PT3 Bahasa Melayu Format

In the new PT3 format, candidates are tested on wrong usage of grammar, wrong spelling, proverbs, comment on given graphic, long essay of 180 words and questions on literature and novel.

In this post, I would discuss the possible aspects of wrong usage of grammar. To make up for one exercise which I am going to develop, I will discuss three aspects of mistakes in grammar.

Mistake 1: Omission of prefix meN in transitive verbs in a statement or Ayat Penyata.

For example in the following sentence, the transitive verb 'baca' (read) is wrongly used because it has no prefix 'meN' (By the way, meN refers to me, mem, men, meng, meny and menge)

Example 1 Adiknya suka baca buku cerita. [His brother likes to read story books.] [Wrong]

                  Adiknya suka membaca buku cerita. [Correct]

Mistake 2: The use of meN in transitive verbs used in a command or request [Ayat Kehendak]

Example 2 Jangan menyentuh beg ini. [Don't touch this bag.] [Wrong]

                  Jangan sentuh beg ini. [Correct]

Mistake 3: Omission of Numerical Coefficient (Penjodoh Bilangan) when concrete nouns are used.

Example 3: Dua buku dibelinya di kedai itu. [Two books were bought by him in the shop] [Wrong]

                   Dua buah buku dibelinya di kedai itu. [Correct]

Try the following exercise focussing on the above grammatical errors.

Latihan [Exercise]

Garisi kesalahan tatabahasa dalam setiap ayat dan buat pembetulan di ruang yang disediakan.

[Underline the grammatical error in each sentence and make the correction in the space provide]

1 Tolong membelikan saya sebuah kamera digital. [Please buy me a digital camera]

   ________________

2 Lina gemar pakai slipar. [Lina likes to wear slippers.]

   _________________

3 Jangan mengotorkan tempat ini. [Don't dirty this place.]

   _______________

4 Kee Huat akan baharui lesennya esok.[Kee Huat will renew his licence tomorrow.]

   _______________

5 Sila mengisi borang ini. [Please fill in this form]

   _______________

6 Tiga pelajar itu dihukum oleh guru disiplin. [The three students were punished by the disciplinary teacher.]

  _____________

7 Usah mempedulikan sindiran orang itu. [There is no need to heed the man’s sarcastic remarks.]

  _______________

8 Nenekku suka tenun kain. [My grandmother likes to weave.]

  ____________

9 Beberapa penduduk ditipu oleh orang itu. [Several residents were cheated by the man.]

   _______________

10 Kamu mesti cuci tangan sebelum memakannya. [You must wash your hands before eating it.]

    ________________

Redundancy in Malay usage 1

In Malay, certain words carry the meaning of plurality and hence the nouns that follow them should not be duplicated anymore. I shall give two examples below.

Example 1: mengumpulkan (to gather)
a) Ahmad mengumpulkan daun-daun kering lalu memerunnya. [Wrong]
b) Ahmad mengumpulkan daun kering lalu memerunnya. [Correct]
[Ahmad gathered the dry leaves and burnt them.]
Explanation:
'mengumpulkan' has the meaning of being plural in nature. The noun 'daun-daun' (leaves) which is plural shoud be changed to daun (leaf)

Example 2: membanyakkan (to make it more or increase)
a) Johari membanyakkan buku-buku yang dibacanya. [Wrong]
b) Johari membanyakkan buku yang dibacanya. [Correct]
[Johari increased the books that he read.]
Explanation:
'membanyakkan' or to increase denotes plurality. Hence the object 'buku-buku' (books) shoud be replaced with 'buku' (book)

I shall give more examples in the posts to follow.

How to use 'menamakan' correctly

Today I will discuss the correct usage of 'menamakan'. According to Kamus Pelajar publised by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka and is the standard reference for all schools in Malaysia, 'menamakan' means ' memberikan sesuatu gelaran sebagai nama atau menjadikan sesutu sebagai nama' or 'to give the name of something to'. Another meaning is 'mencalonkan' or to nominate someone as the candidate.

Let us see how to use this word correctly.

If you are my students, you will have copied down the following to remember how to use this word. For the benefit of all readers of this blog, I will reproduce my classroom tips here:

The formula to remember is:
orang + menamakan + nama anak / kucing / kedai + kepada + anak / kucing / kedai
[person + menamakan + name of son/cat/shop + kepada (to) + son / cat / shop]
For convenience sake, I use kucing (cat) to represent all pets and kedai (shop) to represent buildings or places.

The correct usage is shown in the following sentences:
1 Johan menamakan Kassim bin Johan kepada anak bongsunya.
[Johan gave the name of Kassim bin John to his youngest son.]

2 Hashim menamakan Si Comel kepada kucing kesayangannya..
[Hashim gave the name of Si Comel to his favourite cat.]

3 Jutawan itu menamakan Wisma Impian kepada banglo barunya.
[The millionaire gave the name of Wisma Impian to his new bungalow.]

