Name	Malay
Nativename	Bahasa Melayuبهاس ملايو
States	Malaysia (as Malaysian and local Malay) Indonesia (as Indonesian and local Malay) Brunei (as ''Melayu Brunei'') Singapore East Timor (as Indonesian) Philippines (mostly in Tawi Tawi and Sulu) Thailand Burma Sri Lanka Cocos Island Christmas Island
Speakers	40 million native (incl. 23 million Indonesian); approx. 180 million total (90% Indonesian)
Familycolor	Austronesian
Fam2	Malayo-Polynesian (MP)
Fam3	Nuclear MP
Fam4	Malayo-Sumbawan
Fam5	Malayic
Fam6	Malayan
Fam7	Malay
Dia1	Malay dialects
Stand1	Malaysian
Stand2	Indonesian
Stand3	Brunei
Script	Malay alphabet (Latin script; official in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia; co-official in Brunei) Jawi (Arabic script) (co-official in Brunei and Malaysia). Historically written in Pallava, Kawi and Rencong
Nation	IndonesiaIndonesiaBruneiSingapore
Minority	Indonesia (Local Malay enjoys the status of a regional language in Sumatra apart from the national standard of Indonesian)Thailand (Malay is the language of the Muslim community in Southern Thailand)
Agency	Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Institute of Language and Literature; Majlis Bahasa Brunei–Indonesia–Malaysia (Brunei–Indonesia–Malaysia Language Council – MABBIM) (a trilateral joint-venture)
Iso1	ms
Iso2b	may
Iso2t	msa
Iso3	msa
Lc1	zsm|ld1Malaysian|ll1Malaysian language
Lc2	ind|ld2Indonesian|ll2Indonesian language
Ld3	Balinese Malay|lc3mhp
Ld4	Brunei|lc4kxd|ll4Melayu Brunei
Ld5	Cocos Islands Malay|lc5coa
Ld6	Larantuka Malay|lc6lrt
Ld7	Makassar Malay|lc7mfp
Ld8	North Moluccan Malay|lc8max
Map	Malaysia Spoken Area Map v1.png
Mapcaption
Notice	IPA }}

Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia (as Malaysian), Indonesia (as Indonesian), Brunei (as ''Melayu Brunei'') and Singapore (as the national language and one of four official languages of Singapore). It is spoken natively by 40 million people across the Malacca Strait, including the coasts of the Malay Peninsula of Malaysia and southern Thailand, Riau province, the eastern coast of Sumatra, and the Riau Islands in Indonesia, and has been established as a native language of part of western coastal Sarawak in Borneo.

In Malaysia, the standard language is called ''Bahasa Malaysia'' "Malaysian language". In Singapore, Brunei, southern Thailand, and the southern Philippines it is called ''Bahasa Melayu'' "Malay language", and in Indonesia it has undergone a series of standardizations and modifications to form what is now called ''Bahasa Indonesia'', "Indonesian language", and furthermore designated as ''Bahasa Nasional'' "National Language" and ''Bahasa Persatuan/Pemersatu'' "Unifying Language/''Lingua Franca''". However, in areas of central to southern Sumatra (mainly Riau) where the language is indigenous, Indonesians refer to it as ''Bahasa Melayu'' and designate it as one of their regional languages.

Origin

There are many hypotheses as to where the Malay language originated. One of these is that it came from Sumatra island. The oldest inscriptions in Malay, date from the end of the 7th century AD, were found on Bangka Island, off the southeastern coast of Sumatra (the Kedukan Bukit Inscription) and in Palembang in southern Sumatra. "Malayu" was the name of an old kingdom located in Jambi province in eastern Sumatra. It was known in ancient Chinese texts as "Mo-lo-yo" and mentioned in the ''Nagarakertagama'', an old Javanese epic written in 1365, as one of the "tributary states" of the Majapahit kingdom in eastern Java.

The use of Malay throughout insular and peninsular Southeast Asia is linked to the rise of Muslim kingdoms and the spread of Islam, itself a consequence of growing regional trade. At the time of European colonization, the Johor-Riau Sultanate had ascendancy. Since the 15th century, the Johor-Riau dialect of Malay had been used as a ''lingua franca'' throughout the Malay Archipelago, as the similar dialect of Malacca had been used before it. When Johor-Riau was divided between British Malaya (Johor) and the Dutch East Indies (Riau), its language was accorded official status in both territories.

Indonesia pronounced Riau (Johor) Malay its official language (''Bahasa Indonesia'') when it gained independence. Since 1928, nationalists and young people throughout the Indonesian archipelago had declared Malay to be Indonesia's only official language, as proclaimed in the ''Sumpah Pemuda'' "Youth Vow." Thus Indonesia was the first country to designate Malay as an official language.

In Malaysia, the 1957 Article 152 of the Federation adopted Johor (Malacca) Malay as the official language (''Bahasa Malaysia''). The name "Malaysia", in both language and country, emphasized that the nation consisted of more than just ethnic Malays. In 1986 the official name was changed to ''Bahasa Melayu'', but in 2007 it was changed back.

"Bahasa Melayu" was defined as Brunei's official language in the country's 1959 Constitution.

The Indonesian and Malaysian dialects of Malay are separated by some centuries of different vocabulary development, partly due to the influence of different colonial languages; Dutch in the case of Indonesia, formerly the Dutch East Indies, and English in the case of Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei, which were formerly under British rule. However, Indonesia and Malaysia largely unified their previously divergent orthographies in 1972, and they along with Brunei have set up a joint commission to develop common scientific and technical vocabulary and otherwise cooperate to keep their standards convergent.

Some Malay dialects, however, show only limited mutual intelligibility with the standard language; for example, Kelantanese or Sarawakian pronunciation is difficult for many fellow Malaysians to understand, while Indonesian contains many words unfamiliar to speakers of Malaysian, some because of Javanese, Sundanese or other local language influence, and some because of slang.

The language spoken by the Peranakan (Straits Chinese, a hybrid of Chinese settlers from the Ming Dynasty and local Malays) is a unique patois of Malay and the Hokkien Chinese, which is mostly spoken in the former Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca in Malaysia, and the Indonesian Archipelago.

History

The history of the Malay language can be divided into five periods: Old Malay, the Transitional Period, the Malacca Period, Late Modern Malay, and modern Malay.

Old Malay, the mother of modern Malay was influenced by Sanskrit, the lingua franca of Hinduism and Buddhism. The sanskirt loanwords can be found in Old Malay vocabulary. The earliest known stone inscription in the Old Malay language was found in Sumatra, written in Pallava variant of Grantha script and dates back to 7th century – known as Kedukan Bukit Inscription, it was discovered by the Dutchman M. Batenburg on 29 November 1920, at Kedukan Bukit, South Sumatra, on the banks of the River Tatang, a tributary of the River Musi. It is a small stone of 45 by 80 cm.

The earliest surviving manuscript in Malay is the Tanjong Tanah Law in post-Pallava characters. This 14th century pre-Islamic legal text produced in the Adityavarman era (1345–1377) of the Dharmasraya Kingdom, a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom that arose after the end of Srivijayan rule in Sumatra. The laws were for the Kerinci people who today still live in the highlands of Sumatra.

From the island of Sumatra, the Malay language spread to peninsular South-east Asia (later known as Malaya and subsequently known as west Malaysia). The Malay language came into widespread use as the trade language of the Sultanate of Malacca (1402–1511). During this period, the Malay language developed rapidly under the influence of Islamic literature. The development changed the nature of the language with massive infusion of Arabic, Tamil, Hindi and Sanskrit vocabularies. Under the Sultanate of Malacca the language evolved into a form recognizable to speakers of modern Malay.

