A billboard promoting Visit Selangor 2025 has recently come under scrutiny from Malaysians who found something odd about the grammar that was used in its Bahasa Melayu copywriting.

The ad, which wrote “Tidak Perlu Pergi Jauh, Selangorkan Ada!” caught the eyes of a few rakyat who said there should be a space between Selangor and Kan.

This is because when the two words are put together, it translates to “Selangorise” which doesn’t make sense in an advertisement that’s trying to say “There’s no need to go far, Selangor has it all”.

While we’re sure the advertisement does not mean it wants to “Selangorise” people, many feel there’s something off about the spacing in the sentence.

View on Threads

The ad’s creator explained the original tagline and how it was changed by DBP

On Threads, an individual who claims to be the creator of the ad clarified that the original tagline said “Selangor Kan Ada!”, which sounds correct compared to the altered one.

However, he explained that when his agency submitted the advertisement to Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), they did not approve it as they deemed the use of the language as incorrect.

“So to proceed, we had to follow DBP’s instruction. Otherwise, we were not allowed to display the advertisement,” Narzery Tashrique said in his Threads post.

Malaysians gave their two sen on the matter

Many commented on the post to give their opinion on tatabahasa (grammar), while some simply expressed their confusion.

One user explained that the use of “kan” in the ad’s context is derived from the word “bukan” which translates to “not” in English. He illustrated how the proper use of bukan is used in the tagline before it is shortened.

Some argued that “kan” is bahasa pasar (colloquial language not bound to linguistic rules) but others say that it’s not, and that it’s just an abbreviation of “bukan”.

Meanwhile, one user pointed out that -kan becomes an affix when it’s not spaced from the base word, and when it’s spaced it becomes a term for agreement.

A Bahasa Melayu teacher shed some light on the language kerfuffle

TRP reached out to Zurah Zakaria, a Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) Bahasa Melayu teacher at Kolej Tingkatan Enam Tuanku Muhriz in Seremban to get her opinion on the matter as a linguistics educator.

After explaining the ad billboard issue to her, she told us that DBP may have altered the tagline to fit the institute’s rules on proper Bahasa Melayu grammar, although they might not have realised how the spacing may have changed the context as well.

She also mentioned that the purpose of the ad is important too. For promotional copywriting, a lot of grammatical rules don’t apply as ads need to be furnished with words that are appealing to audiences.

However, informational ads such as ones showcasing pharmaceutical products, tools, or services need to be clear and concise with proper grammar so as to not spread confusion or misinformation.

The teacher then shared her own version of the tagline that is much clearer and straighforward:

“Tidak Perlu Pergi Jauh, Selangor Ada!”

Just by removing the “kan”, the sentence became much simpler to understand without compromising its message.

What do you think of the teacher’s version? Or is there a better way to word the tagline?