Pertahanan itu sangat kuat.

In Malay, you usually do not need a word like is/are when a noun is followed by an adjective.

So:

• Pertahanan itu sangat kuat = That/The defense is very strong

Malay often makes this kind of sentence with:

• subject + adjective

Examples:

• Rumah itu besar = The house is big
• Dia baik = He/She is kind

So the sentence is completely normal without a separate word for is.

Itu literally often means that, but in sentences like this it can also work a bit like the, depending on context.

So pertahanan itu can mean:

• that defense
• the defense

It comes after the noun in Malay:

• pertahanan itu = that/the defense

This is different from English, where that comes before the noun.

Compare:

• buku itu = that book / the book
• orang itu = that person / the person

That is just the normal Malay pattern for demonstratives like ini and itu.

Malay uses:

• noun + ini = this noun
• noun + itu = that noun

Examples:

• rumah ini = this house
• kereta itu = that car

So:

• pertahanan itu = that defense

For English speakers, this feels reversed at first, but it is one of the most basic word-order patterns in Malay.

Sangat means very.

It intensifies the adjective that follows it:

• sangat kuat = very strong

This is a very common pattern:

• sangat besar = very big
• sangat cepat = very fast
• sangat penting = very important

So in this sentence, sangat strengthens kuat.

Here, kuat is the main predicate adjective of the sentence.

The sentence structure is basically:

• Pertahanan itu = subject
• sangat kuat = predicate

So the pattern is:

• subject + intensifier + adjective

Examples:

• Makanan itu sangat sedap = The food is very delicious
• Bangunan itu sangat tinggi = That building is very tall

So kuat comes at the end because it is the adjective describing the subject.

No. Kuat can describe several kinds of strength, not only physical strength.

It can mean:

• physically strong
• powerful
• solid
• intense
• strong/effective

So with pertahanan, kuat means something like:

• strong
• solid
• formidable

For example:

• Dia kuat = He/She is strong
• Angin kuat = The wind is strong
• Pasukan itu kuat = That team is strong

Pertahanan means defense/defence, depending on your spelling style in English.

It can be used in different contexts, such as:

• military defense
• sports defense
• general protection or defense

It is a noun. It comes from the root tahan, which is related to enduring, resisting, or holding out.

So learners may notice that Malay often builds nouns from roots using affixes. In this case, pertahanan is a derived noun meaning something like defense or protection.

Yes, you can, but the meaning becomes less specifically tied to that/the defense.

• Pertahanan itu sangat kuat = That/The defense is very strong
• Pertahanan sangat kuat = Defense is very strong or The defense is very strong, depending on context

Including itu makes the noun phrase feel more definite and specific. Without it, the sentence can sound more general or more dependent on context.

So if you are talking about a particular defense already known in the conversation, itu is very natural.

Yes. Sekali can also mean very, especially in everyday Malay.

For example:

• Pertahanan itu kuat sekali

This also means The defense is very strong.

A useful comparison:

• sangat kuat = very strong
• kuat sekali = very strong

Both are natural. In many situations, sangat sounds a bit more neutral or standard, while sekali is also very common in speech.

It is a full sentence.

Why? Because kuat is functioning as the predicate, not just as part of the noun phrase.

So:

• Pertahanan itu = the subject
• sangat kuat = what is being said about it

If you wanted strong defense as just a noun phrase, that would usually be built differently, often with yang in more careful Malay:

• pertahanan yang kuat = a strong defense / the strong defense

So:

• pertahanan itu sangat kuat = full sentence: That defense is very strong
• pertahanan yang kuat = noun phrase: strong defense

A simple approximate pronunciation is:

• per-ta-HA-nan EE-too SA-ngat KOO-at

A few notes:

• pertahanan has four syllable groups: per-ta-ha-nan
• itu sounds like ee-too
• sangat has the ng sound as in sing
• kuat is usually pronounced in two parts, roughly koo-at

Malay spelling is fairly regular, so once you know the sound system, pronunciation is usually more predictable than in English.