan?

The base verb is simpan = “to keep, store, put away, save”.

menyimpan is:

meN-
- simpan → menyimpan (the N changes to ny before s),
the standard active transitive form often used in more formal or careful Malay.

Meaning-wise, in this context menyimpan ≈ “to store / to keep (something somewhere)”.

Usage:

In standard written Malay:
Saya menyimpan semua dokumen itu di rumah.
“I keep all those documents at home.”
In everyday speech, people often just say simpan instead of menyimpan, and it sounds perfectly normal:
Saya simpan semua dokumen itu di rumah.

So:

menyimpan – more “textbook”, formal/neutral.
simpan – the bare form, very common in casual speech; still understood in writing, just less formal.

The meaning in this sentence is the same either way: “to store / keep all the assignment files”.

Why is there no plural marker on fail? Shouldn’t it be fail-fail for “files”?

Malay usually does not need explicit plural marking. Plurality is often clear from context or from words like:

semua = “all”
banyak = “many, a lot of”
beberapa = “several”

In semua fail tugasan:

semua already shows that it’s plural → “all (the) files”.

Reduplication, like fail-fail, is possible but:

It’s not required to mean “files”.
Overusing reduplication can sound awkward or unnatural.
fail-fail might be used for emphasis or in teaching materials, but here semua fail tugasan is the most natural.

So semua fail tugasan already clearly means “all the assignment files”, not just one.

What is the structure of fail tugasan? Does it mean “assignment file” or “files for assignments”?

fail tugasan is a noun–noun phrase:

fail = file/files
tugasan = assignment(s), task(s) (from tugas “duty, task”)

In Malay, the modifier usually comes after the main noun. So:

fail tugasan literally = “assignment file(s)” / “file(s) of assignment(s)”.

In English you might translate it as:

“assignment files”
“files for assignments”
“assignment-related files”

The exact English phrasing depends on context, but structurally it’s [main noun] + [qualifying noun]:
fail (file) + tugasan (assignment).

Why do we use dalam instead of di before satu folder khas?

Both di and dalam can sometimes be translated as “in”, but they’re not identical:

di = “at / on / in” → marks a location, often a point or place.
dalam = “inside, within” → emphasizes being inside a space/container.

In this sentence:

dalam satu folder khas highlights that the files are kept inside that one special folder.

Compare:

di folder itu – “at that folder” / “in that folder” (location, somewhat neutral).
dalam folder itu – more clearly “inside that folder”.

With containers or enclosed spaces (box, room, folder, bag), dalam is very natural:
dalam satu folder khas sounds smooth and idiomatic.

di satu folder khas is not wrong, but dalam better emphasizes the “inside” sense here.

Is satu necessary here? What difference does it make?

satu literally means “one”.

In this phrase:

dalam satu folder khas = “in one special folder” / “in a single special folder”.

Nuance:

With satu – emphasizes a single folder: you put all the assignment files in one specific folder (not scattered).
Without satu –
- dalam folder khas could mean “in a special folder” in a more general way, or
- “in special folder(s)” depending on context.
  It’s a bit less explicit about “only one” folder.

So satu adds a clearer sense of “one single” folder. The sentence is still grammatical without it, but the emphasis on “one” is weaker or disappears.

What does khas mean exactly, and where does it go in the noun phrase?

khas means “special, specific, particular”.

Position:

In Malay, adjectives generally come after the noun they describe.
So folder khas = “special folder”.

Some examples:

akaun khas – special account
bilik khas – special room / dedicated room
tujuan khas – special purpose

Here, satu folder khas is:

satu (one) + folder (folder) + khas (special)

So the order in Malay is:

number → noun → adjective
satu folder khas = “one special folder”

Is folder standard Malay? I thought fail already means “file” or “folder”.

Both fail and folder are loanwords from English, and both are widely used in Malaysian Malay.

Typical tendencies (not strict rules):

fail – often used for files in a more general sense, especially:
- physical files for documents (paper in a file),
- administrative files,
- sometimes computer files.
folder – commonly used for:
- computer folders/directories,
- sometimes physical folders that hold files.

In this sentence:

fail tugasan = the files themselves (documents).
folder khas = the folder (location) where they’re stored.

So yes, folder is perfectly acceptable modern Malay, especially in computing / office contexts, alongside fail.

Can I omit awak and say Adakah menyimpan semua fail tugasan dalam satu folder khas??

No, that sentence is not natural as it stands.

With Adakah, you normally need a clear subject right after it:

Adakah awak menyimpan … ?
Adakah anda menyimpan … ?
Adakah mereka menyimpan … ?
Adakah semua fail tugasan disimpan dalam satu folder khas? (here semua fail tugasan is the subject of a passive verb)

If you remove awak, the listener doesn’t know who is doing the action. Malay can drop pronouns in conversation when they’re obvious from context, but:

With Adakah in a careful/formal sentence, you’d normally keep the subject.
A casual, subject-dropping version would more likely drop Adakah, e.g.:
Simpan semua fail tugasan dalam satu folder khas ke?
(spoken; subject “you” is understood from context)

So: keep awak (or another subject) if you’re using Adakah in this structure.

How could I ask the same question more casually, like when chatting with a friend?

Here are some common casual versions that a friend might use:

Awak simpan semua fail tugasan dalam satu folder khas ke?
Kau simpan semua fail tugasan dalam satu folder khas tak? (very informal: kau)
Simpan semua fail tugasan dalam satu folder khas tak? (subject “you” omitted, understood from context)

In colloquial speech people might also mix in English:

Awak simpan semua assignment files dalam satu folder khas ke?

Key differences from the original:

No Adakah – just rising intonation and/or particles like ke or tak to show it’s a question.
Possibly using kau instead of awak among close friends.
Slightly looser grammar and more mixing with English is normal in casual conversation.