Learn Hardcore Malay: Kami makan kek manis pada hari lahir nenek saya. - We eat sweet cake on my grandmother's birthday.

kita orang / kita org / kita orang makan… (Malaysia)
kita makan… (Indonesia, often used more broadly but still “we including you” in careful speech).

There is no word for “ate” or a past tense marker. How do we know this sentence is in the past?

Malay verbs do not change form for tense. The verb makan can mean:

makan = eat / eats / ate / is eating / will eat, depending on context.

We understand it as past (ate) because of the context: pada hari lahir nenek saya refers to a specific event in time (my grandmother’s birthday), which is usually understood as an occasion that has already happened, unless specified otherwise.

If you want to make the past meaning explicit, you can add a time/aspect word:

Kami sudah makan kek manis… – We already ate a sweet cake…
Tadi kami makan kek manis… – Earlier we ate a sweet cake…

But in everyday Malay, simple makan with a past-time context is enough.

Why is it kek manis and not manis kek?

In Malay, the normal word order is:

NOUN + ADJECTIVE

So:

kek manis = sweet cake
- kek (noun) = cake
- manis (adjective) = sweet

Saying manis kek would sound wrong or very strange in standard Malay. It would be like saying “sweet cake” in the order “sweet cake” vs. “cake sweet” in English – reversed.

Other examples:

baju baharu – new shirt
rumah besar – big house
kucing hitam – black cat

Always: noun first, describing word after.

Does kek here mean one cake or many cakes? How do you show plural in Malay?

By default, kek is number-neutral. It can mean “cake” or “cakes” depending on context. Malay usually does not mark plural on the noun itself.

To be more specific:

satu kek manis – one sweet cake
dua kek manis – two sweet cakes
banyak kek manis – many sweet cakes

You can also repeat the noun (reduplication), but for countable things this is more about variety than simple plural:

kek-kek manis – (various) sweet cakes / lots of sweet cakes of different types

In the original sentence, kek manis could naturally be understood as either:

one sweet cake shared by the group, or
cake in general served at the birthday (could be slices/or more than one cake).

Context would decide which is intended.

What is the function of pada before hari lahir? Could we use di instead?

pada is a preposition often used:

before times or dates:
- pada hari Isnin – on Monday
- pada pukul tiga – at three o’clock
before certain abstract nouns:
- pada masa itu – at that time

In pada hari lahir nenek saya, pada is equivalent to English “on”:

pada hari lahir nenek saya – on my grandmother’s birthday

Using di here would not be standard in formal Malay:

✗ di hari lahir nenek saya – common in speech (especially in Indonesia), but considered less formal/wrong in strict standard Malay.

In informal spoken language, many people simply drop the preposition and say:

Hari lahir nenek saya, kami makan kek manis.
(Literally: “Grandma’s birthday, we ate a sweet cake.”)

But in a textbook-style sentence, pada hari lahir… is the best choice.

What does hari lahir literally mean, and are there other common ways to say “birthday”?

Literally:

hari = day
lahir = birth / to be born

So hari lahir literally = “day of birth” → birthday.

Other common expressions:

hari jadi – very common in Malaysia (more colloquial)
ulang tahun – anniversary (including birthdays), common in Indonesia and formal contexts
hari ulang tahun – literally “day of anniversary”

Example alternatives:

Kami makan kek manis pada hari jadi nenek saya.
Kami makan kek manis pada hari ulang tahun nenek saya.

All can be understood as “on my grandmother’s birthday,” though nuance and formality level differ slightly.

Why is it nenek saya and not saya nenek? How does possession work here?

In Malay possession is normally:

POSSESSED + POSSESSOR

So:

nenek saya = my grandmother
- nenek – grandmother
- saya – I / my

Some parallel examples:

rumah saya – my house
telefon dia – his/her phone
kereta mereka – their car

You don’t normally say saya nenek to mean my grandmother; that would sound like “I grandmother” or “I am a grandmother” depending on context.

Other, more informal possessive patterns you might hear:

nenek aku (very informal “my grandmother”)
nenek saya punya (colloquial “my grandmother’s”)
nenek saya tu… (that grandmother of mine…)

But in standard, neutral Malay, nenek saya is the correct “my grandmother”.

Can you explain the structure of hari lahir nenek saya? Why is it in that order?

Let’s break it down:

hari lahir – “day of birth” → birthday
nenek saya – my grandmother

Then they are combined as a noun phrase:

hari lahir nenek saya
= the birthday (hari lahir) of my grandmother (nenek saya)

Malay often strings nouns together from left to right:

hari lahir – day-of-birth
hari lahir nenek – day-of-birth [of] grandmother
hari lahir nenek saya – day-of-birth [of] grandmother [of] me

You don’t need a separate word for “of” (like “of my grandmother”) – it’s expressed simply by stacking the nouns and the pronoun in that order.

Rough parallel in English-style thinking:

hari lahir → birth day
hari lahir nenek saya → my grandmother’s birthday

Is it okay to just say hari lahir nenek without saya? Would that still mean “my grandmother’s birthday”?

hari lahir nenek literally means:

grandmother’s birthday (some grandmother, not specified whose)

Whether it is understood as “my grandmother’s birthday” depends entirely on context. For example, if you’re already talking about your own grandmother, it might be clear.

But if you want to clearly say “my grandmother’s birthday”, it’s safer and more natural to include the pronoun:

hari lahir nenek saya – my grandmother’s birthday

Omitting saya makes it less specific and could be interpreted more generally as “(a/the) grandmother’s birthday”.

Why does the sentence use nenek saya instead of a name? Is this a cultural thing?

In Malay-speaking cultures, it is very common to:

refer to relatives by kinship terms (like nenek, mak, abah, pakcik, kakak)
sometimes even instead of personal names, especially within the family.

Examples:

Nenek saya sakit. – My grandmother is sick.
Mak pergi kerja. – Mum went to work.
Abang makan di luar. – (Older) brother is eating out.

So nenek saya is a very natural way to say “my grandmother” and is culturally normal. You could use her name instead (e.g. pada hari lahir Nenek Fatimah), but saying nenek saya feels close and personal, like “my grandma”.

Could the sentence also be Pada hari lahir nenek saya, kami makan kek manis? Is that still correct?

Yes, that is completely correct. You are just changing the word order for emphasis:

Kami makan kek manis pada hari lahir nenek saya.
– Neutral order; information flows like English “We ate a sweet cake on my grandmother’s birthday.”
Pada hari lahir nenek saya, kami makan kek manis.
– Emphasizes “On my grandmother’s birthday…” as the setting/time first, then tells what happened.

Both are grammatically fine. Malay allows time expressions at the beginning of the sentence like this very naturally.