Negation

Malay has two words for "not", and the split is clean: tidak negates verbs and adjectives, bukan negates nouns. Pick by what comes next, not by meaning.

tidak vs bukan

In speech tidak shrinks to tak: Saya tak tahu — "I don't know."

Two bonus jobs for bukan:

• Contrast/correction, even before verbs: Saya bukan nak marah, saya nak tolong — "It's not that I want to scold you, I want to help."
• Tag question at the end: Sedap, bukan? — "Tasty, isn't it?" (colloquially kan?)

belum — "not yet"

Belum negates sudah (already), and Malay treats many things as not-yet rather than not:

Sudah makan? — Belum. ("Have you eaten?" — "Not yet.") Saya belum kahwin. — "I'm not married (yet)."

Politeness point: a sudah…? question is answered belum, almost never tidak — tidak would slam a door that Malay likes to leave open (marriage, children, learning Malay…). Belum lagi = "still not yet".

jangan — "don't"

Commands are negated with jangan, never tidak:

Jangan lupa! — "Don't forget!" Jangan risau. — "Don't worry." Janganlah marah. — "Come on, don't be angry." (-lah softens)

"There isn't / doesn't have": tiada, tidak ada

Tiada masalah / Tak ada masalah. — "No problem." Saya tidak ada duit. — "I don't have money."

Colloquial Malaysian squashes tidak ada into takde.

The set in one view

Indonesian note

The tidak/bukan split is identical. Colloquial Indonesian says nggak/gak where Malaysians say tak, and belum etiquette works exactly the same in both countries.

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