Key takeaways
- Saya is the standard, polite 'I'; aku is informal and used with friends, according to Wikipedia's Malay grammar article.
- Kami means 'we, not including you' and kita means 'we, including you'; Wikipedia notes Malay keeps this distinction.
- Anda is the polite 'you' of advertising and business; kamu is familiar, and names, titles and kin terms are very common instead.
- Aku, kamu, engkau and ia have short possessive endings: mejaku, mejamu, mejakau, mejanya.
- Pronouns are frequently dropped, and a shop assistant may ask 'Boleh dibantu?' with no pronoun at all.
Malay pronouns are short words with a lot of social information in them. There is a polite "I" and a casual one, two words for "we" that English cannot tell apart, and more ways to say "you" than most learners expect, plus a habit of avoiding "you" altogether. This reference covers the common forms, the possessive endings and when to leave the pronoun out. Spellings are standard Malaysian Malay; Wikipedia's grammar article writes ê for the schwa sound, as in mêreka, which ordinary spelling writes mereka.
The core set at a glance
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st, polite | saya | kami (excluding you) |
| 1st, familiar | aku | kami (excluding you) |
| 1st, inclusive | — | kita (including you) |
| 2nd, familiar | kamu | kalian |
| 2nd, polite | anda | anda sekalian, anda semua |
| 3rd | dia, ia | mereka (formal), dia orang (colloquial) |
This is the table of common pronouns in Wikipedia's Malay grammar article. The same article stresses that personal pronouns are a subset of nouns rather than a separate part of speech, and that they are frequently omitted.
Saya or aku: choosing your "I"
Saya is the safe default. Wikipedia describes it as the form used with some family members, elders and new acquaintances and in formal settings. Aku is informal or casual, the "I" you use with friends, though the article adds that, depending on the speakers, aku with a new acquaintance is not necessarily taken as disrespectful.
Saya can also stand in for "we" when followed by sekalian or semua, "all", but that form does not say whether the listener is included. For rarer forms, Wikipedia lists beta, a royal speaking of themselves, and patik, a commoner addressing a royal, among others.
Kami or kita: two words for "we"
Malay splits "we" in two:
- kami: us, but not you. "We are leaving" said to the person staying behind.
- kita: you and me, or us and you. "Shall we eat?" to the person you will eat with.
Wikipedia notes that this inclusive and exclusive distinction is increasingly confused in colloquial Indonesian but not in Malay, which is one of the small differences covered in Malay vs Indonesian.
Anda, kamu, awak and the habit of not saying "you"
Wikipedia gives three common forms of "you": anda, polite; kamu, familiar; and kalian, "you all", slightly informal. Anda belongs to formal contexts such as advertisements and business, or to showing respect. Kamu is used in informal situations. Engkau, often shortened to kau, is used to social inferiors or equals, and awak to equals. Encik, contracted to cik before a name, is polite and traditionally used for people without a title.
A second-person pronoun is not always needed. Wikipedia notes that the person's name, a title, a title with a name, or an occupation is commonly used, and that kin terms, including ones for people who are not relatives, are extremely common. The effect is close to the kinship-based system in Vietnamese pronouns, though Malay also keeps its dedicated pronouns.
He, she, they and the respectful beliau
The common third-person form is ia, with dia as its object and emphatic form; Wikipedia notes that, as a result, ia has recently been used for animals as well. Beliau is respectful, roughly "his or her honour", and baginda is used for royalty. For "they", mereka is the written form, while dia orang, contracted to diorang, is common in speech.
Wikipedia's Malaysian Malay article lists three newer colloquial plurals built with orang, "person": korang (kau + orang) for "you all", kitorang in place of kami, and diorang in place of mereka.
A worked example: four ways to say "my table"
Only aku, kamu, engkau and ia have short possessive endings. Every other pronoun simply follows the noun, as Wikipedia shows with meja, "table":
- mejaku: meja + -ku (from aku), "my table", casual.
- meja saya: "my table", polite. Saya has no ending, so it follows the noun.
- mejamu: meja + -mu (from kamu), "your table".
- mejanya: meja + -nya (from ia), "his, her or their table".
The same pattern gives meja kita, "our table" including you, and meja anda, "your table" politely. Aku and engkau also have prefix forms, ku- and kau-, attached to a verb when the pronoun is not emphasised.
Leaving the pronoun out
Because agent and object can both be omitted, a sentence may contain no pronoun at all. Wikipedia's example is a polite shop assistant asking Boleh dibantu?, literally "can be helped?", meaning "Can I help you?". The passive di- form here is one of the affixes explained in our Malay affixes guide.
Practising pronouns in the app
Learn Malay - Bahasa Melayu covers pronouns and possession in its grammar lessons, alongside word order, questions and the affix system, with interactive questions and sentence building after each explanation. It is free with ads and optional in-app purchases, and it is one of our language-learning apps. For where to begin, see learn Malay for beginners.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between saya and aku?
When do you use kami and when kita?
How do you say 'you' politely in Malay?
What does korang mean in Malay?
Sources
- Malay grammar (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
- Malaysian Malay (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
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