One of the oldest surviving letters written in Malay is letters from Sultan Abu Hayat of Ternate, Maluku Islands in present day Indonesia, dated arround 1521–1522. The letter is addressed to the king of Portugal, following contact with Portuguese explorer Francisco Serrão. The letters show sign of non-native usage. This is because the Ternateans were -and still are, using completely different language as mother tongue: the Ternate language, a West Papuan language. They use Malay only as lingua franca for inter-ethnic communications.

Classification and related languages

Malay is a member of the Austronesian family of languages, which includes languages from Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, with a smaller number in continental Asia. Malagasy, a geographic outlier spoken in Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, is also a member of this language family. Although each language of the family is mutually unintelligible, their similarities are rather striking. Many roots have come virtually unchanged from their common Austronesian ancestor. There are many cognates found in the languages' words for kinship, health, body parts and common animals. Numbers, especially, show remarkable similarities.

Within Austronesian, Malay is part of a cluster of numerous closely related forms of speech known as the Malay languages, which were spread across Malaya and the Indonesian archipelago by Malay traders from Sumatra. There is disagreement as to which varieties of speech popularly called "Malay" should be considered dialects of this language, and which should be classified as distinct Malay languages. The local language of Brunei, Brunei Malay, for example, is not readily intelligible with the standard language, and the same is true with some varieties on the Malay Peninsula such as Kedah Malay. However, both Brunei and Kedah are quite close.

The closest relatives of the Malay languages are those left behind on Sumatra, such as Minangkabau with 5.5 million speakers on the west coast.

Writing system

Malay is normally written using the Latin script (''Rumi''), although an Arabic alphabet called ''Jawi'' also exists. ''Rumi'' is official in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. ''Rumi'' and ''Jawi'' are co-official in Brunei. Efforts are currently being undertaken to preserve Jawi in rural areas of Malaysia, and students taking Malay language examination in Malaysia have the option of answering questions using Jawi. The Latin script, however, is the most commonly used in Malaysia, both for official and informal purposes.

Historically, Malay has been written using various scripts. Before the introduction of Arabic script in the Malay region, Malay was written using Pallava, Kawi and Rencong script and these are still in use today by the Champa Malay in Vietnam and Cambodia. Old Malay was written using Pallava and Kawi script, as evident from several inscription stones in the Malay region. Starting from the era of kingdom of Pasai and throughout the golden age of the Sultanate of Malacca, Jawi gradually replaced these scripts as the most commonly used script in the Malay region. Starting from the 17th century, under Dutch and British influence, Jawi was gradually replaced by the Rumi script.

Extent of use

Malay is spoken in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, parts of Thailand, and Brunei. Indonesia and Brunei have their own standards, Malaysia and Singapore use the same standard. The extent to which Malay is used in these countries varies depending on historical and cultural circumstances. Malay is the national language in Malaysia by Article 152 of the Constitution of Malaysia, and became the sole official language in West Malaysia in 1968, and in East Malaysia gradually from 1974. English continues, however, to be widely used in professional and commercial fields and in the superior courts. Other minority languages are also commonly used by the country's large ethnic minorities. The situation in Brunei is similar to that of Malaysia.

Phonology

Unlike many of its neighbouring languages, such as Thai and Vietnamese, Malay is not a tonal language.

Consonants

Malay has several phonemes found only in borrowed words (in parentheses below), principally from Arabic, Dutch, and English. Not all speakers distinguish all of them.

+caption

Table of consonant phonemes of Malay

colspan="2">Bilabial consonant

Bilabial

! colspan="2"

! colspan="2"

! colspan="2"

! colspan="2"

! colspan="2"

! colspan="2"

!colspan="2"

Nasal consonant>Nasal

Plosive consonant>Plosive

p

b

t

d

k , ]}}

g

Affricate consonant>Affricate

c

j

Fricative consonant

Fricative

(f) , ]}}

(v) , ]}}

s

(z) , ]}}

Approximant consonant>Approximant

Lateral consonant>Lateral

Trill consonant>Trill

, , are unaspirated, as in the Romance languages, or as in English ''spy, sty, sky.'' In final position, they are unreleased , with final ''k'' being a glottal stop (see next). are also unreleased, and therefore devoiced, . There is no liaison: they remain unreleased even when followed by a vowel, as in ''kulit ubi'' "potato skins", though they are pronounced as a normal medial consonant when followed by a suffix. In some words, glottal stop can occur at the end of a word, where it is written ‹k›: ''baik'', ''bapak''. Only a few words have this sound in the middle, e.g. ''bakso'' (meatballs). It may be represented by an apostrophe in Arabic derived words such as ''Al Qur'an''. is dental, as in French, whereas is alveolar as in English. are pronounced with the tip of the tongue further forward than in English (alveolar), and without the lip rounding of English. clearly pronounced between like vowels, as in ''Pahang''. Elsewhere it is a very light sound, and is frequently silent, as in ''hutan'' ~ ''utan'' "forest", ''sahut'' ~ ''saut'' "answer". (It is not, however, dropped when initial from Arabic loans such as ''hakim'' "judge".) In dialects which retain final , it may engage in liaison, as in ''sudah itu'' "after that". varies significantly across dialects. Its position relative to schwa is ambiguous: ''kertas'' "paper" may be pronounced or .

Orthographic Note: The sequence and are written ‹ngg›, ‹ngk›.

Phonemes which occur only in Arabic loans may be pronounced distinctly by speakers who know Arabic. Otherwise they tend to be substituted for with native sounds.

+Table of Arabic consonants
Distinct !! Assimilated !! Example
	,	''khabar, kabar'' "news"
	,
//	,
	,

Vowels

Malay originally had four vowels, but in many dialects today has six. is generally epenthetic, but cannot be predicted in some words, such as ''enam'' "six". are distinguished in English loan words, and also in many Indonesian dialects. In some dialects, are pronounced as .

! Height	! Front	! Central	! Back
!Close	i , ]}}		u , ]}}
! Mid	(e) , ]}}	e	(o) , ]}}
! Open		a , ]}}

In native Malay words, and are allophones. They may vary by locality, as in ''bugil'' "stripped" (Indonesia and northern Malaya) vs. ''bogel'' (southern Malaya).

There are two vowels represented by the letter ‹e›, when judged to be pronounced , and . The ‹e› in numerous grammatical affixes and function words is always .

In some parts of Peninsular Malaysia, especially in the central and southern regions, most words which end with the letter ''a'' are pronounced .

The sequences ''ai, au,'' and ''oi'' are diphthongs in open syllables. In closed syllables, however, as in ''air'' (water), the two vowels are pronounced in hiatus. In other words, ''pulau'' "island" and ''laut'' "sea" both have two syllables. Other vowel sequences, as in ''daerah'' "district" and ''siul'' "whistle", are always in hiatus. In some dialects in Indonesia, diphthongal and are conflated with .

	! Orthography	! IPA
ai
au
oi

Stress

Malay has light Stress which falls on either the final or penultimate syllable, depending on regional variations as well as the presence of the schwa () in a word. Generally, the penultimate syllable is stressed, unless its vowel is a schwa . If the penult has a schwa, then stress moves to the ante-penultimate syllable if there is one, even if that syllable has a schwa as well; if the word is disyllabic, the stress is final. In disyllabic stress with a closed penultimate syllable, such as ''tinggal'' "stay" and ''rantai'' "chain"

However, there is some disagreement among linguists on whether stress is phonemic (unpredictable), with at least one researcher suggesting that in some dialects there is no lexical stress at all.

Nasal assimilation

Important in the derivation of Malay nouns and verbs is the assimilation of the nasal consonant at the end of the important derivational prefixes ''meng-'' and ''peng-'' . The pronunciation of this nasal matches the place of articulation of the following sound.

The nasal is dropped before sonorant consonants, the nasals and the liquids . (It does not occur before approximants.) It is retained before and assimilates to obstruent consonants: labial before labial , alveolar before alveolar , and velar before other sounds, velar as well as and all vowels.

