This is the smartphone version. The earlier and fuller version, which discusses the Indonesian language as well, can be found here.
Lesson 39 Untuk (For)
Click to listen to the Malay sentences.
A second reading (by Michelle Nor Ismat, a native speaker)
| Is there a letter for me? | Ada surat untuk saya? |
| Yes, here it is. | - Ya, ini dia. |
| Who is this for? | Ini untuk siapa? |
| For you. | - Untuk anda. |
| He is saving money to buy a new car. | Dia simpan wang untuk beli kereta baru. |
| Vocabulary
surat = a letter siapa = who simpan = to keep/save wang = money beli = to buy baru = new |
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Note that in the above answer Ya, ini dia don't try to see whether dia here stands for "he" or "she". It stands for neither as ini dia is an expression meaning "here it is" or "voilà" in French.
Further examples:
Saya ada hadiah untuk anda. (I have a gift for you.)
Surat ini untuk siapa? - Untuk dia. (Who is this letter for? - For him.)
In colloquial Malay the word untuk in all the above sentences where a person is the recipient can be replaced by bagi. So the above sentences become:
Ada surat bagi saya? (Is there a letter for me?)
Saya ada hadiah bagi anda. (I have a gift for you.)
Surat ini bagi siapa? - Bagi dia. (Who is this letter for? - For him.)
Note: bagi saya can also mean "as for me" eg. Bagi saya, perkara itu tidak berapa mustahak. (= As for me, that matter is not too important.)
Please note that you should not translate "for" (when indicating a period of time) by using the word "untuk" as you might think if you should translate it from English. Thus you should not translate "I have been studying Malay for 6 months" as Saya sudah belajar bahasa Melayu untuk enam bulan. In this case you should use "selama" for "for" when you are expressing a period of time. Thus the above sentence should be translated as Saya sudah belajar bahasa Melayu selama enam bulan.