Learn Hardcore Malay: Guru menjelaskan soalan sejarah dengan baik. - The teacher explains the history question well.

Guru menjelaskan… = The teacher explains/explained…
It’s not a title like “Mr.” – you don’t normally say Guru Ali the way you say “Mr. Ali”. In everyday speech people often say Cikgu Ali for “Teacher Ali”; cikgu is the more “vocative/title-like” form.
So in this sentence, guru stands alone, referring generically to “the teacher” (context decides which teacher).

How is the verb menjelaskan formed, and what does the meN-…-kan pattern mean?

Menjelaskan comes from the root jelas (clear) with the circumfix meN-…-kan:

jelas = clear (adjective)
menjelaskan = to make something clear, to explain

The pattern:

meN- + ADJ/VERB + -kan often means “to cause / make something become X” or “to do X to something”.
So menjelaskan ≈ “to clarify / to explain (something)”.

In Guru menjelaskan soalan sejarah, the verb is transitive:

Subject: guru (the teacher)
Verb: menjelaskan (explained)
Object: soalan sejarah (the history question).

What’s the difference between menjelaskan and menerangkan, since both can mean “to explain”?

Both menjelaskan and menerangkan can translate as “to explain”, and in many contexts they are interchangeable.

Subtle tendencies:

menjelaskan – often focuses on making something clear / understandable (from jelas, clear).
menerangkan – often focuses on giving an explanation / describing / illuminating (from terang, bright/clear).

In this sentence, you could also say:

Guru menerangkan soalan sejarah dengan baik.

It would still mean “The teacher explained the history question well,” and it sounds natural. The difference is very slight in everyday use here.

How should I understand soalan sejarah? Is it “history question” or “question about history”?

Soalan sejarah is a noun–noun phrase:

soalan = question
sejarah = history

So soalan sejarah literally is “history question”, i.e. a question from/about the subject of history.

English would normally say:

“a history question” or
“a question about history”.

Malay doesn’t need a word like about here. Just [noun] + [noun]:

soalan sejarah = history question
buku sejarah = history book
peperiksaan sejarah = history exam

Could soalan here mean “questions” (plural)? There’s no plural marker in the sentence.

Yes, soalan can mean “question” or “questions” depending on context, because Malay doesn’t usually mark plural with an ending like -s.

With no extra word, soalan sejarah can be “the history question” or “the history questions”.
If you want to be explicit:
- soalan-soalan sejarah = history questions (plural reduplication)
- beberapa soalan sejarah = several history questions

In your sentence, context (e.g., from the surrounding text) would tell you whether it’s one question or more than one.

How is tense shown in Guru menjelaskan soalan sejarah dengan baik? How do we know if it’s past, present, or future?

In Malay, verbs are not conjugated for tense. Menjelaskan itself has no built‑in tense. The tense is understood from context or from time words.

Depending on context, this sentence can mean:

The teacher explains the history question well. (present, general fact)
The teacher explained the history question well. (past)
The teacher will explain the history question well. (future, if context makes it clear)

To mark tense more explicitly, you can add time markers:

tadi (earlier, just now): Guru tadi menjelaskan soalan sejarah dengan baik.
semalam (yesterday), akan (will), sedang (is currently), etc.

What does dengan baik literally mean, and is this the usual way to say “well”?

Dengan baik literally means “with good (ness)” or “in a good way”, and functions as an adverbial phrase meaning “well”.

dengan = with, by, in (a manner)
baik = good

It’s a very common way to express how something is done:

menjelaskan dengan baik = explain well
menulis dengan cepat = write quickly

Other close options:

dengan jelas = clearly
dengan sangat baik / dengan baik sekali = very well / extremely well

So Guru menjelaskan soalan sejarah dengan baik = “The teacher explained the history question well.”

Can I move dengan baik to another position in the sentence?

In normal, neutral style you typically put the manner phrase after the object, as in the original:

Guru menjelaskan soalan sejarah dengan baik.

Other possibilities:

Guru menjelaskan dengan baik soalan sejarah itu.
- Grammatically possible but sounds a bit less natural; you’d more likely see this in spoken emphasis or special contexts.

You wouldn’t normally put dengan baik between guru and menjelaskan. The original word order is the most standard:

Subject – Verb – Object – Manner
Guru – menjelaskan – soalan sejarah – dengan baik.

Why is there no word like “the” or “a” before guru or soalan? How do articles work in Malay?

Malay generally does not use articles like “a/an” or “the”. Nouns appear bare, and definiteness is inferred from context.

So:

guru can be “a teacher”, “the teacher”, or just “teacher” depending on context.
soalan sejarah can be “a history question”, “the history question”, or “history questions”.

If you want to make it clearly definite, you can add a demonstrative:

guru itu = that/the teacher
soalan sejarah itu = that/the history question

But you only do this when there’s a specific need to point to a particular one.

Could I say Guru jelas soalan sejarah itu instead of Guru menjelaskan soalan sejarah dengan baik?

No, Guru jelas soalan sejarah itu is not correct.

Reasons:

jelas on its own is an adjective meaning “clear”, not a verb meaning “to explain”.
- Penjelasan guru itu jelas. = The teacher’s explanation is clear.
To express “explain”, you need the verb menjelaskan.

If you want something shorter but still natural:

Guru menjelaskan soalan sejarah itu dengan jelas. = The teacher explained the history question clearly.

Why is the verb menjelaskan not changing form for “I”, “you”, “he/she”, etc.?

Malay verbs do not change according to the subject. Menjelaskan stays the same with any subject:

Saya menjelaskan… = I explain
Awak / kamu menjelaskan… = you explain
Dia menjelaskan… = he/she explains
Mereka menjelaskan… = they explain
Guru menjelaskan… = the teacher explains

So you don’t have to memorize different verb endings for different persons like in many European languages.

Is sejarah always the school subject “History,” or can it have other meanings?

Sejarah most commonly means “history” as a subject or field (like school History).

But it can also mean “history / past story / background” in a broader sense:

sejarah negara = the country’s history
sejarah hidup saya = my life history / life story
belajar sejarah = study history (as a subject)

In soalan sejarah, the natural reading is: a question from the subject of History, e.g. in a history test.

If I wanted to say “The teacher explained the history question to the students well,” how would I extend this sentence?

You can add an indirect object with kepada (“to”):

Guru menjelaskan soalan sejarah itu kepada murid-murid dengan baik.

Breakdown:

guru = the teacher
menjelaskan = explained
soalan sejarah itu = that/the history question
kepada murid-murid = to the students
dengan baik = well

Word order remains: Subject – Verb – Direct Object – Prepositional phrase (“to” someone) – Manner phrase.