In addition, a voiceless obstruent, apart from (that is ), is dropped. behaves oddly here, producing a palatal nasal before dropping.

That is, ''meng-'' produces the following derivations: {| |+ Table of nasal assimilation |- valign=top | {| class=wikitable |- ! root !! ''meng-'' derivation |- | ''masak'' || ''memasak'' |- | ''nanti'' || ''menanti'' |- | ''layang'' || ''melayang'' |- | ''rampas'' || ''merampas'' |- | ''beli'' || ''membeli'' |- | ''dukong'' || ''mendukong'' |- | ''jawab'' || ''menjawab'' |- | ''gulong'' || ''menggulong'' |- | ''hantar'' || ''menghantar'' |} | {| class=wikitable |- ! root !! ''meng-'' derivation |- | ''ajar'' || ''mengajar'' |- | ''isi'' || ''mengisi'' |- | ''pilih'' || ''memilih'' |- | ''tulis'' || ''menulis'' |- | ''cabut'' || ''mencabut'' |- | ''kenal'' || ''mengenal'' |- | ''surat'' || ''menyurat'' |} |}

Grammar

In Malay, there are four basic parts of speech: Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and grammatical function words (particles). Nouns and verbs may be basic roots, but frequently they are derived from other words by means of prefixes and suffixes.

Word formation

Malay is an agglutinative language, and new words are formed by three methods. New words can be created by attaching affixes onto a root word (affixation), formation of a compound word (composition), or repetition of words or portions of words (reduplication).

Affixes

Root words are either nouns or verbs, which can be affixed to derive new words, e.g. ''masak'' (to cook) yields ''memasak'' (cooks), ''memasakkan'' (cooks for), ''dimasak'' (cooked) as well as ''pemasak'' (a cook), ''masakan'' (a meal, cookery). Many initial consonants undergo mutation when prefixes are added: e.g. ''sapu'' (sweep) becomes ''penyapu'' (broom); ''panggil'' (to call) becomes ''memanggil'' (calls), ''tapis'' (to sieve) becomes ''menapis'' (sieves).

Other examples of the use of affixes to change the meaning of a word can be seen with the word ''ajar'' (teach):

''ajar'' = teach

'' ajaran '' = teachings

'' belajar '' = to learn

'' mengajar '' = to teach

'' diajar '' = being taught (intransitive)

'' diajarkan '' = being taught (transitive)

'' mempelajari '' = to study

'' dipelajari '' = being studied

'' pelajar '' = student

'' pengajar '' = teacher

'' pelajaran '' = subject

'' pengajaran '' = lesson, moral of story

'' pembelajaran '' = learning

'' terajar '' = taught (accidentally)

'' terpelajar '' = well-educated

'' berpelajaran '' = is educated

There are four types of affixes, namely prefixes (''awalan''), suffixes (''akhiran''), circumfixes (''apitan'') and infixes (''sisipan''). These affixes are categorised into noun affixes, verb affixes, and adjective affixes.

Noun affixes are affixes that form nouns upon addition to root words. The following are examples of noun affixes:

{|class="wikitable" |- ! style="background:#efefef;" | Type of noun affixes ! style="background:#efefef;" | Affix ! style="background:#efefef;" | Example of root word ! style="background:#efefef;" | Example of derived word |- |Prefix |pə(r)- ~ pəng- |''duduk'' (sit) |''penduduk'' (population) |- | |kə- |''hendak'' (want) |''kehendak'' (desire) |- | |juru- |''wang'' (money) |''juruwang'' (cashier) |- |Infix | ‹əl› |''tunjuk'' (point) |''telunjuk'' (index finger, command) |- | | ‹əm› |''kelut'' (dishevelled) |''kemelut'' (chaos, crisis) |- | | ‹ər› |''gigi'' (teeth) |''gerigi'' (toothed blade) |- |Suffix | -an |''bangun'' (wake up, raise) |''bangunan'' (building) |- |Circumfix |kə-...-an |''raja'' (king) |''kerajaan'' (kingdom) |- | |pə(r)-...-anpəng-...-an |''kerja'' (work) |''pekerjaan'' (occupation) |}

The prefix ''per-'' drops its ''r'' before ''r, l'' and frequently before ''p, t, k.'' In some words it is ''peng-''; though formally distinct, these are treated as variants of the same prefix in Malay grammar books.

Similarly, verb affixes are attached to root words to form verbs. In Malay, there are:

{|class="wikitable" |- ! style="background:#efefef;" | Type of verb affixes ! style="background:#efefef;" | Affix ! style="background:#efefef;" | Example of root word ! style="background:#efefef;" | Example of derived word |- |Prefix |bər- |''ajar'' (teach) |''belajar'' (to study) |- | |məng- |''tolong'' (help) |''menolong'' (to help) |- | |di- |''ambil'' (take) |''diambil'' (be taken) |- | |məmpər- |''kemas'' (tidy up, orderly) |''memperkemas'' (to arrange further) |- | |dipər- |''dalam'' (deep) |''diperdalam'' (be deepened) |- | |tər- |''makan'' (eat) |''termakan'' (to have accidentally eaten) |- |Suffix | -kan |''letak'' (place, keep) |''letakkan'' (keep) |- | | -i |''jauh'' (far) |''jauhi'' (avoid) |- |Circumfix |bər-...-an |''pasang'' (pair) |''berpasangan'' (in pairs) |- | |bər-...-kan |''dasar'' (base) |''berdasarkan'' (based on) |- | |məng-...-kan |''pasti'' (sure) |''memastikan'' (to make sure) |- | |məng-...-i |''teman'' (company) |''menemani'' (to accompany) |- | |məmpər-...-kan |''guna'' (use) |''mempergunakan'' (to utilise, to exploit) |- | |məmpər-...-i |''ajar'' (teach) |''mempelajari'' (to study) |- | |kə-...-an |''hilang'' (disappear) |''kehilangan'' (to lose) |- | |di-...-i |''sakit'' (pain) |''disakiti'' (to be hurt by) |- | |di-...-kan |''benar'' (right) |''dibenarkan'' (is allowed to) |- | |dipər-...-kan |''kenal'' (know, recognise) |''diperkenalkan'' (is being introduced) |}

Adjective affixes are attached to root words to form adjectives:

{|class="wikitable" |- ! style="background:#efefef;" | Type of adjective affixes ! style="background:#efefef;" | Affix ! style="background:#efefef;" | Example of root word ! style="background:#efefef;" | Example of derived word |- |Prefix |tər- |''kenal'' (know) |''terkenal'' (famous) |- | |sə- |''lari'' (run) |''selari'' (parallel) |- |Infix | ‹əl› |''serak'' (disperse) |''selerak'' (messy) |- | | ‹əm› |''cerlang'' (radiant bright) |''cemerlang'' (bright, excellent) |- | | ‹ər› |''sabut'' (husk) |''serabut'' (dishevelled) |- |Circumfix |kə-...-an |''barat'' (west) |''kebaratan'' (westernized) |}

In addition to these affixes, Malay also has a lot of borrowed affixes from other languages such as Sanskrit, Arabic and English. For example ''maha-'', ''pasca-'', ''eka-'', ''bi-'', ''anti-'', ''pro-'' etc.

Compound word

In Malay, new words can be formed by joining two or more root words. Compound words, when they exist freely in a sentence, are often written separately. Compound words are only attached to each other when they are bound by circumfix or when they are already considered as stable words.

For example, the word ''kereta'' which means ''car'' and ''api'' which means ''fire'', are compounded to form a new word ''kereta api'' (train). Similarly, ''ambil alih'' (take over) is formed using the root words ''ambil'' (take) and ''alih'' (move), but will link together when a circumfix is attached to it, i.e. ''pengambilalihan'' (takeover). Certain stable words, such as ''kakitangan'' (personnel), and ''kerjasama'' (cooperation), are spelled as one word even when they exist freely in sentences.

