Essay clinic - Saya terima satu surat

For today, I am going to do something different. I will write a paragraph inMalay and it is full of grammatical errors. Then I will correct them, giving reasons for the errors committed. Here it goes.

Saya terima satu surat dari sahabat penaku kelmarin. Dia ingin tahu tempat-tempat tertarik di Malaysia. Saya pun memberitahu semua fakta-fakta yang perlu dia ketahui. Saya berharap dia memahamkan apa yang saya huraikan itu.

Let me correct the first sentence. The use of 'terima' is wrong here. According to Malay grammar, the transitive verb in a statement should be preceded by the prefix meN (me, mem, men, meng, meny, menge). Hence 'menerima' should be used. Satu surat is grammatically wrong too because the absence of 'penjodoh bilangan' (numerical coefficient) renders the noun phrase incorrect. You should write 'sepucuk surat' where pucuk is the numerical coefficient for surat. As sahabat is a person, the kata sendi nama (preposition) 'dari' (from)used in front of it is wrong. The correct preposition to be used is 'daripada' (from) which is used for persons. To end the correction for the first sentence, here is the correct way of expressing it:
Saya menerima sepucuk surat daripada sahabat penaku kelmarin. [I received a letter from my pen-pal yesterday.]

As for the second sentence, there are two errors incurred. The first one is 'tahu' which should be followed by the preposition 'akan'. 'Tertarik' which means 'attracted' should be replaced with 'menarik' which carries the meaning of 'interesting'. Hence, the correct sentence should be:
Dia ingin tahu akan tempat-tempat menarik di Malaysia. [He would like to know about the places of interest in Malaysia.]

Now I will deal with the third sentence. Three errors can be found in this sentence. The use of 'memberitahu' here is wrong. This is because 'memberitahu' (tell) should be followed by a person such as Ali. For example, 'Saya memberitahu Ali tentang hal itu.' [I told Ali about the matter.] If something follows it, then the suffix 'kan' should be added to it to become 'memberitahukan'. For instance, 'Saya memberitahukan hal itu kepada Ali.' is grammatically correct. The next mistake is 'semua fakta-fakta' [all facts]. As semua denotes plurality, the word that follows it need not be duplicated. You just need to write 'Semua fakta'. The last error in the sentence is 'yang perlu dia ketahui' which should have been rendered as 'yang perlu diketahuinya.' [which he needs to know]. This is the rule for passive form involving the third person. The correct sentence then is:

Saya pun memberitahukan semua fakta yang perlu diketahuinya. [I then told him all the facts that he needs to know.]

There are three errors too in the last sentence. The intransitive verb 'berharap' should be followed by 'agar'. The transitive verb 'memahamkan' means 'to make someone understand' is wrongly used here. The correct one should be 'memahami' [to understand] The last error is 'apa' which is a question word. Here 'apa-apa' [whatever] should be put in its place. The final corrected sentence is:
Saya berharap agar dia memahami apa-apa yang saya huraikan. [I hope he understands what I have explained.]

About the prepositions 'dari' and 'daripada' in Malay

Today, I will still blog about the Malay language.

Through years of teaching the language, I have tried to help students to remember how to use two common 'kata sendi nama' or prepositions.

The first one is 'dari' (from) and students link the usage to ATM which is known to every body. The A stands for 'Arah' (direction), the T stands for 'Tempat" (place) and the M stands for 'Masa' (time). Hence the preposition 'dari' is used in front of words denoting direction, place and time.

Here are some examples:
1 Angin kencang bertiup dari timur ke barat. [Timur which is east is a direction.]
[Strong wind blew from the east to the west.]

2 Zamri berasal dari kampung. [Kampung which is village is a place.]
[Zamri comes from a village.]

3 Saya belajar dari pukul 8.00 malam hingga pukul 11.00 malam. [pukul 8.00 malam which is 8.00 pm is time.]
[I studied from 8.00 p.m. to 11.00 p.m.]

As for 'daripada' (from), I ask my students to remember SOPAN (courteous) which they can link to Sumber (source), Orang (people), Perbandingan (comparision), Asal kejadian (origin) and Nama abstrak (abstract nouns). For illustration, look at the following examples.

1 Banyak maklumat yang dapat kita peroleh daripada Internet. [Internet is a source.]
[A lot of information can we obtain from the Internet.]

2 Saya menerima cek ini daripada Encik Osman. [Encik Osman is a person.]
[I received this cheque from Mr Osman.]

3 Besi lebih berat daripada aluminium. [Here the weight of iron is compared with that of aluminium.]
Iron is heavier than aluminium.

4 Meja ini dibuat daripada kayu. [kayu or wood is the original material used to make this table.]
[This table is made of wood.]

