Mission—Team—FAQ—Privacy—Terms—Sponsors—Grammar—Typing Course—Donate

© 2026 Elon Automation B.V.

Learn Hardcore Malay: Seluruh rumah itu bersih. - The whole house is clean.

Hardcore Malay
/Making an insurance claim
/Seluruh rumah itu bersih.

Seluruh rumah itu bersih.

Word

Seluruh rumah itu bersih.

Meaning

The whole house is clean.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Lesson

Making an insurance claim

Breakdown of Seluruh rumah itu bersih.

Questions & Answers about Seluruh rumah itu bersih.

Why is seluruh at the beginning of the sentence?

Because seluruh means the whole / the entire, and in Malay it comes before the noun it modifies.

So:

seluruh rumah = the whole house
seluruh rumah itu = that whole house / the whole house

In this sentence, seluruh is part of the noun phrase, not the main verb or adjective.

What does rumah itu literally mean, and why does itu come after rumah?

Rumah itu literally means house that, but in natural English it usually means that house or sometimes the house, depending on context.

In Malay, demonstratives like ini (this) and itu (that) usually come after the noun:

rumah ini = this house
rumah itu = that house

So Malay word order is different from English here.

Why is there no word for is in the sentence?

Elon.io is an online learning platform

We have an entire course teaching Malay grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Malay now

Malay often leaves out the verb to be in simple sentences like this.

So:

Seluruh rumah itu bersih literally looks like The whole house that clean
but it means The whole house is clean

This is completely normal in Malay. You do not need to add a word for is in basic adjective sentences.

Is bersih a verb or an adjective here?

Here, bersih is an adjective, meaning clean.

In this sentence, it works as the predicate:

Seluruh rumah itu = subject
bersih = predicate adjective

So the structure is basically:

[noun phrase] + [adjective]
The whole house + clean

Malay does this very often.

Is seluruh rumah itu the same as semua rumah itu?

No, they are different.

seluruh rumah itu = the whole house / the entire house
semua rumah itu = all those houses

This is a very important difference:

seluruh refers to one thing as a complete whole
semua refers to all items in a group

So if you want to say one house is clean in all its parts, seluruh rumah itu bersih is correct.

Could I say rumah itu seluruh bersih instead?

No, that is not the normal order.

The natural order is:

seluruh rumah itu bersih

Why?

Because the noun phrase comes in this order:

seluruh
- rumah
  - itu

Then the predicate comes after that:

bersih

So Malay keeps the noun phrase together before the adjective.

Does itu mean that or the here?

Technically, itu means that, but in many contexts it can also make the noun sound more definite, so it may feel like the in English.

So depending on context:

rumah itu can be that house
or simply the house

In this sentence, English might translate it as either:

That whole house is clean
The whole house is clean

The exact choice depends on the situation.

Can I leave out itu and say Seluruh rumah bersih?

Yes, you can, but the meaning becomes a little less specific.

Seluruh rumah itu bersih = the whole house / that whole house is clean
Seluruh rumah bersih = the whole house is clean or the entire house is clean, with less emphasis on a specific known house

Adding itu often helps point to a particular house already known in the conversation.

Is this sentence describing the house as a whole, or every part of it?

It suggests that the entire house, in all its parts, is clean.

That is exactly why seluruh is used. It emphasizes completeness.

So it is not just saying:

The house is clean

It is more like:

The whole house is clean
Every part of the house is clean

How would this be pronounced?

A simple pronunciation guide is:

seluruh ≈ seh-LOO-rooh
rumah ≈ ROO-mah
itu ≈ EE-too
bersih ≈ ber-SEEH

So the full sentence sounds roughly like:

seh-LOO-rooh ROO-mah EE-too ber-SEEH

A few notes:

r is usually a tapped or lightly rolled sound
u is like the vowel in food
h is pronounced clearly, especially at the end of bersih

Is this a common and natural Malay sentence?

Yes, it is natural and correct.

It is a straightforward Malay sentence with a very common pattern:

quantifier/determiner + noun + demonstrative + adjective

So learners can use it as a good model for similar sentences, such as:

Seluruh bilik itu gelap = The whole room is dark
Rumah itu besar = That house is big
Bilik ini bersih = This room is clean

It is a useful example of both noun phrase order and predicate adjectives without a verb.

Your questions are stored by us to improve Elon.io