Every Malay sentence has two parts. The subjek is who or what the sentence is about. The predikat is what is said about the subject. In “Adik menangis”, adik is the subject and menangis is the predicate.
What your child will learn
- Find the subject and the predicate
- Tell a complete sentence from a fragment
- Put jumbled words into sentence order
- Recognise a simple sentence (ayat tunggal)
Who — and what about them?
A subject can be several words long: “Buku yang tebal itu” is all one subject. So can a predicate: “bekerja di hospital”.
A sentence with one subject and one predicate is an ayat tunggal. Unlike English, Malay needs no “is”: “Kereta itu laju” (that car [is] fast) is a complete sentence.
Example questions
Here are a few questions like the ones in the first quest. Can you solve them?
1. Apakah subjek dalam ayat “Kucing saya comel”?
🐱- saya comel
- comel
- Kucing saya comel
- Kucing saya
Show answer
Answer: Kucing saya. Ayat itu bercerita tentang “kucing saya”.
2. Isi tempat kosong: “___ sedang berkokok.”
- Ayam jantan itu
- Sangat nyaring
- Pada waktu pagi
- Di reban
Show answer
Answer: Ayam jantan itu. Ayat memerlukan subjek, iaitu siapa atau apa yang berkokok.
3. Apakah subjek dalam ayat “Adik menangis”?
🧒- menangis
- Adik
- tiada subjek
- Adik menangis
Show answer
Answer: Adik. Ayat itu bercerita tentang adik.
Tips for grown-ups
- Draw a line between subject and predicate in sentences from a storybook.
- Give a subject and let your child invent three predicates for it.