Sepakan penalti itu berjaya.

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

So:

• sepakan penalti itu = that penalty kick / the penalty kick

This is normal Malay word order. English says that penalty kick, but Malay says penalty kick that.

A few similar examples:

• rumah itu = that house
• bola itu = that ball
• pemain itu = that player

Because sepakan penalti is one noun phrase, itu comes after the whole phrase, not just after sepakan.

Yes. Sepakan comes from the root sepak, which means to kick.

The ending -an often turns a root into a noun, so:

• sepak = kick / to kick
• sepakan = a kick / the act or result of kicking

So sepakan penalti literally means something like a penalty kick.

This is a very common pattern in Malay:

• makan = eat

• makanan = food

• tulis = write
• tulisan = writing

So here, sepakan is the noun form built from sepak.

Because in Malay, the main noun usually comes first, and the word modifying it comes after.

So:

• sepakan penalti = literally kick penalty
• natural English: penalty kick

The head noun is sepakan (kick), and penalti tells you what kind of kick it is.

This word order is very common in Malay:

• kereta polis = police car
• bilik tidur = bedroom
• kad kredit = credit card

So although it feels reversed compared with English, sepakan penalti is the normal Malay pattern.

In this sentence, berjaya means successful or succeeded.

Malay often does not draw as sharp a line between adjective and verb as English does. In practice, berjaya can behave a lot like a predicate meaning:

• to succeed
• to be successful

So:

• Sepakan penalti itu berjaya.
  = The penalty kick was successful.

You can think of berjaya here as the main predicate of the sentence. Malay does not need a separate word for was.

Malay usually does not use a verb like to be in sentences like this.

In English, we say:

• The penalty kick was successful.

In Malay, you can simply say:

• Sepakan penalti itu berjaya.

This is very normal. The tense is often understood from context rather than marked directly with a word like was.

Other similar examples:

• Dia sakit. = He/She is sick.
• Rumah itu besar. = That house is big.
• Pasukan kami menang. = Our team won / has won.

So the lack of was is not a missing word; it is just how Malay works.

Yes. Berjaya is built from jaya, which is related to success / victory / glory.

The prefix ber- often creates an intransitive verb or a state connected to the root. In the case of berjaya, it means to succeed or to be successful.

So:

• jaya = success, victorious, glorious
• berjaya = to succeed / be successful

You do not usually say sepakan penalti itu jaya in standard modern Malay. Berjaya is the normal form here.

Yes, very often.

Although itu literally means that, in real Malay it can also make something sound definite, so in many contexts it is naturally translated as the.

So:

• sepakan penalti itu can mean
  that penalty kick
  or
  the penalty kick

Which one sounds best depends on the context.

For learners, it is useful to remember that itu is not always as strongly distant as English that. It often helps mark a specific, known thing.

That would sound unnatural in normal Malay.

For this kind of sentence, adalah is usually not used before words like berjaya.

The natural sentence is:

• Sepakan penalti itu berjaya.

In general, adalah is used more in formal definitions, explanations, or certain written styles, and even then it does not fit everywhere.

So for everyday Malay, just say:

• X + berjaya

not

• X + adalah berjaya

You use tidak before berjaya:

• Sepakan penalti itu tidak berjaya.

This means:

• The penalty kick was not successful.
• That penalty kick failed.

In Malay, tidak is used to negate verbs and adjectives/predicate words like berjaya.

Compare:

• Dia tidak datang. = He/She did not come.
• Rancangan itu tidak berjaya. = The plan was not successful.

A simple way is to add question intonation in speech:

• Sepakan penalti itu berjaya?

In writing, you can show it with a question mark.

Another way is to add adakah in more formal Malay:

• Adakah sepakan penalti itu berjaya?

Both mean:

• Was the penalty kick successful?

The version without adakah is very common in everyday conversation.

A simple approximate pronunciation is:

• seh-PAH-kan peh-nahl-tee EE-too ber-JAH-yah

A few notes:

• e in sepakan is often a schwa-like sound, similar to the a in about
• penalti is pronounced roughly as written: pe-nal-ti
• itu = ee-too
• berjaya has the j sound like English j in jam

Malay pronunciation is generally quite regular compared with English, so once you know the spelling, the pronunciation is usually predictable.

Yes, definitely. Berjaya is very common with many kinds of subjects.

For example:

• Dia berjaya. = He/She succeeded.
• Rancangan itu berjaya. = The plan succeeded / was successful.
• Pembedahan itu berjaya. = The operation was successful.

So in Sepakan penalti itu berjaya, the same word is being used in a normal, natural way: the kick succeeded or was successful.