Malaysians say Malaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy located in Southeast Asia. They also say it consists of thirteen states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of 329,847 square kilometres separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia (Malaysian Borneo). Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia. East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia and a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government.

Malaysia has its origins in the Malay kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18^th century, became subject to the British Empire. The first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946. Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963. Less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation.

Reporting verbs are used in reported speech.

The most common Reporting verbs are “say” and “tell”.

“Say” is used when there is no indirect object.

Example: My mother says she likes cooking Malaysian food.

“Tell” is used when we say who was being spoken to (with and indirect object).

Example: She tells me she likes cooking Malaysian food.