'Hal ini demikian kerana' is wrong grammatically

I will start this year's first post with the expression 'Hal ini demikian kerana'. It has been deemed correct to translate 'It is because' until Tatabahasa Dewan, third edition included 'adverba' or adverb as one of the Kata Tugas (Functional words).

As an adverb, 'demikian' cannot act as a predicate. As such, 'hal ini demikian' is grammatically wrong. If 'hal ini' is followed by 'berlaku' to form 'hal ini berlaku', then it is correct because 'berlaku' can function as the predicate of 'hal ini'.

With the explanation above, 'Hal ini demikian' should be changed to 'Hal ini berlaku demikian' or 'Hal ini dikatakan demikian'. I will explain why this grammatically correct. An adverb modies a verb. In this case, 'demikian' modifies the verb 'berlaku' and 'dikatakan'.

Now let me make two sentences one of which has he old expression 'Hal ini demikian keran' and do the necessary change to make it correct grammatically.

1 Pelajar miskin itu tidak mempunyai uniform sekolah. Hal ini demikian kerana keluarganya tidak mampu membelinya. [The poor student has no school uniform. This is becaue his family cannot afford to buy it.] [Hal ini demikan kerana is wrongly used here]

2 Pelajar miskin itu tidak mempunyai uniform sekolah. Hal ini dikatakan demikian kerana keluarganya tidak mampu membelinya. [The poor student has no school uniform. This is becaue his family cannot afford to buy it.]

Adjectives denoting plurality

In today's post, I will discuss adjectives which denote plurality. Certain adjecitves such as 'cantik' (beautiful) can denote plurality when it is duplicated. For example, 'cantik-cantik' means 'all of them are beautiful'. When we are using duplicated adjectives, we must be carelly not to duplicate the nouns they describe or else the sentence will be incorrect.

Let us look at the mistakes made in this aspect.

1 Anak-anak Encik Lim tinggi-tinggi. [wrong]
Explanation: 'tinggi-tinggi 'means 'all of them are tall', Hence, 'anak' should not be duplicated. The correct sentence is 'Anak Encik Lim tinggi-tinggi'. [correct]
Of course, we can correct sentence 1 to:
Anak-anak Encik Lim tinggi. [correct]

2 Semua buku profesor itu tebal-tebal. [wrong]
Explantion: 'tebal-tebal' means 'all of them are thick'. Hence, 'semua buku' should not be used as it also convey the meaning of being plural. Just leave out 'semua' and the sentence is correct.
When you should have written is:
Buku profesor itu tebal-tebal. [correct] or
Semua buku profesor itu tebal. [correct]

The difference between 'sebab' and 'kerana'.

Some users of the Malay language are influenced by spoken Malay and use 'sebab' as if it is the same as 'kerana' but there is really a difference.

In terms of 'Golongan kata' or Parts of Speech, 'sebab' is a noun which means 'reason'. As for 'kerana' it is a conjunction which means 'because'. Perhaps the following two sentences will make this point clear.

1 Terdapat beberapa sebab berlakunya melepak dalam kalangan pelajar.
[There are some reasons why loafing among students occur.]

2 Adik tidak pergi ke sekolah kerana dia sakit.
[My brother did not go to school because he was sick.]

The correct usage of 'kata bilangan'

Kata bilangan or counting words are tricky in their usage. However, if you follow the rules below, you should be able to use them correctly.

Group 1 Kata Bilangan needs no penjodoh bilangan.
These include Semua (All), Kesemua (All), Para (All, for respectable people), Segala (All, for things or matter), Sesetengah (Some), Segelintir (A small number of, for people), banyak (A lot of or many), Sebahagian (part of, for uncountable nouns), setiap or tiap-tiap (every), sekalian (all, for people). Look at their usage in the sentences given below.
a) Semua pelajar dikehendaki memakai uniform semasa berada di sekolah. [All students are require to wear uniform when they are in school.]
b) Kesemua ayam ini akan disembelih untuk kenduri. [All these chickens will be slaughtered for a feast.]
c) Para pemimpin hendaklah menunjukkan teladan yang baik. [All leaders should set good examples.]
d) Segala rancangan dapat dilaksanakannya dengan berjaya. [All his plans could be executed successfully.]
e) Sesetengah kanak-kanak tidak suka makan buah durian. [Some children do not like to eat durians.]
f) Segelintir murid di sekolah itu lemah dalam Matematik. [A small number of pupils in the school are weak in Mathematics.]
g) Banyak barang yang dijual di kedai itu. [Banyak things are sold in the shop.]
h) Sebahagian getah dari Malaysia dieksport ke negara Jepun. [Part of the rubber from Malaysia is exported to Japan.]
i) Setiap peserta diberi sehelai baju-T. (Every participant was given a T-shirt.]

