Questions & Answers about Baca preskripsi ini.
In Malay, the subject is often omitted when it is clear from context.
Here, baca is being used as a command, so the understood subject is you. English usually needs Read this prescription, where you is implied but not spoken. Malay works similarly, but dropping the subject is even more normal.
So Baca preskripsi ini is a natural imperative sentence.
Baca is the basic verb form meaning to read, and it can also be used directly as a command.
Malay does not have a special imperative verb ending like many European languages. Very often, the plain verb itself functions as the command:
- Baca! — Read!
- Dengar! — Listen!
- Tulis! — Write!
So in this sentence, baca is simply the verb used as an imperative.
Ini means this, and in Malay it normally comes after the noun it describes.
So Malay says:
- preskripsi ini — this prescription
- buku ini — this book
- rumah ini — this house
This is different from English, where this comes before the noun.
A useful rule:
- noun + ini = this + noun
- noun + itu = that + noun