Breakdown of Adakah awak lebih suka belajar sendirian di bilik, atau bersama kawan di perpustakaan?
Questions & Answers about Adakah awak lebih suka belajar sendirian di bilik, atau bersama kawan di perpustakaan?
Adakah is a question particle used to form yes/no questions in a clear, explicit way.
- Adakah awak lebih suka…? ≈ Do you prefer…? / Is it that you prefer…?
- It’s common in written and polite Malay, and in careful speech.
You can also ask the same question without Adakah:
- Awak lebih suka belajar sendirian di bilik, atau bersama kawan di perpustakaan?
Then you just use a questioning intonation, like in English. Both ways are correct; adding Adakah just sounds a bit more formal or careful.
They both contain the suffix -kah, which marks a question, but:
Adakah is typically used for yes/no questions about a state or preference:
- Adakah awak lapar? – Are you hungry?
- Adakah awak lebih suka…? – Do you prefer…?
Apakah is used when you are asking “what?”:
- Apakah nama awak? – What is your name?
- Apakah maksud perkataan ini? – What is the meaning of this word?
So in this sentence, because we’re asking which option you prefer (a yes/no-type choice), Adakah is appropriate, not Apakah.
Awak is a casual, friendly “you”. It is common in:
- everyday conversation,
- among friends,
- in many Malaysian contexts.
Other options:
- Anda – more formal/neutral, often used:
- in advertisements, signs, customer-facing language, textbooks.
- Kamu – can feel:
- neutral in some regions, but
- a bit too direct or even rude in others, especially to someone older or a stranger.
- Engkau/Kau – typically very informal, used:
- among close friends,
- in literature, poetry, and religious texts.
In a polite but not super-formal question to someone you know, awak is perfectly fine:
Adakah awak lebih suka…?
- Suka = to like
- Lebih = more
So lebih suka literally means “to like more”, which corresponds to “to prefer” in English.
- Awak suka belajar di bilik. – You like studying in the room.
- Awak lebih suka belajar di bilik. – You prefer studying in the room (you like it more than other options).
In the sentence, we’re choosing between two options, so lebih suka is the natural way to express preference.
No, that would sound wrong in Malay.
- Lebih here modifies suka, not belajar.
- So the correct order is lebih suka, not suka lebih.
Correct:
- Adakah awak lebih suka belajar sendirian… – Do you prefer to study alone…?
Incorrect:
- Adakah awak suka lebih belajar sendirian… – Sounds unnatural/incorrect.
Belajar covers both “to study” and “to learn”, depending on context.
- Saya belajar Bahasa Melayu.
– I study Malay. / I’m learning Malay.
It refers to the general activity of studying/learning (usually academic, but not always).
There are other words such as:
- Mengaji – can mean religious recitation/study (e.g. the Qur’an), or “study” in some contexts.
- Belajar is the most neutral, general word you want here for studying.
All three convey the idea of “alone”:
Sendirian – alone, by oneself
- belajar sendirian – study alone
Seorang diri – literally “one person self”; more descriptive, slightly more expressive:
- Dia berjalan seorang diri. – He/she walks alone.
Bersendirian – similar to sendirian, slightly more “formal” or literary in feel:
- Dia suka tinggal bersendirian. – He/she likes to live alone.
You could say:
- belajar sendirian di bilik
- belajar seorang diri di bilik
- belajar bersendirian di bilik
All are understandable; sendirian is a very natural choice here.
Both relate to location, but:
- Di = “at / in / on” — a general preposition for location.
- Dalam = “inside (of)” — emphasizes being inside something.
In everyday speech, di bilik is enough and very natural:
- belajar sendirian di bilik – study alone in the room.
If you really want to emphasize the “inside” aspect, you can say:
- belajar sendirian di dalam bilik – study alone inside the room.
In normal conversation, di bilik is perfectly fine and more common.
Bilik generally means “room”.
However, in many everyday contexts, bilik by itself often implies “bedroom”, especially if it’s clear from context (e.g. in a house).
More specific terms:
- Bilik tidur – bedroom
- Bilik mandi – bathroom
- Bilik darjah – classroom
In this sentence, bilik can be understood as your room (often a bedroom or dorm room), but grammatically it just means room.
Both are correct and common:
- Bersama kawan – literally “together (with) friends”;
bersama already implies “together”. - Dengan kawan – literally “with friends”.
Subtle feel:
- Bersama can sound a bit more formal or emphasizes togetherness.
- Dengan is very everyday and neutral.
You could say:
- …belajar bersama kawan di perpustakaan?
- …belajar dengan kawan di perpustakaan?
Both are fine. In casual speech, dengan kawan is extremely common; bersama kawan is also natural and maybe slightly neater or more “textbook-like.”
Malay usually does not mark plural with an ending like English -s. Number is often understood from context.
So kawan can mean:
- a friend or the friend, or
- friends.
If you want to make it clearly plural, you can:
- repeat the noun: kawan-kawan – friends
- use a quantifier: beberapa kawan – several friends, ramai kawan – many friends.
Examples:
- bersama kawan di perpustakaan – with a friend / with friends (context decides)
- bersama kawan-kawan di perpustakaan – clearly with friends (plural)
The comma here separates the two alternative options:
- …belajar sendirian di bilik, atau bersama kawan di perpustakaan?
You will see it with or without the comma in real usage. Both are acceptable:
- With comma: clearer separation of the two choices.
- Without comma: still correct in everyday writing.
Malay punctuation generally follows similar rules to English, but it’s a bit more flexible in informal contexts. In careful written Malay, using the comma here is a good practice because it makes the structure of the sentence clearer.