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.