In this chapter, I will introduce to you a basic dialogue that may be used when meeting people for the first time. It will cover asking people's names, introducing yourself and where you come from.
The setting is set between two people who are meeting for the first time.
A: Helo. Apa khabar?
B: Baik. Awak?
A: Saya pun baik. Apakah nama awak?
B: Nama saya Rizal. Awak pula?
A: Nama saya Tini.
B: Awak berasal dari mana?
A: Saya berasal dari Kuala Lumpur.
A: Hello. How are you?
B: Fine. You?
A: I'm fine (too). What's your name?
B: My name is Rizal. And you?
A: My name is Tini.
B: Where are you from?
A: I'm from Kuala Lumpur.
A: Hey-lo. A-pah ka-bar?
B: Ba-yik. A-wak?
A: Sa-ye(ar) poon ba-yik. A-pa-kah na-me (r) a-wak?
B: Na-me (r) sa-ye(ar) ee-ya-lah Ree-zal. A-wak poo-le(r)?
A: Na-me(r) sa-ye(ar) Tee-Nee.
B: A-wak ber-a-sal da-ree ma-ne(r)?
A: Sa-ye(ar) ber-a-sal da-ree Koo-a-la Loom-poor.
Pronouns: In Malay, like many other languages have informal and formal pronouns.
I : Beta (used by His Majesty)
You: Anda (very formal)
Kamu, Awak (formal ; used with peers only)
Engkau, kau (informal)
Note: When referring to someone older or superior, you would always use his/her name or call them by 'Kakak' or 'Abang' which literally means big sister and big brother.
He, she, it: Baginda (referring to His Majesty)
We, us: Kami, kita
You (all): Anda/Kamu sekalian
They, them: Mereka
'Apa khabar' is the customary "How are you doing" question. It literally means "What news (do you have)?".
'Baik' means "fine" and if you want to say that you're not fine just add 'tidak' in front of the word, 'tidak baik' means "not fine". "So-so" would be in the area of 'Biasa saja' or literally means "It's only normal".
'Apa' is one of those question nouns and it means "what". The suffix -kah is added to emphasize the question or to make a sentence into a question. For example, 'Hari inikah?' which means "Is it today?".
'Pun' basically means 'too'.
Notice that in Malay there's no verb "to be". 'Ialah' is not a verb but a kata pemeri. It is used to desribe the phrase preceeding it. 'Ialah' is mainly used for describing noun phrases while 'adalah' is used for adjectival phrases or verb phrases. We will discuss this later in the lesson. For now, suffices to say that there's no verb "to be" in Malay.
'Berasal' means your original place. It comes from the root word 'asal' which means "roots" or "origins". We add a ber- prefix to make it into a verb.
'Dari' means "from" but we will soon learn that "from" will depend on the subject, if it's animate or inanimate which in this case means from a place. So if it's from a person, you would use 'Daripada' instead of 'Dari'.
So those are the explanation for the words that were used in the dialogue above. If you have any questions or doubts feel free to comment and I'll try my best to answer your questions.