Ibu guna bahan segar untuk memasak kari di dapur.

Yes, here Ibu most naturally means mother or mom.

A few useful notes:

• ibu literally means mother
• It can also be used as a polite form of address for an older woman, depending on context
• In this sentence, because it is the subject of a simple family-style action, it is most likely Mother uses fresh ingredients to cook curry in the kitchen

Malay often uses family terms like ibu, ayah, kakak, and abang very naturally, sometimes even without adding my.

Malay often leaves out saya if the meaning is already clear from context.

So:

• Ibu = mother / mom
• Ibu saya = my mother

In English, mother by itself can sound incomplete in many situations, but in Malay, using just ibu is very normal if everyone already knows whose mother is being talked about.

Guna is a very common everyday form meaning use.
Menggunakan is the fuller, more formal version.

So:

• guna = casual, common in speech and informal writing
• menggunakan = more formal, more common in formal writing

Both work here:

• Ibu guna bahan segar...
• Ibu menggunakan bahan segar...

A learner should know that Malay often allows this kind of shorter informal verb in normal speech.

Bahan means material, substance, or ingredient, depending on context.
In a cooking sentence like this, bahan is best understood as ingredients.

Segar means fresh.

So bahan segar means fresh ingredients.

This is very natural in Malay cooking-related sentences.

Malay does not use articles the way English does.

English needs words like:

• a
• an
• the

Malay usually does not.

So bahan segar could mean:

• fresh ingredients
• the fresh ingredients
• some fresh ingredients

The exact meaning depends on context.

This is very common in Malay and often feels strange at first to English speakers.

Untuk here shows purpose. It means something like:

• to
• in order to
• for

So untuk memasak kari means to cook curry or in order to cook curry.

The idea is:

Mother uses fresh ingredients for the purpose of cooking curry.

Masak is the basic root word connected with cooking or being cooked.
Memasak is the active verb form, meaning to cook.

In standard Malay, the meN- verb form is very common for active verbs, so:

• masak = cook / cooked / ripe, depending on context
• memasak = to cook

After untuk, standard Malay often uses this active verb form, so untuk memasak kari is very natural.

In casual speech, you may also hear shorter forms, but untuk memasak is a good standard pattern to learn.

The sentence follows a very common Malay word order:

Subject + Verb + Object + Purpose + Place

Breakdown:

• Ibu = subject
• guna = verb
• bahan segar = object
• untuk memasak kari = purpose
• di dapur = place

So literally, it is something like:

Mother uses fresh ingredients to cook curry in the kitchen.

This is a very normal and natural Malay sentence pattern.

Di dapur means in the kitchen.

Here, di is a preposition meaning:

• in
• at
• on

Because it is a preposition, it is written separately:

• di dapur
• di rumah
• di sekolah

This is different from the passive prefix di-, which is written attached to a verb:

• dimasak = cooked
• diguna = used

So this is an important spelling rule:

• di dapur = correct, because di means in/at
• didapur = incorrect here

Yes, Malay word order is somewhat flexible, especially for place and time expressions.

The original sentence is very natural:

• Ibu guna bahan segar untuk memasak kari di dapur.

But you could also say:

• Di dapur, ibu guna bahan segar untuk memasak kari.

This version puts extra focus on in the kitchen.

Even though some parts can move, the original order sounds very normal and neutral.

Yes. Kari is the Malay word for curry.

It is a common word and refers to curry dishes in general. The exact kind of curry depends on context. For example, Malay speakers may say things like:

• kari ayam = chicken curry
• kari ikan = fish curry

In your sentence, kari by itself simply means curry.

Malay usually does not mark tense the way English does.

So this sentence could mean different things depending on context, such as:

• Mother uses fresh ingredients to cook curry in the kitchen
• Mother is using fresh ingredients to cook curry in the kitchen
• Mother used fresh ingredients to cook curry in the kitchen

If Malay speakers want to make the time clearer, they can add time words or aspect markers such as:

• sedang = currently / in the middle of
• sudah = already
• akan = will

For example:

• Ibu sedang guna bahan segar... = Mother is using fresh ingredients...
• Ibu sudah guna bahan segar... = Mother has used / already used fresh ingredients...
• Ibu akan guna bahan segar... = Mother will use fresh ingredients...

By itself, guna does not force one specific English tense.

It can describe:

• a general habit
• a current action
• a past action, if the context already makes that clear

So English has to choose a tense, but Malay often leaves it more open.

That is one reason translation from Malay to English sometimes requires extra interpretation.

Yes, it is natural and easy to understand.

It sounds like normal spoken or simple written Malay. The only thing to notice is that guna is slightly more casual than menggunakan, but it is extremely common in everyday language.

So the sentence feels natural, practical, and conversational.