As for the second meaning, you can make a sentence such as the one below:
Kami menamakan Ali sebagai calon untuk bertanding sebagai Presiden kelab ini.
[We nominated Ali as the candidate to contest the post of President of this club.]

How to use 'menamai' correctly

According to Kamus Dewan 4th Edition, 'menamai' means 'membubuh (memberikan) nama kepada, menggelari' or 'to give a name to'. It is followed by a person, an animal or a building.

Use this formula to remember how to use 'menamai' correctly:
Orang +menamai + person / animal / building + name to be given to person/animal/building

Examples:
1 Zamri menamai anaknya Zaki bin Zamri. [Zamri named his son Zaki bin Zamri.]
orang + menamai + person + name given to the person

2 Saya menamai kucingku Si Comel. [ I named my cat Si Comel.]
orang + menamai + animal + name given to the animal

3 Johan menamai kedainya Syarikat Berjaya. [Johan named his shop Syarikat Berjaya.
orang +menamari + building + name given to building (company)

I shall talk about the usage of 'menamakan' tomorrow.

The difference between 'kebanyakan orang' and 'orang kebanyakan'

In this post, I would like to discuss the difference between 'kebanyakan orang' and 'orang kebanyakan'.

The phrase 'kebanyakan orang' means 'most people'. Let us make a sentence with it as shown below:
Kebanyakan orang tidak akan membeli baju semahal ini.
Most people will not buy a shirt as expensive as this.

As 'orang kebanyakan' it means 'commoners' as opposed to members of the royal family.
Pada zaman dahulu, orang kebanyakan tidak dibenarkan berkahwin dengan kerabat diraja.
In olden time, commoners were not allowed to marry members of the royal family.

How to use 'menghias', 'menghiasi' and 'menghiaskan' correctly

According to Kamus Dewan Edisi Ke-4, 'menghias' means 'menjadikan sesuatu lebih cantik atau elok (dengan) barang yg indah-indah, gambar, solekan, dll' or 'to render something more beautiful with beautiful things, pictures, make-up, etc'

As for 'menghiasi' it carries the meaning of 'menyebabkan kelihatan lebih cantik atau elok' or 'cause something to look more beautiful'.

The meaning of 'menghiaskan' is 'mencantikkan (mengindahkan) dgn sesuatu' or to beautify with something'

Let me teach readers how to use three of the above by the following formulae:

1 orang + menghias + benda + dengan + sesuatu
[person + menghias + thing + with + something]
Example: Kerani itu menghias mejanya dengan pasu bunga.
[The clerk decorated his desk with a flower vase]

2 benda + menghiasi + tempat
[thing + menghiasi + place]
Example: Belon yang berwarna-warni menghiasi dewan itu.
[Colourful balloons decorate the hall.]

3 orang + menghiaskan + benda + pada + tempat
[person + menghiaskan + thing + at + place]
Example: Wanita itu menghiaskan sekuntum bunga pada sanggulnya.
[The woman decorated her hair-bun with a flower.]

So much for the usage of 'menghias', 'menghiasi' and 'menghiaskan'

How to use 'bertanya', 'menanyai', 'menanyakan' and 'bertanyakan' correctly

In today's post, I will discuss the correct usage of 'bertanya', 'menanyai', 'menanyakan' and 'bertanyakan'.

1 The word 'bertanya' (to ask) is a intransitive verb and it should be followed by a preposition such as 'kepada' or 'tentang'. Look at the following examples:
a) Dia bertanya saya mengenai hal itu. [wrong]
Dia bertanya kepada saya mengenai hal itu. [correct]
(He asked me about the matter.)

b) Dalam mesyuarat itu, ada beberapa orang anggota yang bertanya isu itu. [wrong]
Dalam mesyuarat itu, ada beberapa orang anggota yang bertanya tentang isu itu. [correct]
(During the meeting, several members asked about the issue.]

2 The word 'menanyai' is a transitive verb and should be followed by an human object.
The example below will make it clear to you as to its usage.

Johari menanyai kawannya tentang perkara itu.
(Johari asked his friend about the matter.)

In the sentence, the human object is 'kawannya' (his friend)

3 The word 'menanyakan' is also a transitive and this time the object should be 'perkara' (matter) As a example, you can write a sentence such as the one below:
Saya menanyakan tarikh peperiksaan itu kepada Johan.
[I asked Johan about the date of the examination.]

The object here is 'tarikh peperiksaan' (date of exam) which is considered a matter.

4 The word 'bertanyakan' is invariabley followed by 'khabar'. 'Bertanyakan khabar' means to ask after the health of someone you meet because you have not seen him for a long time.
Let us look at the following example:
Hassan bertanyakan khabar kawan lamanya kerana sudah lama tidak berjumpa dengannya.
[Hassan asked after the health of his old friend because he had not seen him for a long time.

I hope students and readers will know how to use the above 4 words correctly.