Kakak saya beli udang dan sotong segar, manakala ibu pula mencari halia dan kunyit.

In Malay, the usual order is noun + possessor.

So:

• kakak saya = my older sister
• ibu saya = my mother
• rumah saya = my house

This is normal Malay word order. English does the opposite: my sister, my house.

You may also hear saya punya kakak in very colloquial speech, but kakak saya is the standard and most natural form here.

Usually, yes: kakak means older sister or older female sibling.

A few useful family words:

• kakak = older sister
• abang = older brother
• adik = younger sibling
• ibu / emak / mak = mother

Outside the family, kakak can also be used as a polite form of address for a slightly older woman, but in kakak saya, it clearly means my older sister.

Good question. This sentence mixes a more colloquial form with a more standard form.

• beli = bare root, very common in everyday speech
• mencari = verb with the meN- prefix, more standard/formal

In careful standard Malay, many active transitive verbs take meN-, so a more fully parallel version would be:

• Kakak saya membeli udang dan sotong segar, manakala ibu pula mencari halia dan kunyit.

In casual spoken Malay, people often drop that prefix, so you may also hear:

• Kakak saya beli udang dan sotong segar, ibu pula cari halia dan kunyit.

So the original sentence is understandable and natural enough, but it is slightly mixed in register.

It marks an active verb, especially in standard Malay.

Here:

• cari = look for / search
• mencari = to look for / to search for

The prefix changes shape depending on the first sound of the root. That is why it is men- here, not always exactly meN- on the surface.

A few examples:

• beli → membeli
• cari → mencari
• tulis → menulis
• pakai → memakai

In casual speech, these prefixed forms are often shortened to the bare root.

Malay verbs usually do not change form for tense the way English verbs do.

So beli and mencari do not themselves tell you whether the action is past, present, or future. Time is usually understood from:

• context
• time words, such as semalam (yesterday), sekarang (now), esok (tomorrow)
• aspect words such as sudah, sedang, akan

For example:

• Kakak saya sudah beli... = my sister has already bought...
• Kakak saya sedang beli... = my sister is buying...
• Kakak saya akan beli... = my sister will buy...

Without any time marker, the sentence is interpreted from context.

Because Malay adjectives normally come after the noun.

So:

• udang segar = fresh shrimp/prawns
• sotong segar = fresh squid
• ikan besar = big fish
• rumah cantik = beautiful house

In this sentence, segar comes after the coordinated noun phrase udang dan sotong, which is normal Malay structure.

The natural reading is that segar describes both:

• fresh shrimp and squid

Malay often lets one adjective apply to a whole noun group like this.

If you want to make it completely explicit, you could repeat the adjective:

• udang segar dan sotong segar

But in the original sentence, most readers will understand that both seafood items are fresh.

Manakala is a conjunction meaning something like:

• whereas
• while
• meanwhile
• as for

It often introduces a contrast or a comparison between two clauses.

Here it links the two parts:

• the older sister is buying seafood
• the mother, by contrast or in the other part of the situation, is looking for ginger and turmeric

It sounds a bit more formal or written than plain dan.

Pula is one of those very common Malay words that often has no single perfect English translation.

Here it adds a sense like:

• as for mother
• mother, on the other hand
• mother in turn
• meanwhile mother

So ibu pula helps shift the focus from kakak saya to ibu.

It often signals:

• a contrast
• a change of topic
• an additional related action

So even if you do not translate it directly every time, it is doing useful discourse work.

Because Malay often leaves out repeated possessives when the meaning is already clear.

Once the speaker has said kakak saya, it is natural to understand that ibu also means the speaker’s mother. So:

• ibu is natural and efficient
• ibu saya would also be correct, but more explicit

This kind of omission is very common when the relationship is obvious from context.

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

So nouns often appear by themselves:

• udang
• sotong
• halia
• kunyit

Whether the meaning is some, the, or just a general noun is usually understood from context.

If Malay wants to be more specific, it may use other tools, such as:

• ini = this
• itu = that
• classifiers and numbers
• surrounding context

So the absence of an article here is completely normal.

Malay nouns are usually not marked for singular or plural unless the speaker wants to make that explicit.

So:

• udang can mean shrimp, prawns, or some shrimp
• sotong can mean squid or some squid
• halia and kunyit are often treated like ingredient names, similar to ginger and turmeric in English

Malay can show plurality in other ways, for example through:

• numbers
• quantifiers
• context
• sometimes reduplication

But in this sentence, the exact number is simply not the point.