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Questions & Answers about Saya mendapat pampasan.
What does mendapat mean here, and how is it different from dapat?
Mendapat means to get, to receive, or to obtain.
It is built from the root dapat, which often means can / be able to in everyday Malay, but can also relate to getting something in some contexts.
In this sentence, mendapat is the clearer verb for receive/get:
- Saya mendapat pampasan. = I received compensation.
A learner may notice that saya dapat pampasan is also heard in conversation. That is quite common in informal speech and usually means the same thing here. However:
- mendapat is a bit more formal and explicit
- dapat is more conversational and can also mean can
So mendapat avoids ambiguity.
Why is there a men- at the beginning of mendapat?