Minggu lepas, kami berkelah di tasik.

Last week, we had a picnic at the lake.

Breakdown of Minggu lepas, kami berkelah di tasik.

• di: at
• kami: we
• minggu: the week
• berkelah: to have a picnic
• tasik: the lake
• lepas: last

Questions & Answers about Minggu lepas, kami berkelah di tasik.

What does minggu lepas literally mean, and can I say it in another way?

Minggu lepas literally means last week.

You can also say:

• minggu lalu – also means last week; very common and neutral.
• minggu yang lepas / minggu yang lalu – a bit more formal or careful, but still normal.

All of these are grammatical and natural:

• Minggu lepas, kami berkelah di tasik.
• Minggu lalu, kami berkelah di tasik.
• Pada minggu lepas, kami berkelah di tasik. (more formal, with pada = on/at)

Why is there no past tense ending on the verb like in English?

Malay does not change the form of the verb for tense (no -ed, -ing, etc.).
Time is usually shown by:

• Time words: minggu lepas (last week), semalam (yesterday), tadi (earlier), esok (tomorrow)
• Or sometimes by context.

So kami berkelah can mean:

• we are having a picnic
• we had a picnic
• we will have a picnic

The time phrase minggu lepas tells you it is in the past, so the whole sentence means Last week, we had a picnic at the lake.

What is the difference between kami and kita? Why is kami used here?

Both kami and kita mean we / us, but:

• kami = we (not including the listener)
• kita = we (including the listener)

In this sentence:

• Minggu lepas, kami berkelah di tasik.

The speaker is saying:

• We had a picnic at the lake last week, and you (the listener) were not part of that group.

If the listener had joined the picnic, you would say:

• Minggu lepas, kita berkelah di tasik.
  = Last week, we (you and I and others) had a picnic at the lake.

What exactly does berkelah mean, and is it the same as “to picnic”?

Berkelah is a verb that means to go on a picnic / to have a picnic.

Notes:

• It often implies going out somewhere (usually to a scenic or open place) to eat and relax.
• It’s usually intransitive (no direct object):
  
  • Kami berkelah di tasik. = We had a picnic at the lake.
    You don’t say: *berkelah makanan (picnic food) as the object.

Related points:

• You might also hear piknik as a noun borrowed from English (picnic), but berkelah is the standard Malay verb.
• The prefix ber- often creates verbs meaning “to do X / to be in state X” (e.g. berjalan = to walk, berlari = to run).

Is the comma after Minggu lepas required? Can I change the word order?

The comma is optional in everyday writing, but it’s often used to make the pause clearer:

• Minggu lepas, kami berkelah di tasik.
• Minggu lepas kami berkelah di tasik. (also fine)

You can also move the time phrase:

• Kami berkelah di tasik minggu lepas.
  = We had a picnic at the lake last week.

Both word orders are natural. Starting with the time phrase is very common in Malay to set the scene.

What does di mean in di tasik, and is it always needed?

Di is a preposition meaning at / in / on (location).

• di tasik = at the lake / by the lake

You must use di before a noun when you want to say “at/in/on (a place)”:

• di rumah = at home
• di sekolah = at school
• di pantai = at the beach

If you say only tasik, that’s just the noun lake:

• berkelah tasik is ungrammatical
• You need berkelah di tasik.

Does di tasik mean “at the lake” or “in the lake”? How specific is it?

Di tasik is quite flexible and can mean:

• at the lake
• by the lake
• around the lake area

Context tells you the exact sense. For a picnic, the natural understanding is at/by the lake shore, not literally in the water.

If you wanted to be more specific, you could say:

• di tepi tasik = at the lakeside / by the lake
• di dalam tasik = in the lake (physically inside the water)

There is no “a” or “the” before tasik. How do articles work in Malay?

Malay does not have articles like a / an / the.

So tasik by itself can mean:

• a lake
• the lake

Context decides whether the speaker means some specific lake everyone knows or just a lake in general.

If you really want to show “a lake” more clearly, you can say:

• sebuah tasik = a lake (using the classifier sebuah for objects/buildings)

  Example:

• Minggu lepas, kami berkelah di sebuah tasik.
  = Last week, we had a picnic at a lake. (sounds like some unspecified lake)

How do you pronounce the words in this sentence?

Approximate pronunciation (using English-like spelling):

• Minggu: ming-goo
  
  • min (as in English “mint” without the t) + goo
• lepas: luh-pahs
  
  • le- like le in “lemon” but shorter + pas like “pass”
• kami: kah-mee
  
  • ka like “car” (shorter) + mee like “me”
• berkelah: ber-ke-lah
  
  • ber like “ber” in “Bern” but shorter
  • ke like ke in “kerb” without the r and b
  • lah like “la” in “la-la-la”
• di: dee (like English “dee”)
• tasik: tah-sik
  
  • ta like “ta” in “taco” (shorter) + sik rhymes with “sick”

Malay vowels are generally short and pure, with almost no diphthongs in this sentence.

Could I say kami pergi berkelah di tasik? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

• Minggu lepas, kami pergi berkelah di tasik.

This literally means:

• Last week, we went to have a picnic at the lake.

Difference:

• kami berkelah di tasik = we had a picnic at the lake (simple statement of the activity)
• kami pergi berkelah di tasik = we went (somewhere) to have a picnic at the lake (emphasises the going/journey)

Both are natural; pergi simply adds the sense of “went”.

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral?

The sentence is neutral and suitable in most contexts:

• You can use it in conversation, texting, and casual writing.
• It’s also acceptable in simple narrative writing or a school essay.

If you wanted a slightly more formal version, you might say:

• Pada minggu lepas, kami berkelah di tasik.
• Pada minggu yang lalu, kami telah berkelah di tasik. (with telah as a formal past marker)

Can I put minggu lepas at the end, like in English?

Yes. It’s perfectly natural to say:

• Kami berkelah di tasik minggu lepas.

Meaning:

• We had a picnic at the lake last week.

Both of these are fine:

• Minggu lepas, kami berkelah di tasik.
• Kami berkelah di tasik minggu lepas.

The meaning is the same; the choice is about style and emphasis.

If I want to ask a question like “Did you have a picnic at the lake last week?”, how do I change this sentence?

Malay often keeps the word order and adds a question word like adakah or just uses rising intonation.

Formal/neutral:

• Adakah kamu berkelah di tasik minggu lepas?
  = Did you have a picnic at the lake last week?

More conversational:

• Kamu berkelah di tasik minggu lepas? (said with questioning intonation)

If talking to a group including the listener:

• Kita berkelah di tasik minggu lepas, kan?
  = We had a picnic at the lake last week, right?