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Mereka tinggal di pinggir bandar, jadi perjalanan ke pusat bandar agak jauh.

Mereka tinggal di pinggir bandar, jadi perjalanan ke pusat bandar agak jauh.
They live on the outskirts of the city, so the trip to the city center is rather far.
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Questions & Answers about Mereka tinggal di pinggir bandar, jadi perjalanan ke pusat bandar agak jauh.

What does tinggal mean here, and how is it different from other verbs like duduk or hidup?

In this sentence, tinggal means “to live / to reside” (to have your home somewhere).

  • tinggal: to live, stay, reside
    • Mereka tinggal di pinggir bandar = They live on the edge of town.
  • duduk: literally “to sit”, but in informal Malaysian usage it can also mean “to live”
    • Dia duduk di Kuala Lumpur (colloquial) = He/She lives in Kuala Lumpur.
  • hidup: to live in the sense of “to be alive”
    • Dia masih hidup = He/She is still alive.

So for talking about where someone’s home is, tinggal is the safest, most neutral choice in standard Malay.

What exactly does pinggir bandar mean? Is it the same as “suburbs” or “countryside”?

pinggir means edge / margin / outskirts, and bandar means town / city.
So pinggir bandar is “the edge of the city / the outskirts of town”.

In English terms:

  • It is close to “the outskirts” or often “the suburbs”, depending on context.
  • It is not the same as “countryside”.
    • For “countryside / rural area”, Malay usually uses luar bandar or kawasan luar bandar.

So tinggal di pinggir bandar suggests being near the city but not right in the centre, not truly rural.

Is Mereka tinggal di pinggir bandar the normal word order? Can I say Di pinggir bandar mereka tinggal?

Mereka tinggal di pinggir bandar is the most common and neutral word order:
[Subject] [Verb] [Place].

You can say Di pinggir bandar mereka tinggal, but:

  • It sounds more emphatic, stylistic, or literary.
  • It puts extra focus on the location: “On the edge of town is where they live.”

For everyday speech and writing, stick with Mereka tinggal di pinggir bandar.

How is jadi used here? Is it formal, and how does it compare to oleh itu or sebab itu?

Here jadi is a conjunction meaning “so / therefore”:

  • Mereka tinggal di pinggir bandar, jadi perjalanan ke pusat bandar agak jauh.
    = They live on the edge of town, so the trip to the city centre is quite far.

Register:

  • jadi: neutral–informal, very common in speech and general writing.
  • sebab itu / oleh itu: a bit more formal or “bookish”.
    • Mereka tinggal di pinggir bandar, sebab itu perjalanan ke pusat bandar agak jauh.
    • Mereka tinggal di pinggir bandar, oleh itu perjalanan ke pusat bandar agak jauh.

All are understandable; for everyday conversation, jadi is the most natural.

Why is there a comma before jadi? Could I use a full stop instead?

The comma separates two related clauses in one sentence:

  • Clause 1: Mereka tinggal di pinggir bandar
  • Clause 2: jadi perjalanan ke pusat bandar agak jauh

You could also write them as two sentences:

  • Mereka tinggal di pinggir bandar. Jadi perjalanan ke pusat bandar agak jauh.

Both are grammatically fine. With a full stop, jadi acts more like sentence-initial “So,” in English:

  • “They live on the edge of town. So the trip to the city centre is quite far.”
What is the difference between bandar and pusat bandar?
  • bandar = town / city in general.
  • pusat bandar = city centre / downtown (literally “city centre/core”).

So:

  • Mereka tinggal di pinggir bandar
    = They live on the edge of town.
  • perjalanan ke pusat bandar
    = the trip to the city centre (i.e. into downtown).
What does perjalanan mean, and why use this noun instead of a verb like pergi?

perjalanan comes from the root jalan (road / to walk / to go) with the nominalising prefix-suffix per-…-an, and means:

  • “journey / trip / travel” (a noun)

In the sentence:

  • perjalanan ke pusat bandar agak jauh
    = the journey/trip to the city centre is quite far.

Malay often uses a noun phrase as the subject like this. English might prefer a more verbal structure (“going to the city centre takes a long time”), but Malay keeps it simple with a noun:

  • Perjalanan ke pusat bandar agak jauh. ✔ (natural)
  • Verb-based alternatives are also possible, e.g.
    • Untuk pergi ke pusat bandar, jaraknya agak jauh.
    • Pergi ke pusat bandar mengambil masa yang lama.
What nuance does agak add to jauh? How strong is it compared to sangat or terlalu?

agak here means “rather / quite / fairly / somewhat”. It softens or moderates the adjective.

Strength (roughly from weaker to stronger):

  • sedikit jauh = a bit far
  • agak jauh = quite / rather far
  • sangat jauh / amat jauh = very far
  • terlalu jauh = too far (excessively far)

So agak jauh suggests:

  • It is far, but said in a slightly polite / understated / moderate way, not dramatic.
In English we might say “the commute to the city centre is quite long.” Does perjalanan ke pusat bandar also mean “commute”, or is there a better word?

perjalanan ke pusat bandar literally means “the journey/trip to the city centre”.
Whether it means a commute depends on context:

  • If you’re talking about going there regularly for work or study, listeners will understand it as the commute.
  • For “commute” more explicitly, you can say:
    • perjalanan ulang-alik ke pusat bandar
      (ulang-alik = to go back and forth / commute)
    • perjalanan harian ke pusat bandar (daily trip to the city centre)

But in many everyday contexts, perjalanan ke pusat bandar is enough; the idea of “commute” is understood from the situation.

Can this sentence refer to the past or future, or is it only present tense?

Malay verbs are not inflected for tense, so:

  • Mereka tinggal di pinggir bandar, jadi perjalanan ke pusat bandar agak jauh.

By itself, it is time-neutral and usually understood as present / general fact.

To make the time clear, you add time expressions:

  • Past:
    • Dulu mereka tinggal di pinggir bandar, jadi perjalanan ke pusat bandar agak jauh.
      = In the past they lived on the edge of town, so the trip to the city centre was quite far.
  • Future:
    • Minggu depan mereka akan tinggal di pinggir bandar, jadi perjalanan ke pusat bandar akan agak jauh.
      = Next week they will live on the edge of town, so the trip to the city centre will be quite far.

Without such markers, the default reading is present / habitual.

Are these words standard in both Malaysia and Indonesia, or are some of them more Malaysian?

Most of the vocabulary is shared, but some parts are more Malaysian in this exact form.

Shared / understood in both varieties:
mereka, tinggal, di, pinggir, jadi, perjalanan, ke, agak, jauh

Differences:

  • bandar
    • Malaysia: town/city
    • Indonesia: usually “port / harbour” or “airfield”, not “city”.
  • pusat bandar (“city centre”)
    • Malaysia: natural and common.
    • Indonesia: people normally say pusat kota, not pusat bandar.

Indonesian-style equivalent:

  • Mereka tinggal di pinggiran kota, jadi perjalanan ke pusat kota agak jauh.
How would the sentence change if I want to say “we” instead of “they”?

Replace mereka (“they”) with kami or kita (“we”), depending on inclusiveness:

  • kami = we (excluding the listener)
    • Kami tinggal di pinggir bandar, jadi perjalanan ke pusat bandar agak jauh.
      = We live on the edge of town, so the trip to the city centre is quite far. (You don’t live there.)
  • kita = we (including the listener)
    • Kita tinggal di pinggir bandar, jadi perjalanan ke pusat bandar agak jauh.
      = We (you and I) live on the edge of town, so the trip to the city centre is quite far.

The rest of the sentence stays the same.