LESSON I.
The Article, Substantives and Adjectives.
1. There is no indefinite article in Malay. The adjective always follows the substantive which it qualifies.
rumah, a house. bsar, big, large. kuda, a horse. kuat, strong. orang, a man. baik, good.
rumah bsar, a large house.
kuda kuat, a strong horse.
orang baik, a good man.
2. Properly speaking there is also no definite article in Malay, but the demonstrative pronoun itu, that, is sometimes used to supply this deficiency, and follows the noun or adjective.
kuda or kuda itu, the horse.
orang kuat or orang kuat itu, the strong man.
3. In simple sentences, in which the subject is a substantive and the predicate an adjective, two constructions are commonly used:
a. The subject is placed first, followed by the demonstrative pronoun itu, and the adjective is placed at the end of the sentence, as
rumah itu bsar, the house is large.
b. The adjective is placed first, usually followed by the expletive suffix -lah (which is untranslatable, and is merely used for emphasis), and the substantive followed by the demonstrative pronoun or some other part of speech is placed at the end of the sentence, as,
baik-lah orang itu, the man is good.
bsar kuda itu, the horse is big.
This construction is more emphatic than the former.
4. In Malay there is no declension of either substantives or adjectives.
5. The verb “to be” is seldom expressed in such simple Malay sentences as are dealt with in the early chapters of this grammar,