Reduplication

There are four types of words reduplication in Malay, namely

Full reduplication

Partial reduplication

Rhythmic reduplication

Reduplication of meaning

Measure words

Another distinguishing feature of Malay is its use of measure words (''penjodoh bilangan''). In this way, it is similar to many other languages of Asia, including Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese, and Bengali.

Measure words are found in English ''two head of cattle'', ''a loaf of bread'', or ''this piece of paper'', where ''*two cattle, a bread,'' and ''this paper'' (in the sense of ''this piece of paper'') would be ungrammatical. The word ''satu'' reduces to ''se-'' , as it does in other compounds:

! measure word	! used for measuring	! literal translation	! example
buah	things (in general), large things, abstract nounshouses, cars, ships, mountains; books, rivers, chairs, some fruits, thoughts, etc.	'fruit'	dua buah meja (two tables), lima buah rumah (five houses)
ekor	animals	'tail'	seekor ayam (a chicken), tiga ekor kambing (three goats)
orang	human beings	'person'	seorang lelaki (a man), enam orang petani (six farmers), seratus orang murid (a hundred students)
biji	smaller rounded objectsmost fruits, cups, nuts	'grain'	sebiji/ sebutir telur (an egg), sebiji epal (an apple), sebutir/ butiran-butiran beras (rice or rices)
batang	long stiff thingstrees, walking sticks, pencils	'trunk, rod'
həlai, lai	things in thin layers or sheetspaper, cloth, feathers, hair	'leaf'
kəping	flat fragmentsslabs of stone, pieces of wood, pieces of bread, land, coins, paper	'chip'
pucuk	letters, firearms, needles	'sprout'
bilah	blades: knives, spears	'lathe'

Less common are

bəntuk	rings, hooks (with ringed 'eyes')
bidanɡ	mats, widths of cloth
kuntum	flowers
tangkai	flowers
kaki	long-stemmed flowers
urat	threads, sinew
pintu	houses in a row
tangga	traditional houses with ladders
patah	words, proverbs
butir	smallest rounded objectssmaller fruits, seeds, grains, rounds of ammunition, gems, points	'particle'	commonly replaced with ''biji''
puntung	stumps, stubs, butt endsof firewood, cigarettes, teeth
potong	slices of bread etc.
kərat
utas
carik	things easily torn, like paper

Measure words are not necessary just to say "a": ''burung'' "a bird, birds". Using ''se-'' plus a measure word is closer to English "one" or "a certain": :''Ada se-ekor burung yang pandai bercakap'' :"There was a (certain) bird that could talk"

Nouns

Common derivational affixes for nouns are ''peng-/per-/juru-'' (actor, instrument, or someone characterized by the root), ''-an'' (collectivity, similarity, object, place, instrument), ''ke-...-an'' (abstractions and qualities, collectivities), ''per-/peng-...-an'' (abstraction, place, goal or result).

Gender

Malay does not make use of grammatical gender, and there are only a few words that use natural gender; the same word is used for ''he'' and ''she'' or for ''his'' and ''her''. Most of the words that refer to people (family terms, professions, etc.) have a form that does not distinguish between the sexes. For example, ''adik'' can both refer to a younger sibling of either sex. In order to specify the natural gender of a noun, an adjective has to be added: ''adik laki-laki'' corresponds to "brother" but really means "male younger sibling". There are some words that are gendered, for instance ''puteri'' means "princess", and ''putera'' means "prince"; words like these are usually absorbed from other languages (in these cases, from Sanskrit).

Number

There is no grammatical plural in Malay. Thus ''orang'' may mean either "person" or "people". Plurality is expressed by the context, or the usage of words such as numerals, ''bəbərapa'' "some", or ''səmua'' "all" that express plurality. In many cases, it simply isn't relevant to the speaker.

Reduplication is commonly used to emphasize plurality. However, reduplication has many other functions. For example, ''orang-orang'' means "(all the) people", but ''orang-orangan'' means "scarecrow". Similarly, while ''hati'' means "heart" or "liver", ''hati-hati'' is a verb meaning "to be careful". Also, not all reduplicated words are plural inherently plural, such as ''orang-orangan'' "scarecrow/scarecrows", ''biri-biri'' "a/some sheep" and ''kupu-kupu'' "butterfly/butterflies". Some reduplication is rhyming rather than exact, as in ''sayur-mayur'' "(all sorts of) vegetables".

Distributive affixes derive mass nouns that are effectively plural: ''pohon'' "tree", ''pepohonan'' "flora, trees"; ''rumah'' "house", ''perumahan'' "housing, houses"; ''gunung'' "mountain", ''pegunungan'' "mountain range, mountains".

Quantity words come before the noun: ''səribu orang'' "a thousand people", ''beberapa pegunungan'' "a series of mountain ranges", ''beberapa kupu-kupu'' "some butterflies".

Pronouns

Personal pronouns are not a separate part of speech, but a subset of nouns. They are frequently omitted, and there are numerous ways to say "you". Commonly the person's name, title, title with name, or occupation is used ("does Johny want to go?", "would Madam like to go?"); kin terms, including fictive kinship, are extremely common. However, there are also dedicated personal pronouns, as well as the demonstrative pronouns ''ini'' "this, the" and ''itu'' "that, the".

;Personal pronouns Notable among the personal-pronoun system is a distinction between two forms of "we": ''kita'' (you and me, you and us) and ''kami'' (us, but not you). The distinction is increasingly confused in colloquial Indonesian.

There are two major forms of "I", which are ''saya'' and ''aku''. ''Saya'' is the more formal form, whereas ''aku'' is used with family, friends, and between lovers. ''Sahaya'' is an old or literary form of ''saya''. ''Sa(ha)ya'' may also be used for "we", but in such cases it is usually used with ''sekalian'' or ''semua'' "all"; this form is ambiguous as to whether it means ''kami'' or ''kita''. Less common are ''hamba'' "slave", ''hamba tuan, hamba datok'' (all extremely humble), ''beta'' "your servant" (in letters), ''patek'' (a commoner addressing a royal), ''kami'' (royal or editorial "we"), ''kita'', ''təman'', and ''kawan.''

There are three common forms of "you", ''anda'' (formal), ''kamu'' (informal), and ''kalian'' "all" (commonly used as a plural form of you, slightly informal). ''Anda'' is used with strangers, recent acquaintances, in advertisements, in business, and when you wish to show respect (though terms like ''tuan'' "sir" and other titles also show respect), while ''kamu'' is used in situations where the speaker would use ''aku'' for "I". ''Anda sekalian'' is polite plural. ''Engkau'' (''əngkau''), commonly shortened to ''kau'', and ''hang'' are used to social inferiors, ''awak'' to equals, and ''əncek'' (''cek'' before a name) is polite, traditionally used for people without title. The compounds ''makcek'' and ''pakcek'' are used with village elders one is well acquainted with or the guest of.

There are a large number of other words for "I" and "you", many regional, dialectical, or borrowed from local languages. ''Saudara'' "you" (male) and ''saudari'' (female) (plural ''saudara-saudara'' or ''saudari-saudari'') show utmost respect. ''Daku'' "I" and ''dikau'' "you" are poetic or romantic. Indonesian ''gua'' "I" and ''lu'' "you" are slang and extremely informal. In the state of Pahang, two variants for "I" and "you" exist, depending on location. In East Pahang, around Pekan, "kome" is used as "I" while in the west around Temerloh, "koi" is used. Interestingly, "kome" is also used in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, but instead it means "you". This allegedly originated from the fact that both the royal families of Pahang and Perak (whose seats are in Pekan and Kuala Kangsar respectively) were decendants of the same ancient line.

