Learn Hardcore Malay: Kami bersemangat belajar Bahasa Inggeris bersama di perpustakaan. - We are enthusiastic about learning English together in the library.

In Kami bersemangat belajar Bahasa Inggeris bersama di perpustakaan, kami tells us that the group who is enthusiastic does not include the person being spoken to.

If the speaker wanted to include the listener (“You and I are excited to study English together at the library”), they would say:

Kita bersemangat belajar Bahasa Inggeris bersama di perpustakaan.

Why is there no word for “am/are/is” (like to be) in Kami bersemangat?

Malay usually does not use a separate verb like am/are/is before adjectives.

English: We are excited.
Malay: Kami bersemangat. (literally: We excited)

The adjective (or adjective-like word) itself functions as the predicate.
You do not say Kami adalah bersemangat in everyday speech; adalah is used in more formal, specific structures, usually before nouns, not adjectives:

Ini adalah buku saya. = This is my book.
But: Saya gembira. = I am happy (no adalah).

What does the prefix ber- in bersemangat mean, and could I just say semangat?

The prefix ber- often means to have / to possess / to be in the state of something, or it can make a verb out of a noun/adjective.

semangat = spirit, enthusiasm
bersemangat = to be enthusiastic / to have spirit

So Kami bersemangat = We are enthusiastic / full of spirit.

In some casual contexts, people might say something like:

Kami sangat semangat belajar…

That’s understood, but bersemangat is more standard and natural when you mean enthusiastic. Think of bersemangat as the normal way to say excited / motivated in this kind of sentence.

Does belajar mean both “to study” and “to learn”? Why no word for “to”?

Yes, belajar can mean both to study and to learn, depending on context.

Saya belajar Bahasa Inggeris.
= I study / I am learning English.

Malay does not use a separate word like English to before the verb in this structure. Belajar itself already means to study / to learn, so:

English: We are excited to study English.
Malay: Kami bersemangat belajar Bahasa Inggeris.
(you don’t say untuk belajar here; it would sound unnatural).

You do see untuk (for / in order to) before verbs in other patterns, but not in this basic “be excited to do X” pattern.

Why is Bahasa Inggeris written with two words, and how should it be capitalized?

Bahasa Inggeris literally means English language:

bahasa = language
Inggeris = English (as in English (British))

It is normally written as two words.

On capitalization, modern Malay practice is:

Common noun bahasa is usually lower-case: bahasa Inggeris.
But many people (and older materials) write Bahasa Inggeris with a capital B, by analogy with Bahasa Melayu/Bahasa Malaysia.

So you will see both Bahasa Inggeris and bahasa Inggeris. In everyday usage, both are widely understood and accepted.

Can I just say Inggeris instead of Bahasa Inggeris?

Sometimes, yes, especially in casual speech, context can make it clear:

Saya belajar Inggeris.
People will usually understand this as I study English (language).

However, Bahasa Inggeris is clearer and more standard, especially for learners, and is the normal full expression when talking about the language. Dropping bahasa is more colloquial and may sound slightly less formal.

What does bersama mean, and where can it appear in the sentence?

Bersama means together / with (together).

In this sentence:

belajar Bahasa Inggeris bersama di perpustakaan
≈ study English together at the library

You can move bersama a bit without changing the meaning much:

Kami bersemangat belajar Bahasa Inggeris di perpustakaan bersama.
Kami bersemangat belajar bersama Bahasa Inggeris di perpustakaan. (less common, slightly awkward)

The most natural placements are:

…belajar Bahasa Inggeris bersama di perpustakaan.
…belajar bersama di perpustakaan. (if what you study is already known)

Malay word order is fairly flexible at the adverb level, but the original version is very natural.

What is the function of di in di perpustakaan, and why is it written separately?

Di is a preposition of place, roughly at / in / on in English.

di perpustakaan = at the library / in the library

As a preposition, di must be written separately from the noun:

di
- perpustakaan → di perpustakaan

You only write di- attached to a word when it is a prefix for passive verbs, e.g.:

ditulis = is/was written
dibaca = is/was read

So:

location: di rumah, di sekolah, di perpustakaan
passive verb: ditulis, dibuat, dibaca, etc.

Does this sentence show tense? How do we know if it’s past, present, or future?

Malay verbs usually do not change form for tense. The bare sentence:

Kami bersemangat belajar Bahasa Inggeris bersama di perpustakaan.

can mean:

We are excited to study English together at the library. (present/general)
We were excited to study English together at the library. (past, if context shows)
We will be excited to study English together at the library. (less likely without a time word)

To make tense/time clearer, Malay adds time markers, not verb endings:

Tadi kami bersemangat… = Earlier, we were excited…
Sekarang kami bersemangat… = Now we are excited…
Esok kami akan bersemangat… = Tomorrow we will be excited…

Akan is often used to mark future, but it’s optional if the time word is clear from context.

Is perpustakaan the normal word for “library”? Is it formal?

Yes, perpustakaan is the standard Malay word for library.

per- + pustaka + -an
pustaka = books/literature (from Sanskrit origin)
perpustakaan = place related to books → library

It is the usual word in all normal contexts (schools, universities, public libraries). It’s not overly formal; it’s just the correct word.

In very casual speech, people might say things like library (borrowing the English word), but perpustakaan is what you should learn and use.

Why is there no article like “the” or “a” before perpustakaan?

Malay does not use articles like a/an/the.

perpustakaan can mean a library or the library, depending on context.

If you really need to specify, you use other words:

perpustakaan itu = that library / the library (already known)
sebuah perpustakaan = a library (one library; more explicit, but often not needed)

In your sentence, di perpustakaan is naturally understood as “at the library” in English.

Could the word order be Kami bersemangat di perpustakaan belajar Bahasa Inggeris bersama? Is that acceptable?

That word order is grammatical, but it sounds less natural and a bit clumsy.

Malay prefers to keep:

the main predicate close to the subject: Kami bersemangat belajar…
then complements and adverbs: …Bahasa Inggeris bersama di perpustakaan.

So the original:

Kami bersemangat belajar Bahasa Inggeris bersama di perpustakaan.

is much more natural than:

Kami bersemangat di perpustakaan belajar Bahasa Inggeris bersama.

The second version is understandable, but Malay speakers would almost always choose the original order or something very close to it.