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Malay frequency list

No. 38 in Malay

bukan

"Not" or "no."

In a sentence

  • Ini bukan buku saya.

    This is not my book.

    Here, "bukan" is used to negate that the object "buku" belongs to the speaker.

  • Bukan sahaja dia pandai, malah dia juga baik hati.

    Not only is he intelligent, but he is also kind-hearted.

    In this sentence, "bukan" is part of the phrase "bukan sahaja," meaning "not only," introducing a paired idea.

  • Dia bukan di rumah pada waktu itu.

    He was not at home at that time.

    In this sentence, "bukan" negates the statement that the subject was at home.

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