The common word for "s/he" and "they" is ''ia'', which has the object and emphatic/focused form ''dia''. ''Bəliau'' "his/her Honour" is respectful. As with "you", names and kin terms are extremely common. Colloquially, ''dia orang'' is commonly used for the plural "they"; in writing, ''məreka'' "someone", ''mereka itu'', or ''orang itu'' "those people" are used for "they".

The informal pronouns ''aku, kamu, engkau, ia, kami,'' and ''kita'' are indigenous to Malay.

+Common pronouns
! Person	! Malay	! English
	saya (standard, polite),aku (informal, familiar)	I, me
kami	we, us: they and me, s/he and me
kita	we, us: you and me, you and us
	anda (polite, formal), kamu (familiar, informal)	you, thou, thee
anda sekalian (formal), kalian (informal)	you, y'all
	ia ~ dia, dia orang	he, she, him, her
ia ~ dia, mereka, dia orang	they, them

;Possessive pronouns ''Aku, kamu, engkau'', and ''ia'' have short possessive enclitic forms. All others retain their full forms like other nouns, as does emphatic ''dia'': ''meja saya, meja kita, meja anda, meja dia'' "my table, our table, your table, his/her table".

{|class="wikitable" |+Possessed forms of ''meja'' "table" ! Pronoun ! Enclitic ! Possessed form |- |aku | -ku |''mejaku'' (my table) |- |kamu | -mu |''mejamu'' (your table) |- |engkau | -kau |''mejakau'' (your table) |- |ia | -nya |''mejanya'' (his, her, their table) |}

There are also proclitic forms of ''aku'' and ''engkau'', ''ku-'' and ''kau-''. These are used when there is no emphasis on the pronoun:

:''Ku-dengar raja itu penyakit sopak. Aku tahu ilmu tabib. Aku-lah mengubati dia.'' :"It has come to my attention that the Raja has a skin disease. I am skilled in medicine. ''I'' will cure him." Here ''ku-''verb is used for a general report, ''aku'' verb is used for a factual statement, and emphatic ''aku-lah meng-''verb (≈ "I am the one who...") for focus on the pronoun.

; Demonstrative pronouns There are two demonstrative pronouns in Malay. ''Ini'' "this, these" is used for a noun which is generally near to the speaker. ''Itu'' "that, those" is used for a noun which is generally far from the speaker. Either may sometimes be equivalent to English "the". There is no difference between singular and plural. However, plural can be indicated through duplication of a noun followed by a ''ini'' or ''itu''. The word ''yang'' "which" is often placed before demonstrative pronouns to give emphasis and a sense of certainty, particularly when making references or enquiries about something/ someone, like English "this one" or "that one".

! Pronoun	! Malay	! English
ini	''buku ini''	This book, these books, the book(s)
	''buku-buku ini''	These books, (all) the books
itu	''kucing itu''	That cat, those cats, the cat(s)
	''kucing-kucing itu''	Those cats, the (various) cats

! Pronoun + yang	! Example Sentence	! English Meaning
Yang ini	Q: Anda mau membeli buku yang mana?	A: Saya mau beli yang ini	Q: Which book do you wish to purchase?	A: I would like this one
Yang itu	Q: Kucing mana yang makan tikusmu?	A: Yang itu!	Q: Which cat ate your mouse?	A: That one!

Verbs

Verbs are not inflected for person or number, and they are not marked for tense; tense is instead denoted by time adverbs (such as "yesterday") or by other tense indicators, such as ''sudah'' "already" and ''belum'' "not yet". On the other hand, there is a complex system of verb affixes to render nuances of meaning and to denote voice or intentional and accidental moods. Some of these affixes are ignored in colloquial speech.

Examples of these are the prefixes ''di-'' (patient focus, frequently but erroneously called "passive voice", for OVA word order), ''meng-'' (agent focus, frequently but erroneously called "active voice", for AVO word order), ''memper-'' and ''diper-'' (causative, agent and patient focus), ''ber-'' (stative or habitual; intransitive VS order), and ''ter-'' (agentless actions, such as those which are involuntary, sudden, or accidental, for VA = VO order); the suffixes ''-kan'' (causative or benefactive) and ''-i'' (locative, repetitive, or exhaustive); and the circumfixes ''ber-...-an'' (plural subject, diffuse action) and ''ke-...-an'' (unintentional or potential action or state).

''duduk'' to sit down

''mendudukkan'' to sit someone down, give someone a seat, to appoint

''menduduki'' to sit on, to occupy

''didudukkan'' to be given a seat, to be appointed

''diduduki'' to be sat on, to be occupied

''terduduk'' to sink down, to come to sit

''kedudukan'' to be situated

Often the derivation changes the meaning of the verb rather substantially:

''tinggal'' to reside, to live (in a place)

''meninggal'' to die, to pass away (short form of ''meninggal dunia'' to pass on from the world)

''meninggalkan'' to leave (a place), to leave behind/abandon (someone/something)

''ditinggalkan'' to be left behind, to be abandoned

''tertinggal'' to be left behind

''ketinggalan'' to miss (a bus, train) (and thus to be left behind)

Forms in ''ter-'' and ''ke-...-an'' are often equivalent to adjectives in English.

"Adjectives"

There are no grammatical adjectives in Malay. Stative verbs are used for this purpose.

!Malay	!Gloss	!English	!Remarks
''Hutan hijau''	forest be-green	The forest is green	as in French ''la forêt verdoie''
''Mobil yang merah''	car that be-red	The red car
''Dia orang yang terkenal sekali''	he/she person which be-(most)famous	He/she is the most famous person
''Orang ini terkenal sekali''	person this be-famous very	This person is very famous

Negation

Four words are used for negation in Malay, namely ''tidak'', ''bukan'', ''jangan'', and ''belum''.

''Tidak'' (not), often shortened to ''tak'', is used for the negation of verbs and "adjectives".

''Bukan'' (be-not) is used in the negation of a noun.

For example:

!Malay	!Gloss	!English
''Saya tidak tahu''	I not know	I do not know
''Ibu saya tidak senang''	mother I not be-happy	My mother is not happy
''Itu bukan anjing saya''	that be-not dog I	That is not my dog

''Jangan'' (do not!) is used for negating imperatives or advising against certain actions. For example,

''Jangan tinggalkan saya di sini!'' :Don't leave me here!

''Belum'' is used with the sense that something has not yet been accomplished or experienced. In this sense, ''belum'' can be used as a negative response to a question.

''—Anda sudah pernah ke Indonesia'' or ''Anda sudah pernah ke Indonesia belum? :Have you ever been to Indonesia before, (or not)? —''Belum'', saya masih belum pernah pergi ke Indonesia'' :No, I have not yet been to Indonesia

''Orang itu belum terbiasa tinggal di Indonesia'' :That person is not (yet) used to living in Indonesia.

Function words

There are 16 types of function words in Malay which perform a grammatical function in a sentence. Amongst these are conjunctions, interjections, prepositions, negations and determiners.

Negations

There are two negation words in Malay, ''bukan'' and ''tidak''. ''Bukan'' is used to negate noun phrases and prepositions in a predicate, whereas ''tidak'' is used to negate verbs and adjectives phrases in a predicate.

{|class="wikitable" |- ! style="background:#efefef;" |Subject ! style="background:#efefef;" |Negation ! style="background:#efefef;" |Predicate |- |''Lelaki yang berjalan dengan Birsilah itu''(That boy who is walking with Birsilah) |''bukan''(is not) |''teman lelakinya''(her boyfriend) |- |''Surat itu''(The letter) |''bukan''(is not) |''daripada/ dari teman/ sahabat penanya di Perancis/ Prancis''(from his penpal in France) |- |''Pelajar-pelajar itu''(Those students) |''tidak''(do not) |''mengikuti peraturan sekolah''(obey school regulations) |- |''Penguasaan Bahasa Melayunya''(His command of Malay language) |''tidak''(is not) |''sempurna''(perfect) |}

The negative word ''bukan'' however, can be used before verb phrases and adjective phrases if the sentence shows contradictions.

