Grammar Matters: Merbahaya or Berbahaya?

There are more than one mistakes in this picture.
But for now, let's just look at 'merbahaya'.

We are all born with one particular organ in our body that is naturally lazy. But that laziness understandably, may be culminated from tens of thousands of years of effort to create phonetically correct sound to naming things, describing acts, categorizing things/acts and so on. I am talking about our tongue, the only inside-body organ that you can see moving without any visual aid. (As a digression, try looking at it in the mirror and move it about, imagine it as a creature from some scary alien movie stuck in your mouth. Gross?)

What I’m trying to say or what I suspect is ‘merbahaya’ has been the result of our lazy tongue. It may have to do with the dialect of certain group of the population but generally it has spread and become common in all of Malaysia because everybody thought it was the correct one. Unfortunately it was not. ‘Berbahaya’ is the correct word. Unlike for example, in the state of Perak, where they pronounce durian as ‘deghoyan’ (‘gh’ is very Frenchy sounding ‘r’ as in Rue de Savoy) but so far it remains and stays a Perak dialect.

‘Berbahaya’ is a derived adjective (kata sifat terbitan) that comes from the root word ‘bahaya’, a noun that means danger, prefixed with ‘ber’ which in this case means ‘to have’ or ‘to contain’. Further corroborates this explanation is the fact that there has never been the prefix ‘mer’ in Malay. There isn’t really. ‘Ber’ becomes ‘mer’ here simply because it’s easier to pronounce it although the difference is only subtle. To prove it, do this yourself: Repeatedly, utter those two words one after another. You’ll notice ‘merbahaya’ is the easier one. So, it looks like all the hard work of our ancestors to have certain rules in naming things just goes down the gutter because of our laziness. These days it gets worse. Vowels have gradually become useless. This is completely embraced by the new generation, thanks to technology.

Fortunately: Many Bahasa Melayu teachers now realize that and begin to emphasize its importance through the many blogs they now operate. I am one who visits them regularly for updates and references.

Unfortunately: ‘Merbahaya’ is still in Kamus Dewan, although it is actually a lazy version of ‘marabahaya’ and not ‘berbahaya’. Take note and don’t get confused.

In the end, our tongue suffers from our lack of attention to take care and use it the right way. If only man takes care of it the way they take care of another particular prized organ of theirs, and the way they splash portions of their monthly income the moment they realize its function and performance weren’t as explosive as when they were young, things wouldn’t be as complicated.

I am not talking about organs with black and white keyboard.

Grammar Matters: antara / di antara

Malay speakers (and writers) these days, have become more and more complacent. At least that was what the facilitator in our class opined the other day. Interestingly, as she stressed out later, when speaking or writing in English we take a more careful approach, so as to not make a mistake. Why didn’t we do the same in Malay?

Arguably, complacency? We take being born Malay, or born into a Malay speaking environment for granted.

The fact that the English equivalent is pretty vague doesn’t help either. My suggestion is use your common sense and rule of thumb when translating. In English, there are ‘between’, ‘among’ and ‘amid’ (sometimes ‘amongst’ and ‘amid’ but they don’t carry any different meaning, just a variation of spelling). The following is what dictionary.com describes ‘between’ and ‘among’ (I left 'amid' because it is very similar to among):

Among expresses a relationship when more than two persons or things are involved. Example: Three children were among the passengers killed in that accident.

Between is used when only two persons or things are involved. Example: I sat between Anok and Uchop.

Using this and a reference from Blog Cikgu Azemi, I gathered that there are similarities. He says:

Antara menunjukkan perbandingan. (shows comparison)

Di antara menunjukkan kedudukan/tempat. (shows position/place)

Based on that, it can be safely said that ‘antara’ is the Malay equivalent of ‘among’, and ‘di antara’ is that of ‘between’. But Cikgu Azemi’s explanation has some variation. Here is how the examples given above should be translated, and a few more examples from me too:

E: Three children were among the passengers killed in that accident.

BM: Tiga kanak-kanak antara yang terbunuh dalam kemalangan itu.

E: Shih Li, Qamar and Alaudin are among the students selected from class 5 Beta.

BM: Shih Li, Qamar dan Alaudin adalah antara pelajar yang dipilih daripada kelas 5 Beta.

E: I sat between Anok and Uchop.

BM: Saya duduk di antara Anok dan Uchop.

E: Shah Alam lies between Klang and Petaling Jaya.

BM: Shah Alam terletak di antara Klang dan Petaling Jaya.

But Cikgu Azemi says, when comparing two persons or things, use 'antara', because there is no subject between the two objects. Example: Antara Adnan dan Zamzuri, Adnan nampak lebih pendiam. Although in English we still say, Between Adnan and Zamzuri, Adnan seems the quieter. Now in this sentence: Perbualan di antara Shakinah dan Mashitoh berlarutan sehingga tiga jam. (The conversation between Shakinah and Mashitoh extends to three hours). 'Perbualan' (Conversation) is the subject and it sits between the two objects, that is why we use ‘di antara’. Whereas in the former example, Adnan and Zamzuri are the objects, and Adnan (the subject) does the verb 'nampak' (seems).

Also when using 'antara', do not pluralise the object because 'antara' has already indicated a plural subject e.g. antara pelajar ---not- antara pelajar-pelajar, antara negara Eropah -not- antara negara-negara Eropah. Also 'di antara' are two words, always.

Hmmm… among all of you who can understand what you’ve just read? How about a chat between you and your spouse, that can help, I suppose. 

Provided that it didn't extend to three hours and later create an invisible wall between you and your spouse.


That will be very bad, and do not point those fingers on me.

Grammar Matters: When two Malay words used as a translation, especially with affixes

First, let's find an example, say,


Translate: Improve/Improvement


Improve is the verb, improvement is the noun. I'd say checking the meaning with with PRPM doesn't yield a satisfactory result, when it says the meaning is bertambah baik. But bertambah baik is an extrinsic verb. Extrinsic meanings are those which involve some kind of human judgment about what is or isn’t likely to happen, so include meanings which are often described as prediction or possibility. So, when you want to make it an intrinsic verb, take 'tambah baik' then add prefix of 'me', in which 't' will be substituted with 'n', so that it will become menambah baik. But that's the verb form, what about the noun improvement?


Here is what this entry is all about.


The Malay grammar rule states that: a derivative that is actually a combination of two words, which when stand alone, can carry a meaning of its own, a hyphen should not be included. Hyphenation applies only when the words are exactly the same word, example: bila-bila, apa-apa; and in a plural form (kata berganda), example: kacau-bilau, porak-peranda.


In case of the example tambah baik; tambah has its own meaning of add, and baik is good. When combined, it becomes a derivative which has the meaning of improve in English.


"But, where does this take us?" You might ask.


Here, it is not a question of hyphenating it. It is combining them to make one word all together.


To make tambah baik become a noun, we add prefix 'pe' (as always, t is substituted with n), and suffix 'an'. The resulting word becomes:


Improvement : Penambahbaikan


Notice tambah baik is now one word all together. Why? Here is the rule: When added prefix and suffix simultaneously, such words are combined. When only either prefix OR suffix is added, they remain two words, without hyphen.


It took me awhile though. How about you?