5 Daripada pengalaman saya, masalah seperti ini sudah diselesaikan. [pengalaman or experience is an abstract noun.]
[From my experience, such a problem is difficult to be solved.]

Besides remembering the above, 'daripada' is also used for two other situations. The first one is it is paired with terdiri to terdiri daripada (consists of) and the second one is a paired conjunction which is daripada ... lebih baik (it is better to do the thing after 'lebih baik' than the one after 'daripada'] Perhaps the following sentences will make these last two usage clear to readers.

6 Pasukan bola sepak itu terdiri daripada sebelas orang pemain.
[The football team consists of eleven players.]

7. Daripada duduk berbual-bual lebih baik kita mengulang kaji pelajaran kita.
[It is better to revise our lessons than chit-chat.]

So much for the usage of two common prepositons in Malay.

The 'biras' relationship

It is interesting to study the Malay language. One word that leaves great impression on my mind is the word 'biras'. This Malay word has something to do with relationship. Let me explain its meaning this way. If two men married two girls who happened to be sisters, then their relationship in Malay is 'biras'. For example, if Ali married Siti and Bakar married Aminah, Ali is the 'biras' of 'Bakar' if Siti and Aminah are sisters.

The reverse is also true. It just means that Siti can be the 'biras' of Aminah if Ali and Bakar are brothers!

Look at a sentence in Malay with 'biras' in it.

Isteri saya berkata bahawa biras saya ingin meminjam motosikalku kerana motosikal suami kakak isteriku sudah rosak.
[My wife said that my brother-in-law wished to borrow my motorcycle because the motorcyle of the husband of my wife's sister had broken down.]
The above sentence is purposely made to show the meaning of 'biras' without explaining it to the reader.

How I learned Pinyin from my children

I was educated in the old school of thought when Pinyin (a system to denote the pronunciation of Chinese words) was not taught. The chance to learn Pinyin and simplified Chinese came when my eldest son entered Primary 1.

I learned together with my child how to pronounce the Pinyin notation. There are about well over 3000 words a Primary School children have to learn in Chinese to be able to read the newspaper and books. Well, I managed to learn all the 3000 odd words, both Pinyin and writing in simplified form.

Now I can pronounce any Chinese word given the Pinyin and read simplified Chinese strokes. I have no regrets spending learning Pinyin because you can use it to type Chinese words with the computer and have the words printed neatly.

Examples are given in plural form

Plural nouns are used when we give examples or mention things in general.

These are the examples to the statement I have made above.

1 Housewives like to buy things such as brushes, brooms, knives, forks and spoons at the shop because these are sold at reasonable prices.
[In this sentence, the examples are given in bold prints.]

2 We do not like apples because they are acidic. [Apples are used to refer to things in general.]

The usage of 'a lot of'

In English, we can use 'a lot of' in front of countable or uncountable nouns. However, if countable nouns are involved, the subject is considered plural and should take a plural verb. On the other hand, if uncountable nouns go with 'a lot of', then the subject which is then singular should pair with a singular noun.

To make this clear to readers, let us look at the following sentences.
1 A lot of people were there to watch the magic show performed by a medicine seller.
[In this sentence, 'a lot of' is followed by people which is countable. Hence a plural verb, were (a verb-to-be to be exact)is used.]

2 A lot of rubbish was strewn all over the place.
[Here, 'a lot of' takes an uncountable noun and as a result, a singular verb 'was' is used.]

Expressing future tense in another way

In English, besides using 'shall' and 'will' to express future tense, we can use 'going to' to achieve the same effect. Let us look at the following pairs of sentences which bear the same meaning each.

1 a) I will go to your house tonight.
b) I am going to your house tonight.

2 a) It will rain soon.
b) It is going to rain soon.

3 a) We shall start a youth camp soon.
b) We are going to start a youth camp soon.

Skills needed in translation

I am interested in translation. From my experience, it is not easy to translate from one language to another. In order to do the job well, we must be well-versed in both languages especially the differences in grammar and idiomatic expressions. For example, in Malay, when we say that "Ali berasa gembira kerana dia akan mendirikan masjid keesokan harinya." we mean 'Ali feels happy because he is going to get married tomorrow." and not "Ali feels happy because he is going to build a mosque tomorrow."

On the other hand, in English the sentence "His comic act put us in stitches" should not be translated as "Kelakuan lucunya menjadikan kami dalam jahitan." in Malay but as "Gelagat lucunya menyebabkan kami tak kering gusi." By the way, 'tak kering gusi" in Malay means 'to laugh incessantly'.

From the two examples given above, it is obvious that a translator has to master the ins and outs of both languages so that he will not convey the wrong message through his translation.