{|class="wikitable" |- ! style="background:#efefef;" |Subject ! style="background:#efefef;" |Negation ! style="background:#efefef;" |Predicate ! style="background:#efefef;" |Contradiction |- |''Karangan Izwah''(Izwah's composition) |''bukan''(is not) |''baik sangat/ sangat baik'',(very good,) |''tetapi/ melainkan/ namun Izwah mendapat markah yang baik''(but Izwah received good marks) |- |''Kilang/ Pabrik itu''(The factory) |''bukan''(is not) |''menghasilkan kereta Kancil,''(producing Kancil cars) |''sebaliknya menghasilkan Proton Wira''(instead is producing Proton Wira) |}

Word order

Adjectives, demonstrative pronouns, and possessive pronouns follow the noun they modify.

Malay does not have a grammatical subject in the sense that English does. In intransitive clauses, the noun comes before the verb. When there is both an agent and an object, these are separated by the verb (OVA or AVO), with the difference encoded in the voice of the verb. OVA, commonly but inaccurately called "passive", is the basic and most common word order.

Either the agent or object or both may be omitted. This is commonly done to accomplish one of two things:

;1) Adding a sense of politeness and respect to a statement or question

For example, a polite shop assistant in a store may avoid the use of pronouns altogether and ask:

! Ellipses of pronoun (agent & object)	! Literal English	! Idiomatic English
Bisa ''dibantu?''	Can + ''to be helped''?	Can (I) ''help'' (you)?

;2) Agent or object is unknown, not important, or understood from context

For example, a friend may enquire as to when you bought your property, to which you may respond:

! Ellipses of pronoun (understood agent)	! Literal English	! Idiomatic English
''Rumah ini dibeli lima tahun yang lalu''	House this + ''be purchased'' five year(s) ago	The house 'was purchased' five years ago

Ultimately, the choice of voice and therefore word order is a choice between actor and patient and depends quite heavily on the language style and context.

Emphasis

Word order is frequently modified for focus or emphasis, with the focused word usually placed at the beginning of the clause and followed by a slight pause (a break in intonation):

''Saya pergi ke pasar kelmarin'' "I went to the market yesterday" – neutral, or with focus on the subject.

''Kelmarin saya pergi ke pasar'' "Yesterday I went to the market" – emphasis on yesterday.

''Ke pasar saya pergi, kelmarin'' "To the market I went yesterday" – emphasis on where I went yesterday.

''Pergi ke pasar, saya, kelmarin'' "To the market went I yesterday" – emphasis on the process of going to the market.

The latter two are more likely to be encountered in the spoken language than in writing.

Borrowed words

The Malay language has many words borrowed from Arabic (mainly religious terms), Sanskrit, Tamil, Persian, Portuguese, Dutch, certain Chinese dialects and more recently, English (in particular many scientific and technological terms).

Basic phrases in Malay

In Malaysia and Indonesia, to greet somebody with "Selamat pagi" or "Selamat sejahtera" would be considered very formal, and the borrowed word "Hi" would be more usual among friends; similarly "Bye-bye" is often used when taking one's leave. However if you're a Muslim and the Malay person you're talking to is also a Muslim, it would be more appropriate to use the Islamic greeting of ' Assalamualaikum '. Muslim Malays, especially in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, rarely use ' Selamat Pagi ' ( Good Morning ), 'Selamat Siang' (Good "Early" Afternoon), ' Selamat Petang ' or ' Selamat Sore ' as widely used in Indonesia ( Good "Late" Afternoon ) , ' Selamat Malam ' ( Good Evening / Night ) or 'Selamat Tinggal / Jalan ' ( Good Bye ) when talking to one another.

{| |- | Malay Phrase || IPA || English Translation |- |Selamat datang || || ''Welcome'' (Used as a greeting) |- |Selamat jalan || || ''Have a safe journey'' (equivalent to "goodbye", used by the party staying) |- |Selamat tinggal || || ''Have a safe stay'' (equivalent to "goodbye", used by the party leaving) |- |Terima kasih || || ''Thank you'' |- |Sama-sama || ||''You are welcome'' (as in a response to Thank You) |- |Selamat pagi || || ''Good morning'' |- |Selamat petang || || ''Good afternoon/evening'' (note that 'Selamat petang' must not be used at night as in English. For a general greeting, use 'Selamat sejahtera') |- |Selamat sejahtera || || ''Greetings'' (formal). Please note however that this greeting is rarely used and would be unheard of among Malays especially in Malaysia and Singapore. Its usage might be awkward for the receiver. |- |Selamat malam || ||''Good night'' |- |Jumpa lagi || || ''See you again'' |- |Siapakah nama awak/kamu?/Nama kamu siapa? || || ''What is your name?'' |- |Nama saya ... || || ''My name is ...'' (The relevant name is placed in front. For example, if your name was ''Munirah'', then you would introduce yourself by saying "Nama saya ''Munirah''", which translates to "My name is ''Munirah''") |- |Apa khabar/kabar? || || ''How are you? / What's up?'' (literally, "What news?") |- |Khabar/kabar baik || || ''Fine,'' ''good news'' |- |Saya sakit || || ''I'm sick'' |- |Ya || || ''Yes'' |- |Tidak ("tak" colloquially) || || ''No'' |- |Ibu (Saya) sayang engkau/kamu (awak) || ||''I love you'' (In a more of a family or affectionate sort of love, e.g.: mother to daughter, the Mother addresses herself as "Ibu" (mother) or Emak (Mother) instead of "Saya" for "I". And the mother also uses the informal "engkau" instead of "awak" for "you".) Generally amongst ethnic Malays "engkau" is considered a coarse way of referring to someone and would never be used to refer to one's mother whereas it is appropriate for a mother to refer to her child as "engkau". |- |Aku (Saya) cinta pada mu (awak) || ||''I love you'' (romantic love. In romantic situation, use informal "Aku" instead of "Saya" for "I". And "Kamu" or just "Mu" for "You". In romance, in immediate family communication and in songs, informal pronouns are used). Please note that in Malay language, appropriate personal pronouns must be used depending on (1) whether the situation is formal or informal, (2) the social status of the people around the speaker and (3) the relationship of the speaker with the person spoken to and/or with people around the speaker. For learners of Malay language, it is advised that you stick to formal personal pronouns when speaking Malay to Malays and Indonesians. You risk being considered as rude if you use informal personal pronouns in inappropriate situations. |- |Saya benci awak/kamu || ||'' I hate you'' |- |Saya tidak faham/paham (or simply "tak faham" colloquially) || ||''I do not understand'' (or simply "don't understand" colloquially) |- |Saya tidak tahu (or "tak tau" colloquially or "sik tau" in Sarawak) || ||''I do not know'' (or "don't know" colloquially |- |(Minta) maaf || ||''I apologise'' ('minta' is to request i.e. "do forgive") |- |Tumpang/numpang tanya || ||"May I ask...?" (used when trying to ask something) |- |(Minta) tolong || ||''Please help (me)'' ('Tolong!' on its own just means "help") |- |Apa || ||''What'' |- |Tiada/tidak ada || ||''Nothing'' |}

See also

The list of Malay words and list of words of Malay origin at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sibling project

Differences between Malaysian and Indonesian

Indonesian language

Jawi, an Arabic alphabet for Malay

Language politics

List of English words of Malay origin

Malay-based creole languages

Malaysian English, English language used formally in Malaysia.

Manado Malay

Minangkabau language

Rojak language

Swadesh list of Malay words

Varieties of Malay

References

External links

The Extent of the Influence of Tamil on the Malay Language: A Comparative Study – Dr. T.Wignesan(This paper was given at the VIIIth World Tamil Studies Congress, held in the Tamil University in Tanjavur, India, on December–January 1994/95 Now published in the critical collection: T.Wignesan. Sporadic Striving amid Echoed Voices, Mirrored Images & Stereotypic Posturing in Malaysian-Singaporean Literatures. Allahabad: Cyberwit.net, 2008, xix–244p.)

Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Institute of Language and Literature Malaysia, in Malay only)

Malay Online Web Application with 40 Interactive Free Lessons

Malay–English Online Dictionary (from Malay to English only) from Webster's Dictionary

Malay–English–Chinese Online Dictionary from Cari Internet

Online Malay Text-to-Speech Demo

The Malay Spelling Reform, Asmah Haji Omar, (Journal of the Simplified Spelling Society, 1989-2 pp. 9–13 later designated J11)

Category:Agglutinative languages Category:Malayic languages Category:Languages of Brunei Category:Languages of Indonesia Category:Languages of Malaysia Category:Languages of Thailand Category:Malay languages in Singapore

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playername	Sir Alex Ferguson
fullname	Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson
dateofbirth	December 31, 1941
cityofbirth	Glasgow
countryofbirth	Scotland
position	Forward
currentclub	Manchester United (manager)
years1	1957–1960 |clubs1 Queen's Park |caps1 31 |goals1 15
years2	1960–1964 |clubs2 St. Johnstone |caps2 37 |goals2 19
years3	1964–1967 |clubs3 Dunfermline Athletic |caps3 89 |goals3 66
years4	1967–1969 |clubs4 Rangers |caps4 41 |goals4 25
years5	1969–1973 |clubs5 Falkirk |caps5 95 |goals5 36
years6	1973–1974 |clubs6 Ayr United |caps6 24 |goals6 9
totalcaps	317 |totalgoals 170
nationalyears1	1967 |nationalteam1 Scottish Football League XI |nationalcaps1 2 |nationalgoals1 1
nationalyears2	1967 |nationalteam2 Scotland XI |nationalcaps2 7 |nationalgoals2 9
manageryears1	1974 |managerclubs1 East Stirlingshire
manageryears2	1974–1978 |managerclubs2 St. Mirren
manageryears3	1978–1986 |managerclubs3 Aberdeen
manageryears4	1985–1986 |managerclubs4 Scotland
manageryears5	1986– |managerclubs5 Manchester United }}

Sir Alexander Chapman "Alex" Ferguson, CBE, popularly known as Sir Alex or Fergie (born 31 December 1941 in Govan, Glasgow), is a Scottish association football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United, where he has been in charge since 1986. His tenure has seen the club go through an era of success and dominance both in England and in Europe, giving Ferguson a reputation as one of the most admired and respected managers in the history of the game.

Ferguson previously managed East Stirlingshire and St. Mirren, before a highly successful period as manager of Aberdeen. Briefly manager of the Scotland national team — in a temporary capacity owing to the death of Jock Stein — he was appointed manager of Manchester United in November 1986.

With 24 years as manager of Manchester United, he is the longest serving manager in their history after overtaking Sir Matt Busby's record on 19 December 2010. His tenure is also the longest of all the current League managers. During this time, Ferguson has won many awards and holds many records including winning Manager of the Year most times in British football history. In 2008, he became the third British manager to win the European Cup on more than one occasion.

He was knighted in 1999 for his services to the game and also holds the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen.

Early life

Born to Alexander Beaton Ferguson, a plater's helper in the shipbuilding industry, and his wife, the former Elizabeth Hardie, Alex Ferguson was born at his grandmother's home on Shieldhall Road, Govan, on 31 December 1941, but grew up in a tenement at 667 Govan Road (which has since been demolished) where he lived with his parents as well as his younger brother Martin.

He attended Broomloan Road Primary School and later Govan High School, and supported Rangers.

Playing career

Ferguson's playing career began as an amateur with Queen's Park, where he made his debut as a striker aged 16. He described his first match as a "nightmare", but scored Queen's Park's goal in a 2–1 defeat against Stranraer. As Queen's Park were an amateur team he also worked in the Clyde shipyards as an apprentice tool-worker, where he became an active trade union shop steward. Perhaps his most notable game for Queen's Park was the 7–1 defeat away to Queen of the South on Boxing Day 1959 when ex-England international Ivor Broadis scored four of the Queen of the South goals. Ferguson was the solitary Queen's Park goalscorer.

Despite scoring 20 goals in his 31 games for Queen's Park, he could not command a regular place in the side and moved to St. Johnstone in 1960. Although he continued to score regularly at St. Johnstone, he was still unable to command a regular place and regularly requested transfers. Ferguson was out of favour at the club and he even considered emigrating to Canada, however St. Johnstone's failure to sign a forward led the manager to select Ferguson for a match against Rangers, in which he scored a hat trick in a surprise victory. Dunfermline signed him the following summer (1964), and Ferguson became a full-time professional footballer.

The following season (1964–65), Dunfermline were strong challengers for the Scottish League and reached the Scottish Cup Final, but Ferguson was dropped for the final after a poor performance in a league game against St. Johnstone. Dunfermline lost the final 3–2 to Celtic, then failed to win the League by one point. The 1965–66 season saw Ferguson notch up 45 goals in 51 games for Dunfermline. Along with Joe McBride of Celtic, he was the top goalscorer in the Scottish League with 31 goals.

He then joined Rangers for £65,000, then a record fee for a transfer between two Scottish clubs. He was blamed for a goal that they conceded in the 1969 Scottish Cup Final, in a match in which he was designated to mark Celtic captain, Billy McNeill, and was subsequently forced to play for the club's junior side instead of for the first team. According to his brother, Ferguson was so upset by the experience that he threw his losers' medal away. There have been claims that he suffered discrimination at Rangers after his marriage to his wife Cathie, who was a Catholic but Ferguson himself makes it clear in his autobiography that Rangers knew of his wife's religion when he joined the club and that he left the club very reluctantly, due to the fall-out from his alleged cup final mistake.

The following October, Nottingham Forest wanted to sign Ferguson, but his wife was not keen on moving to England at that time so he went to Falkirk instead. He was promoted to player-coach there, but when John Prentice became manager he removed Ferguson's coaching responsibilities. Ferguson responded by requesting a transfer and moved to Ayr United, where he finished his playing career in 1974.

Early managerial career

East Stirlingshire

In June 1974, Ferguson was appointed manager of East Stirlingshire, at the comparatively young age of 32. It was a part-time job that paid £40 per week, and the club did not have a single goalkeeper at the time. He immediately gained a reputation as a disciplinarian, with club forward Bobby McCulley later saying he had "never been afraid of anyone before but Ferguson was a frightening bastard from the start." His players admired his tactical decisions, however, and the club's results improved considerably.

The following October, Ferguson was invited to manage St. Mirren. While they were below East Stirlingshire in the league, they were a bigger club and although Ferguson felt a degree of loyalty towards East Stirlingshire, he decided to join St. Mirren after taking advice from Jock Stein.

St. Mirren

Ferguson was manager of St. Mirren from 1974 until 1978, producing a remarkable transformation of a team in the lower half of the old Second Division watched by crowds of just over 1,000, to First Division champions in 1977, discovering talent like Billy Stark, Tony Fitzpatrick, Lex Richardson, Frank McGarvey, Bobby Reid and Peter Weir while playing superb attacking football. The average age of the league winning team was 19 and the captain, Fitzpatrick, was 20.

St. Mirren have been the only club ever to sack Ferguson. He claimed wrongful dismissal against the club at an industrial tribunal but lost and was given no leave to appeal. According to a Billy Adams ''Sunday Herald'' article on 30 May 1999, the official version is that Ferguson was sacked for various breaches of contract including unauthorised payments to players. He was counter-accused of intimidating behaviour towards his office secretary because he wanted players to get some expenses tax free. He didn't speak to her for six weeks, confiscated her keys and communicated only through a 17-year-old assistant. The tribunal concluded that Ferguson was "particularly petty" and "immature" . It was claimed during the tribunal by St. Mirren chairman, Willie Todd, that Ferguson had "no managerial ability".

