Learn Hardcore Malay: Tugasan minggu lepas kami belum siapkan, tetapi tugasan harian kami sudah siap. - Last week’s assignment we have not finished, but our daily tasks are already done.

Base SVO version:
- Kami belum menyiapkan tugasan minggu lepas, tetapi kami sudah menyiapkan tugasan harian.
- We haven’t finished last week’s assignment, but we have finished the daily assignment.
In your sentence:
- Tugasan minggu lepas kami belum siapkan
- Literally: Last week’s assignment we (still) haven’t finished (it).

Here, tugasan minggu lepas is topicalized (brought to the front) to highlight that thing:

What about last week’s assignment? → That, we haven’t done.
Then contrast: but the daily assignment, we have finished.

This fronting is very natural in spoken and written Malay, especially when contrasting two things, as in your example.

What is the difference between siap, siapkan, and menyiapkan?

All three are related to the idea of finishing/completing something, but they differ in formality and grammar.

siap
- Base adjective/verb: ready, finished, done.
- Can be:
  - Stative: describing a state
    - Kerja saya sudah siap. – My work is already finished.
  - Or used as a verb in informal speech:
    - Dah siap? – Finished? / Are you done?
siapkan
- siap + -kan: a transitive verb (takes a direct object), often informal/neutral.
- Means to finish/complete (something):
  - Saya belum siapkan tugasan itu. – I haven’t finished that assignment.
menyiapkan
- meN- + siap + -kan: more formal/standard transitive verb.
- Also means to finish/prepare/complete (something):
  - Saya belum menyiapkan tugasan itu.

In your sentence:

… kami belum siapkan = we haven’t finished (it)
(object tugasan minggu lepas is already stated in front, so it’s omitted after the verb).

More formal equivalents:

Kami belum menyiapkan tugasan minggu lepas.
Tugasan minggu lepas belum kami siapkan.

Why is it belum siapkan in the first part but sudah siap in the second part? Why not sudah siapkan or belum siap?

Because the first clause is focusing on finishing an object, and the second is focusing on the state of being finished.

First clause: tugasan minggu lepas kami belum siapkan
- There is a clear object: tugasan minggu lepas.
- Verb is transitive: siapkan (finish something).
- Paraphrase: Kami belum menyiapkan tugasan minggu lepas.
  → We have not finished last week’s assignment.
Second clause: tetapi tugasan harian kami sudah siap
- Focus is on the state of the daily assignment: it is already done/ready.
- Here siap is more of an adjective/stative verb: finished/ready.
- Paraphrase: … tetapi tugasan harian kami telah siap disiapkan/dilakukan.
  → … but our daily assignment is already finished.

You could say:

… tetapi tugasan harian kami sudah kami siapkan.
(more explicitly transitive; still correct)

But the original uses a nice contrast:

not yet finished (action not completed)
vs
already in a finished state (result state).

What is the difference between belum and tidak here?

Belum and tidak are both negators, but they are not interchangeable.

tidak = not / do not / is not (neutral negative)
- Saya tidak faham. – I don’t understand.
- Dia tidak sibuk. – He/She is not busy.
belum = not yet
- Implies that the action/state might happen in the future.
- Saya belum faham. – I don’t understand yet. (I may understand later)
- Dia belum sampai. – He/She hasn’t arrived yet.

In your sentence:

kami belum siapkan = we have not finished yet (but maybe we will).
kami tidak siapkan would suggest we do not finish / we refuse to finish / we don’t (ever) finish, which sounds wrong or stubborn in this context.

So belum is correct because it’s about an unfinished but expected/possible action.

Why does kami come after tugasan minggu lepas and tugasan harian, instead of at the start like Kami belum…?

Putting kami after the noun phrase is another way of marking topic vs. subject.

Your pattern:

Tugasan minggu lepas kami belum siapkan
tugasan harian kami sudah siap

Structure:

[Tugasan minggu lepas] [kami] [belum siapkan]
[Tugasan harian] [kami] [sudah siap]

This does two things:

Topicalizes the tasks
The assignments are the topic (what we’re talking about), so they come first.
Keeps subject right before its verb phrase
After the topic, we get kami belum siapkan / kami sudah siap.

Very similar feel to English:

Last week’s assignment, we haven’t finished (it) yet, but our daily assignment, we’ve already finished.

