Learn Hardcore Malay: Ibu sediakan sarapan setiap pagi. - Mother prepares breakfast every morning.

In Malay, kinship terms like ibu, ayah, kakak, etc. can imply “my …” when used without a possessive and when you’re talking about your own family.
So Ibu sediakan sarapan setiap pagi is naturally understood as “Mom prepares breakfast every morning.”
If you wanted to make it explicitly “my mother”, you could say:
- Ibu saya sediakan sarapan setiap pagi. – My mother prepares breakfast every morning.

Why is sediakan used instead of menyediakan? Are both correct?

Both sediakan and menyediakan are correct; the difference is mainly formality and style.

The “full” verb is menyediakan (meN- + sedia + -kan).
In everyday spoken Malay, the meN- prefix is often dropped, especially after a clear subject:
- Ibu menyediakan sarapan setiap pagi. – more formal/standard, typical in writing.
- Ibu sediakan sarapan setiap pagi. – more colloquial/natural in speech.
Meaning-wise, they are the same here: both mean “to prepare (something)”.

What does sediakan literally mean, and what does the suffix -kan do?

The base word sedia means “ready”.

The verb sediakan comes from sedia + -kan, and -kan often has a causative or “do X to something” function. So sediakan roughly means:

“to make (something) ready” / “to get (something) ready” → “to prepare (something)”

Because of -kan, sediakan is usually transitive – it needs an object:

Ibu sediakan sarapan. – Mother prepares breakfast.
Tolong sediakan air. – Please prepare/get the water ready.

Without -kan, sedia is used more as “ready” (adjective or stative):

Makanan sudah sedia. – The food is ready.

What is the difference between sarapan, sarapan pagi, and makan pagi?

All three can mean “breakfast”, but there are small nuances:

sarapan – the standard word for “breakfast.”
- Ibu sediakan sarapan. – Mom prepares breakfast.
sarapan pagi – literally “morning breakfast”, a bit redundant but very common and natural in speech.
- Ibu sediakan sarapan pagi setiap hari.
makan pagi – literally “morning meal/eating.”
- Used in some regions and more informal/colloquial:
- Kami makan pagi di kedai. – We have breakfast at the shop.

In most everyday situations, sarapan and sarapan pagi are the most commonly used.

Can I move setiap pagi to the beginning of the sentence?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct, and it’s quite natural.

Ibu sediakan sarapan setiap pagi. – neutral word order.
Setiap pagi, Ibu sediakan sarapan. – puts a bit more emphasis on the time (“Every morning, Mom prepares breakfast.”).

Malay is quite flexible with time expressions: setiap pagi, semalam, esok, etc. can appear at the beginning or end of the sentence without changing the basic meaning.

How do we know the tense? Could this mean “prepared” or “will prepare” instead of “prepares”?

Malay does not mark tense on the verb like English does. The bare verb form sediakan can cover past, present, or future.

We understand the time and aspect from context and time expressions:

setiap pagi (“every morning”) shows this is a habitual action, so the best English translation is:
- “(My) mother prepares breakfast every morning.”

In a different context, the same verb could refer to the past or future, for example:

Semalam, ibu sediakan sarapan. – Yesterday, Mom prepared breakfast.
Esok, ibu akan sediakan sarapan. – Tomorrow, Mom will prepare breakfast.
(Here akan makes the future time clearer.)

How would I say “My mother prepares our breakfast every morning” in Malay?

A couple of natural options are:

Ibu saya sediakan sarapan kami setiap pagi.
– Literally: My mother prepares our breakfast every morning.
Ibu saya sediakan sarapan untuk kami setiap pagi.
– My mother prepares breakfast for us every morning.

Notes:

saya makes the “my” explicit: ibu saya = my mother.
kami = we/us (excluding the person spoken to).
If you want to include the listener, you would use kita:
- Ibu saya sediakan sarapan kita setiap pagi. – my mother prepares our (yours and mine) breakfast every morning.

Are there other common ways to say “mother” besides Ibu?

Yes, Malay has several common terms for “mother,” varying by region, formality, and culture:

Ibu – neutral, polite, widely understood; common in writing and formal or polite speech.
Emak / Mak – more colloquial/informal, often used at home or in rural areas.
Mama / Mummy – more modern/urban, influenced by English/other languages.
Ummi / Umi – used in many Malay Muslim families, from Arabic.

The grammar of the sentence stays the same if you swap Ibu with another term:

Mak sediakan sarapan setiap pagi.
Mama sediakan sarapan setiap pagi.

Is this sentence considered formal, or is it mainly used in spoken Malay?

Ibu sediakan sarapan setiap pagi sounds natural and conversational, and it’s common in spoken Malay and informal writing (messages, social media, etc.).

For more formal or standard written Malay, you would usually see:

Ibu menyediakan sarapan setiap pagi.
Ibu saya menyediakan sarapan setiap pagi.

So:

sediakan → more informal/spoken.
menyediakan → more formal/standard, suitable for essays, news, textbooks, etc.

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

Malay doesn’t use auxiliary verbs like “do/does” for questions or emphasis, and it doesn’t need a separate “is/are/am” when there’s a main verb.

The structure is simply:

Subject + Verb + Object + Time
Ibu (subject) sediakan (verb) sarapan (object) setiap pagi (time)

So English “Mom does prepare breakfast every morning” or “Mom prepares breakfast every morning” both map to the same simple Malay structure without any extra auxiliary verb.