Pertahanan, serangan dan hantaran penting.

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

So:

Pertahanan, serangan dan hantaran penting
literally works like
Defense, attack and passing important

But in natural English, we translate it as:

Defense, attack and passing are important.

This is completely normal in Malay. You do not need a word meaning are here.

Yes, you could. Adalah can appear in formal or more emphatic styles.

So both are possible:

Pertahanan, serangan dan hantaran penting.
Pertahanan, serangan dan hantaran adalah penting.

However, in everyday Malay, the shorter version without adalah is very common and natural.

A useful rule for learners:

• No copula is often the most natural choice in simple statements.
• Adalah is more formal and is not always necessary.

In Malay, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

Examples:

• buku penting = important book
• perkara penting = important matter
• serangan penting = important attack

In your sentence, penting describes the whole list:

pertahanan, serangan dan hantaran = defense, attack and passing
penting = important

So the structure is:

[noun list] + [adjective]

That is normal Malay word order.

Here, they are nouns.

They refer to things or concepts:

• pertahanan = defense
• serangan = attack
• hantaran = pass / passing
• penting = important

So the sentence is talking about three concepts and saying they are important.

This is different from a verbal sentence such as:

• Mereka menyerang. = They attack / are attacking.
• Dia menghantar bola. = He/She passes the ball.

This is a very common pattern in Malay word formation.

Here is the basic idea:

• serang = attack
  serangan = an attack / attack
• hantar = send, deliver, pass
  hantaran = a sending, delivery, pass
• tahan = hold, resist, endure
  pertahanan = defense

The ending -an often helps form a noun from a root.
In pertahanan, there is also per-...-an, another noun-forming pattern.

So these are not random shapes. They are built from roots in regular ways.

Yes, in the right context, especially sports context, hantaran can mean a pass or passing.

The root hantar often means send or deliver, but in sports it naturally extends to pass.

So depending on context:

• hantaran bola = ball pass / passing the ball
• hantaran jauh = long pass
• hantaran penting = important pass

If the sentence is about football, hockey, or another team sport, hantaran as passing makes perfect sense.

Malay usually does not mark plural in the same way English does.

A word like serangan can mean:

• attack
• an attack
• sometimes attacks, depending on context

In your sentence, the meaning is generic and broad, so English often translates it as general concepts:

Defense, attack and passing are important.

Malay relies heavily on context rather than changing the noun form.

If Malay really wants to show plurality clearly, it can use repetition or other markers, but that is not needed here.

Malay does not use articles like English a, an, and the in the same way.

So:

• pertahanan can mean defense, the defense, or sometimes a defense
• serangan can mean attack, the attack, or an attack

The exact meaning depends on context.

In this sentence, the words are being used in a general sense, so English naturally gives:

Defense, attack and passing are important.

If Malay wanted to make them more specifically identifiable, it could add words such as itu in some contexts.

Yes, this is normal.

Malay lists usually work like this:

A, B dan C

So: Pertahanan, serangan dan hantaran

A comma before dan is usually not used in standard Malay writing.

In English, some writers use the Oxford comma:

• defense, attack, and passing

But in Malay, the normal style is:

• pertahanan, serangan dan hantaran

In English, the natural translation is are important, because there are three coordinated items:

• defense
• attack
• passing

Malay adjectives like penting do not change for singular or plural, so the Malay sentence itself does not show that distinction.

But when translating into English, the coordinated subject is plural, so are is the normal choice:

Defense, attack and passing are important.

You usually would not say it that way in ordinary neutral Malay.

The most natural basic pattern is:

Pertahanan, serangan dan hantaran penting.

Putting penting first can sound marked, poetic, or incomplete unless the sentence is restructured.

If you want emphasis, Malay has other ways to do it, but for a straightforward statement, keep the adjective after the noun phrase.

It is quite neutral and natural.

It sounds like a clear statement you might see in:

• coaching advice
• sports commentary
• a textbook
• a lesson about game strategy

It is not especially slangy, and it is not extremely formal either.

If you added adalah, it would sound a bit more formal:

• Pertahanan, serangan dan hantaran adalah penting.

But the version without adalah is very normal and often better in everyday Malay.