More standard alternatives:

Kami belum menyiapkan tugasan minggu lepas, tetapi kami sudah menyiapkan tugasan harian.
Tugasan minggu lepas belum kami siapkan, tetapi tugasan harian sudah kami siapkan.

All are acceptable; your version is quite natural in everyday usage.

What is the exact meaning and nuance of tugasan? Is it just work?

Tugasan comes from:

tugas = duty / task / assignment
tugas + -an → tugasan = task(s), assignment(s), set of tasks

Nuance:

Often used for assigned tasks, especially in:
- school/university: tugasan sekolah, tugasan universiti
- work contexts: tugasan pejabat, tugasan projek

Compared to:

kerja = work in general (job, labor, chores)
pekerjaan = occupation / job (profession)
PR / kerja rumah = homework (colloquial)

In your sentence, tugasan is best understood as assignment(s) or task(s), not just generic work.

What does minggu lepas mean exactly? Is it different from minggu lalu?

Both minggu lepas and minggu lalu mean last week.

minggu = week
lepas / lalu = past / last / previous

Usage:

minggu lepas – very common in Malaysian Malay.
minggu lalu – also correct and common; sometimes felt a bit more formal.

Other related expressions:

minggu depan – next week
minggu ini – this week
minggu yang lepas / minggu yang lalu – last week (slightly more formal/explicit because of yang)

In your sentence, tugasan minggu lepas = last week’s assignment.

What does tugasan harian mean? How is it different from tugasan mingguan or kerja harian?

Breakdown:

harian = daily (from hari = day)
tugasan harian = daily assignment(s)/tasks

Contrast:

tugasan harian – tasks/assignments that are done every day.
tugasan mingguan – weekly tasks/assignments.
kerja harian – daily work (more general, not necessarily “assigned” as in school).

In your sentence:

tugasan minggu lepas → assignments from last week (one-time group of tasks).
tugasan harian → regular daily assignments that you do every day.

What is the difference between kami and kita, and why is kami used here?

Both kami and kita mean we, but they differ in inclusiveness:

kami = we (excluding the listener)
→ The person you’re talking to is not included.
kita = we (including the listener)
→ The person you’re talking to is included.

So:

Kami belum siapkan tugasan minggu lepas.
– We (but not you) haven’t finished last week’s assignment.
Kita belum siapkan tugasan minggu lepas.
– We (including you) haven’t finished last week’s assignment.

In your sentence, kami implies:

The group responsible for the assignments does not include the person being spoken to (for example, students talking to a teacher).

Can I replace tetapi with tapi? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can. Both mean but / however.

tetapi
- More formal or neutral.
- Common in writing, formal speech, and careful conversation.
tapi
- Colloquial/shortened form.
- Very common in everyday speech.

So you can say:

… kami belum siapkan, tetapi tugasan harian kami sudah siap. (more formal/neutral)
… kami belum siapkan, tapi tugasan harian kami sudah siap. (very natural conversational style)

Meaning is the same; the difference is mainly formality.

Could I say kami sudah siapkan tugasan harian instead of tugasan harian kami sudah siap? Is there any nuance?

Yes, that is correct, and the meaning is essentially the same.

Tugasan harian kami sudah siap.
- Focus: the state of the daily assignment – it is already finished.
- Slightly more result/state-oriented.
Kami sudah siapkan tugasan harian.
- Focus: we completed the daily assignment.
- Slightly more actor/action-oriented.

In your original sentence, using tugasan harian kami sudah siap nicely mirrors the structure of the first clause (tugasan minggu lepas kami…) and keeps both clauses topic-first:

Tugasan minggu lepas kami belum siapkan,
tetapi tugasan harian kami sudah siap.

Why is there no word like “have” (as in “have finished”) in Malay?

Malay does not use a separate verb like have to form perfect tenses. Instead, it uses aspect markers such as sudah and belum:

sudah / telah = already / have (done)
- Kami sudah siap. – We are already finished / We have finished.
belum = not yet / have not (yet)
- Kami belum siapkan tugasan itu. – We haven’t finished that assignment yet.

So your sentence:

kami belum siapkan ≈ we have not yet finished
kami sudah siap ≈ we have already finished / we are already done

Malay uses adverbs (sudah, belum) plus context, rather than a separate auxiliary have, to express this kind of completed vs. not-yet-completed meaning.