Questions & Answers about Pertandingan itu masih seri.
What does pertandingan mean here? Is it specifically match?
Pertandingan broadly means competition, contest, or match.
In this sentence, it is being used for something like a sports contest, so match is a natural translation. However, depending on context, pertandingan can also refer to a larger competition, not just one game.
For a single sports match, Malay often also uses perlawanan. So:
- Pertandingan itu masih seri.
- Perlawanan itu masih seri.
Both can work, but perlawanan is often more specifically the match/game.
Why is itu after pertandingan instead of before it?
In Malay, words like ini (this) and itu (that/the) usually come after the noun.
So:
- pertandingan itu = that match / the match
- rumah itu = that house / the house
- buku ini = this book
This is normal Malay word order.
Also, in real usage, itu can sometimes sound like either that or the, depending on context. So pertandingan itu can naturally be understood as the match if the match is already known.
Why is there no word for is in the sentence?