Skip main navigation

Posisi dan Kata Arah (Positional and Directional Words)

To indicate a location's direction and position, there are specific Malay words. Dr Samsur will explain more about it.

Posisi (Positions)

In this step, you will learn the words that indicate a location’s direction and position. Directional words are typically found before and after nouns and noun conjunctions.

Up and Down

Malay English Example of sentences
Bawah under / below Bekas pensil Izzati berada di bawah meja

Izzati’s pencil case is under the table

Atas on / on top of / up Beg Kelvin di atas meja

Kelvin’s bag is on the table

front and behind

Malay English Example of sentences
Depan front Beg Kelvin di depan meja

Kelvin’s bag is in front of the table

Belakang behind Basikal saya ada di belakang rumah

My bicycle is behind of the house

Malay English Example sentences
Dalam in/inside Baju Kelvin di dalam almari

Kelvin’s shirt is inside the wardrobe

Luar outside Amy letak buku di luar beg

Amy puts the book out of the bag

Malay English Example of sentences
Kanan right Orang melayu menggunakan tangan kanan untuk makan

The Malays use their right hand to eat

Kiri left Hospital berada di sebelah kiri jalan besar

The hospital is on the left of the main road

Malay English Example of sentences
Timur east Matahari terbit dari sebelah timur

The sun rises from the east

Barat west Hujan lebat akan turun di sebelah barat Malaysia

Heavy rain will fall in the west of Malaysia

Malay English Example of sentences
Tepi beside – object & person Amy letak bola di tepi pokok

Amy placed the ball on the edge of the tree

Sebelah beside – object & person Kelvin duduk di sebelah Sarah

Kelvin sat next to Sarah

Sisi beside – person Ketika sakit, ibu sentiasa ada di sisi saya

When I’m sick, my mother is always by my side

Samping beside – person Ibu ada di samping saya ketika kejadian itu berlaku

Mom was by my side when the incident happened

Malay English Example of sentences
Tengah middle/centre Amy duduk di tengah antara Kelvin dan Sam

Amy sat in the middle between Kelvin and Sam

Hujung end Rumahnya yang paling hujung sekali

His house is at the far end

Penjuru corner Pokok itu berada di penjuru bilik

The tree is at the corner of the room

Sekitar around Polis itu perlu mengawal kawasan sekitar kampung Raja

The police have to control the area around Raja’s village

Seberang across Ibu berdiri di seberang sungai itu

Sarah’s mother stood across the river

Antara between Dia berdiri di antara dua pokok

He stood in between two trees

© Universiti Malaya
This article is from the free online

Learn Bahasa Melayu: Grammatical rules in Malay

Created by
FutureLearn - Learning For Life

Reach your personal and professional goals

Unlock access to hundreds of expert online courses and degrees from top universities and educators to gain accredited qualifications and professional CV-building certificates.

Join over 18 million learners to launch, switch or build upon your career, all at your own pace, across a wide range of topic areas.

Start Learning now