Group 2 Kata Bilangan has penjodoh bilangan or no penjodoh bilangan depending on the noun that follows it.
a) If it is followed by a concrete noun, then penjodoh bilangan is needed.
(i) Dua orang pelajar sedang membaca buku di perpustakaan itu. [Dua students are reading books in the library.]
(ii) Kedua-dua buah buku ini dikarang oleh Shahnon Ahmad. [These three books were written by Shahnon Ahmad.]
(iii) Beberapa batang jalan di bandar ditenggelami air bah. [Some roads in town were flooded.]
(iv) Berpuluh-puluh biji buah durian dijual oleh Pak Ali. [Hundreds of durians were sold by Pak Ali.]
[Note that dua can be replaced with tiga, empat, seratus, seribu or sejuta; kedua-dua can be substituted by ketiga-tiga, kelima-lima and so on; berpuluh-puluh can be replaced with beratus-ratus, beribu-ribu and so on]

b) If it is followed by an abstract noun, the no penjodoh bilangan is needed.
(i) Tiga hal ini akan kami bincangkan nanti. [These these matters will be discussed by us afterwards.]
(ii) Keempat-empat cadangan ini dikemukakan oleh Ai. [These four suggestions were put forward by Ali.]
(iii) Beberapa isu ditimbulkan dalam mesyuarat itu. [Several issues were raised in the meeting.]
(iv) Beribu-ribu kematian bayi berlaku di negara-negara membangun setiap hari. [Thousands of deaths of babies occurred in developing countries every day.]

What is the difference between 'dapat' and 'boleh'

As a response to the question put forward by a reader named Suat Ling, I will answer her question in this post.

For examination purposes, if a candidate is asked to choose between 'boleh' and 'dapat' then he or she has to know the different meanings of the two words. 'Boleh' means 'is allowed to' whereas 'dapat' carries the meaning of 'is able to'. Look at the following sentences to see this difference.

1 Ahmad dapat makan lima bungkus nasi lemak. [Ahmad was able to eat five packets of 'nasi lemak'.
2 Sesiapa pun boleh menyertai pertandingan ini. [Anyone is allowed to participate in this contest.]

If you have any queries about Bahasa Melayu, you are welcome to put your query in the shoutbox and I will answer them here to the best of my knowledge about the language so that all readers will benefit from your queries or questions.

The difference between 'menambah' and 'menambahkan'

The difference between 'menambah' and 'menambahkan'

The verb 'menambah' means to increase while 'menambahkan' means to add.

Here are the correct usage for both verbs.

1 Dia banyak membaca buku untuk menambah ilmu pengetahuannya.
[He reads a lot of books to increase his knowledge.]

2 Lina bercadang untuk menambah pelaburannya dalam saham baru itu.
[Lina plans to increase her investment in the new share.]

3 Kakak menambahkan gula ke dalam air di dalam gelas itu supaya manis rasanya.
[My sister added sugar to the water in the glass so that it tastes sweet.]

4 Ibuku menambahkan garam ke dalam kuah yang dimasaknya.
[My mother added salt to the gravy she cooked.]

Three Oral words in Malay

There are three oral words in Malay that I know of. They are cuma, kalau and jadi. These three words are usually used orally. Now look at the written words for them as listed below.

1 The written word for cuma is hanya. In Malay, both are translated as "only".
a) "Saya cuma bergurau sahaja," kata Ali kepada saya. ["I was just joking only," said Ali to me.]
b) Saya hanya datang ke sini sekali-sekala. [I only come here once in a while.]

2 The written word for kalau is jika, jikalau, sekiranya and seandainya all of which mean "if".
a) "Kalau awak ada masa lapang, datanglah ke rumahku," kata Zamri. ["If you are free come to my house," said Zamri.]
b) Jika kita rajin belajar, kita pasti akan lulus dalam peperiksaan. [If we study hard, we certailny will pass in the exams.]

3 The written word for jadi is oleh itu. In English, it is the equivalent of "so".
a) "Jadi, kau mesti belajar bersungguh-sungguh," kata Muthu. ["So you must work hard," said Muthu.
b) Oleh itu, kita mestilah menjaga kebersihan di sekitar kita. [So we must maintain the cleanliness of our surroundings.]