Tugasan sejarah saya sudah selesai.

My history assignment is already finished.

Breakdown of Tugasan sejarah saya sudah selesai.

• sejarah: the history
• saya: my
• sudah: already
• selesai: to finish
• tugasan: assignment

Questions & Answers about Tugasan sejarah saya sudah selesai.

What does tugasan mean exactly, and how is it different from tugas or kerja rumah?

• tugasan = an assignment / a task that has been set (usually more specific, e.g. school assignment, work assignment).
• tugas = duty / task in a more general sense (your role, responsibility, job).
• kerja rumah = homework (literally house work, but idiomatically homework for students).

In Tugasan sejarah saya sudah selesai, tugasan is natural for a school assignment (like an essay or project).
You could say kerja rumah sejarah saya for my history homework, but it sounds a bit more like daily homework rather than a more formal assignment.

Why is sejarah (history) placed after tugasan? Can I say sejarah tugasan saya instead?

Malay usually puts the main noun first, and the describing noun after it:

• tugasan sejarah = history assignment (an assignment about history)
• buku sejarah = history book
• guru sejarah = history teacher

So tugasan is the type of thing, and sejarah tells you what subject it’s about.

Sejarah tugasan saya is not natural; it would sound like the history of my assignment, which is a different meaning.

How does possession work in tugasan sejarah saya? Why is saya at the end?

In Malay, possession typically comes after the noun phrase:

• tugasan sejarah saya = my history assignment
• rumah saya = my house
• telefon baru saya = my new phone

So the structure here is:

• tugasan (assignment)
• sejarah (history – describing what kind of assignment)
• saya (my)

Altogether: tugasan sejarah saya = my history assignment.

An informal alternative is tugasan sejarah saya punya, or saya punya tugasan sejarah, but those are more colloquial and not needed in a simple sentence like this.

What does sudah do here? Is it the same as already in English?

sudah marks something as already done / completed (perfect aspect).

In Tugasan sejarah saya sudah selesai:

• sudah = already / now (indicating completion)
• selesai = finished

So the idea is My history assignment is already finished / is (now) finished.

You can think of sudah as similar to:

• English already in My assignment is already finished.
• English now in My assignment is finished now.

Both senses (already + now finished) are often present.

Can I omit sudah and just say Tugasan sejarah saya selesai?

You can say Tugasan sejarah saya selesai, and it is grammatically correct, but:

• Tugasan sejarah saya sudah selesai
  – emphasizes the completion, roughly My assignment is already finished.

• Tugasan sejarah saya selesai
  – feels more like a plain statement of state: My assignment is finished.
  It can sound a bit more neutral or even slightly abrupt, depending on context.

In everyday speech, people very often include sudah / dah when they want to highlight that something has now been completed.

What is the difference between sudah and telah here?

Both can mean already, but they differ in style:

• sudah
  
  • very common in everyday, neutral Malay
  • also used in writing
• telah
  
  • more formal, often in writing (news, reports, official documents)
  • less common in casual speech

You could say:

• Tugasan sejarah saya telah selesai.

This is correct and sounds more formal, like something you might write in a report or formal email, not usually in casual conversation with friends.

What does selesai mean here? Is it a verb or an adjective?

selesai means finished / completed.

Malay does not draw a strict line between verbs and adjectives the way English does. In this sentence, selesai acts as the predicate (like finished in My assignment is finished).

You can see it in different patterns:

• Tugasan sejarah saya sudah selesai.
  – My history assignment is already finished.

• Saya sudah selesai.
  – I’m done / I’ve finished.

So you don’t need a separate to be verb; selesai itself serves as the main predicate.

Why is there no word like “is” in this sentence?

Malay generally does not use a separate “to be” verb in simple present-tense statements like this. Instead:

• Tugasan sejarah saya (my history assignment)
• sudah selesai (already finished)

So the pattern is simply:

[Subject] + [Predicate]

No extra is / am / are is needed.
This is normal in Malay, especially with adjectives or stative verbs:

• Dia lapar. = He/She is hungry.
• Mereka letih. = They are tired.
• Pintu terbuka. = The door is open.

Is tugasan singular or plural? How would I say my history assignments are finished?

Malay nouns usually don’t change form for singular vs plural. Tugasan can mean assignment or assignments, depending on context.

To make the plural clearer, you can add a word:

• beberapa tugasan sejarah saya sudah selesai
  = several of my history assignments are already finished

• semua tugasan sejarah saya sudah selesai
  = all my history assignments are already finished

But Tugasan sejarah saya sudah selesai by itself could be understood as the assignment or the assignments, based on the situation.

Can I say Tugas sejarah saya sudah selesai instead of Tugasan sejarah saya sudah selesai?

You can, and people will understand you:

• Tugas sejarah saya sudah selesai.

However:

• tugasan sounds more like a specific assignment (a given piece of work).
• tugas is more general duty/task.

In a school context, tugasan is very natural and slightly more precise for an assignment. Using tugas is not wrong; it just feels a bit more general.

What is an informal way to say this among friends?

A more informal / colloquial version might be:

• Kerja sejarah aku dah siap.
• Assignment sejarah aku dah siap.

Changes:

• saya → aku (informal I / my)
• sudah → dah (spoken contraction)
• siap instead of selesai (siap is very common colloquially for done / ready)
• assignment (English loanword) is also widely used in casual speech.

But in a neutral, correct Malay sentence, Tugasan sejarah saya sudah selesai is perfectly fine and polite.

Is it okay to move sudah selesai to the front, like Sudah selesai tugasan sejarah saya?

Yes, you can say:

• Sudah selesai tugasan sejarah saya.

This is grammatically correct and used in speech. Moving sudah selesai to the front adds emphasis on the completion:

• Sudah selesai tugasan sejarah saya.
  ≈ My history assignment is (finally) done.

The neutral word order, especially in writing or careful speech, is still:

• Tugasan sejarah saya sudah selesai.