Melayu is one language in Austronesian Group. It is different with Indo-European language. If you say White house, In Melayu will be Rumah Putih, not Putih Rumah. About the structure, just same with English. For example, They played football yesterday. Just to emphasize, there are no tenses in Melayu. For example the word "makan"=eat. The verb will always be the same, no matter tomorrow, yesterday, today you eat, it will always be Saya makan, there are no TO BE. Hope it works.

Did you learn Malay for daily-use or you use it in the formal class? I'm really impress to know that you really want to learn my mother tongue. But don't worry too much, although the malay native speaker himself don't speak or write formally. I'm also not so good to explain the rule, but i try my best. Actually the rule is almost same like English...usually we use subject like noun or pronouns for example:( SAYA- I ) ,(AWAK- YOU),( MEREKA- THEY), ( KERETA SAYA- MY CAR) it same apply to verb and object. Malay verb doesn't have past tense or present tense but it must added some words to represent future or past. ( AKAN- in the future) (SEDANG/ TENGAH- at the moment/during the time) and ( TELAH- already happ Verb sometimes we added affix, but it depends on the situation. It use to explain the action. BE, BER, ME, MEN, MENG( lari - run ) ( ber+ lari / prefix+verb) Object- the thing we want to describe such as adjective, nouns and many more... eg: 1: Saya minum air. (pronouns + verb + object ) (I drink the water ) 2: Saya akan minum air ( future ) I will drink the water 3: Saya sedang minum air (present) I'm drinking the water 4: Saya telah minum air (past) I drank the water 5: Saya meminum air I'm drinking the water ( to explain someone else what he/she doing, it can be either about himself or the third person ) Hope someone would help me to explain more better.