Breakdown of Kakak saya biasanya berjoging sebelum sarapan.
Questions & Answers about Kakak saya biasanya berjoging sebelum sarapan.
In Malay, possessives are usually noun + possessor, the opposite of English:
- kakak saya = older sister + I → “my older sister”
- rumah mereka = house + they → “their house”
Saya kakak would sound wrong in this context; it would be interpreted more like “I am (an) older sister” in the right structure (e.g. Saya kakak kepada Ali = “I am Ali’s older sister”).
There is also a more colloquial structure:
- saya punya kakak = “my sister” (literally “I have older sister” / “the sister I own”)
…but in normal, neutral Malay, kakak saya is the standard way to say “my older sister.”
In standard Malay:
- kakak = older sister (female, older than you)
- abang = older brother (male, older than you)
- adik = younger sibling (younger than you, any gender)
So kakak saya is specifically “my older sister,” not “my older brother.”
In everyday speech, people also use these as forms of address for slightly older people:
- You might call an older woman Kak or Kakak even if she’s not your real sister.
- You might call an older man Abang.
But the word kakak itself is still associated with female gender in standard usage.
It depends on context:
- Kakak saya biasanya berjoging… is very clear: “my older sister usually jogs…”
- Kakak biasanya berjoging… could mean:
- “(You) usually jog…” if you are politely addressing your older sister as Kakak, or
- “(The/their/our) older sister usually jogs…” if context makes it clear who you mean.
Malay often omits possessives when they are obvious from context. But if you want to be explicit for a learner’s sentence, kakak saya is safer and clearer than just kakak.
Biasanya means “usually / normally / as a rule.”
In your sentence:
- Kakak saya biasanya berjoging sebelum sarapan.
“My older sister usually jogs before breakfast.”
That position (after the subject kakak saya) is very natural. You can also move it to the front:
- Biasanya kakak saya berjoging sebelum sarapan.
This puts a bit more emphasis on “as a rule / generally.”
You would not normally put it in the middle of the verb phrase like:
- ✗ Kakak saya berjoging biasanya sebelum sarapan. (sounds awkward)
So the good patterns are:
- [Subject] + biasanya + [Verb…]
- Biasanya + [Subject] + [Verb…]
Malay verbs do not change form for tense like English does. Berjoging is the same for:
- “jogs”
- “is jogging”
- “was jogging”
- “will jog”
In your sentence, the adverb biasanya (“usually”) tells us it’s a habitual action, so natural English is:
- “My older sister usually jogs before breakfast.”
If you want to be more explicit about time, you add time words:
- Semalam kakak saya berjoging sebelum sarapan.
“Yesterday my older sister jogged before breakfast.” - Esok kakak saya akan berjoging sebelum sarapan.
“Tomorrow my older sister will jog before breakfast.”
(akan is a common future marker.)
Joging is a borrowed word from English “jogging”. In Malay, many actions use the prefix ber- to form a verb:
- berlari – to run
- berjalan – to walk
- berbual – to chat
By adding ber- to joging, we get berjoging, which behaves like a normal Malay verb: “to jog.”
In practice:
- In standard / careful Malay, berjoging is preferred.
- In casual speech, some people just say joging as a verb:
Kakak saya joging setiap pagi. (colloquial, widely understood)
For a learner aiming at neutral, correct Malay, berjoging is a good choice.
Sebelum means “before” and it comes before the event it refers to:
- sebelum sarapan = before breakfast
- sebelum tidur = before sleeping / before bed
- sebelum kerja = before work
The normal pattern is:
- [Action A] sebelum [Action/Event B]
“Action A before Action B”
So:
- Kakak saya berjoging sebelum sarapan.
“My older sister jogs before breakfast.”
You cannot shift sebelum to the end the way English moves “before”:
- ✗ Kakak saya berjoging sarapan sebelum. (incorrect)
It can function as both, depending on context.
As a noun:
- Saya sudah makan sarapan.
“I have already eaten breakfast.” - sebelum sarapan = before (the) breakfast
As a verb (“to have breakfast / to eat breakfast”):
- Saya belum sarapan.
“I haven’t had breakfast yet.” - Kami sedang sarapan.
“We are having breakfast.”
In sebelum sarapan, it’s easiest to understand it as a noun: “before breakfast.”
There is also a verb form bersarapan (“to have breakfast”), but sarapan alone is very common and natural.
Malay generally does not use articles like “a / an / the.”
- kakak saya = “my older sister” (literally: older-sister + I)
- There is no need for “the” to mark definiteness; saya already shows it’s specific (your sister).
If you wanted to say “an older sister” in a more abstract sense, you’d probably rephrase, for example:
- Seorang kakak biasanya berjoging sebelum sarapan.
“An older sister (as a type of person) usually jogs before breakfast.”
Here seorang is a classifier for “one person,” but in everyday “my X” sentences, you just say [noun] saya without any article.
You add tidak before the verb:
- Kakak saya biasanya tidak berjoging sebelum sarapan.
“My older sister usually doesn’t jog before breakfast.”
Position pattern:
- [Subject] + biasanya + tidak + [Verb Phrase]
Some variations with slightly different emphasis are possible, but this is the clearest and most natural for learners.