On 31 May 2008, ''The Guardian'' published an interview with Todd (by now aged 87), who had sacked Ferguson all those years earlier. He explained that the fundamental reason for the dismissal was a breach of contract relating to Ferguson having agreed to join Aberdeen. Ferguson told journalist Jim Rodger of the ''Daily Mirror'' that he had asked at least one member of the squad to go to Aberdeen with him. He also told the St. Mirren staff he was leaving. Todd expressed regret over what happened but blamed Aberdeen for not approaching his club to discuss compensation.

Managing Aberdeen

Early disappointment

Ferguson joined Aberdeen as manager in June 1978, replacing Billy McNeill who had only managed the club for one season before he was offered the chance to manage Celtic. Although Aberdeen were one of Scotland's major clubs they had won the league only once, in 1955 under Dave Halliday. The team had been playing well, however, and had not lost a league match since the previous December, having finished second in the league the previous season. Ferguson had now been a manager for four years, but was still not much older than some of the players and had trouble winning the respect of some of the older ones such as Joe Harper. The season did not go especially well, with Aberdeen reaching the semi-final of the Scottish Cup and the Scottish League Cup Final, but losing both matches and finishing fourth in the league.

Aberdeen also lost the 1979–80 Scottish League Cup Final, this time to Dundee United after a replay. Ferguson took the blame for the defeat, saying he should have made changes to the team for the replay.

Silverware at last

Aberdeen had started the season poorly but their form improved dramatically in the new year and they won the Scottish league that season with a 5–0 win on the final day. It was the first time in fifteen years that the league had not been won by either Rangers or Celtic. Ferguson now felt that he had the respect of his players, later saying "That was the achievement which united us. I finally had the players believing in me".

He was still a strict disciplinarian, though, and his players nicknamed him ''Furious Fergie''. He fined one of his players, John Hewitt, for overtaking him on a public road, and kicked a tea urn at the players at half time after a poor first half. He was dissatisfied with the atmosphere at Aberdeen matches, and deliberately created a 'siege mentality' by accusing the Scottish media of being biased towards the Glasgow clubs, in order to motivate the team. The team continued their success with a Scottish Cup win in 1982. Ferguson was offered the managers' job at Wolves but turned it down as he felt that Wolves were in trouble and "[his] ambitions at Aberdeen were not even half fulfilled".

European success

Ferguson led Aberdeen to even greater success the following season (1982–83). They had qualified for the European Cup Winners' Cup as a result of winning the Scottish Cup the previous season, and impressively knocked out Bayern Munich, who had beaten Tottenham Hotspur 4–1 in the previous round. According to Willie Miller, this gave them the confidence to believe that they could go on to win the competition, which they did, with a 2–1 victory over Real Madrid in the final on 11 May 1983. Aberdeen became only the third Scottish team (and, to date, last) to win a European trophy and Ferguson now felt that "he'd done something worthwhile with his life". Aberdeen had also performed well in the league that season, and retained the Scottish Cup with a 1–0 victory over Rangers, but Ferguson was not happy with his team's play in that match and upset the players by describing theirs as a "disgraceful performance" in a televised interview after the match—a statement that he later retracted.

After a sub-standard start to the 1983–84 season, Aberdeen's form improved and the team won the Scottish league and retained the Scottish Cup. Ferguson was awarded the OBE in the 1984 honours list, and was offered the managers' jobs at Rangers, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur during the season. Aberdeen retained their league title in the 1984–85 season, but had a disappointing season in 1985–86, finishing fourth in the league, although they did win both domestic cups. Ferguson had been appointed to the club's board of directors early in 1986, but that April he told Dick Donald, their chairman, that he intended to leave that summer.

Ferguson had been part of coaching staff for the Scottish national side during qualifying for the 1986 World Cup, but manager Jock Stein had collapsed and died on 10 September 1985 – at the end of the game in which Scotland qualified from their group for a play-off against Australia. Ferguson promptly agreed to take charge of the Scottish national side against the Australians and subsequently at the World Cup. To allow him to fulfil his international duties he appointed Archie Knox as his co-manager at Aberdeen. However, after Scotland failed to progress past the group stages of the World Cup, Ferguson stepped down as national team manager on 15 June 1986.

Around this time, Tottenham Hotspur offered Ferguson the chance to take over from Peter Shreeves as manager, but he rejected this offer and the job went to Luton Town's David Pleat instead. There was also an offer for Ferguson to replace Don Howe as Arsenal manager, but he rejected this offer as well, and fellow Scot George Graham took the post instead.

That summer, there had been speculation that he would take over from Ron Atkinson at Manchester United, who had slumped to fourth in the English top flight after a 10-match winning start had made title glory seem inevitable.

It was not the first time that Ferguson had been linked with a move to England. In February 1982, Wolverhampton Wanderers had approached him about succeeding John Barnwell as manager as they were heading for relegation from the First Division. He rejected this offer, perhaps concerned about the club's financial stability, as they were more than £2million in debt at the time and narrowly avoided going out of business. At the end of the 1985–86 season, both Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur had approached him about becoming their new manager, but he rejected the offers from both North London clubs.

Although Ferguson remained at Aberdeen over the summer, he did eventually join Manchester United when Atkinson was sacked in November 1986.

Managing Manchester United

Appointment and first years

Ferguson was appointed manager at Old Trafford on 6 November 1986. He was initially worried that many of the players, such as Norman Whiteside, Paul McGrath and Bryan Robson were drinking too much and was "depressed" by their level of fitness, but he managed to increase the players' discipline and United climbed up the table to finish the season in 11th place, having been 21st (second from bottom) when he took over.

His first game in charge was a 2–0 defeat at underdogs Oxford United on 8 November, followed seven days later by a goalless draw at newly promoted Norwich City, and then his first win (1–0 at home to QPR) on 22 November. Results steadily improved as the season went on, and by the time they recorded what would be their only away win of the league campaign at title challengers and deadly rivals Liverpool on Boxing Day, it was clear that United were on the road to recovery. 1987 began on a high note with a 4–1 victory over Newcastle United and United gradually pulled together in the second half of the season, with relatively occasional defeats on the way, and finished 11th in the final table.

Ferguson endured a personal tragedy three weeks after his appointment, when his mother Elizabeth died of lung cancer aged 64.

Ferguson appointed Archie Knox, his assistant at Aberdeen, as his assistant at Manchester United.

In the 1987–88 season, Ferguson made several major signings, including Steve Bruce, Viv Anderson, Brian McClair and Jim Leighton.

The new players made a great contribution to a United team who finished in second place, nine points behind Liverpool. However, Liverpool's points lead had been in double digits for most of the season and while United had lost only five league games all season, they drew 12 games and there was clearly still some way to go before United could be a match for their north western rivals.

United were expected to do well when Mark Hughes returned to the club two years after leaving for Barcelona, but the 1988–89 season was a disappointment for them, finishing eleventh in the league and losing 1–0 at home to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup Sixth Round. They had begun the season slowly, going on a nine-match winless run throughout October and November (with one defeat and eight draws) before a run of generally good results took them to third place and the fringes of the title challenge by mid February. However, another run of disappointing results in the final quarter of the season saw them fall down to mid table.

During the season, United played in friendly matches against the Bermudan national team and Somerset County Cricket Club as part of the Bermudan team's tour of England. In the match against Somerset, both Ferguson himself and his assistant, Archie Knox, took to the field, with Knox even getting on the scoresheet. The match remains Ferguson's only appearance for the Manchester United first team.

For the 1989–90 season, Ferguson further boosted his squad by paying large sums of money for midfielders Neil Webb, Mike Phelan and Paul Ince, as well as defender Gary Pallister and winger Danny Wallace. The season began well with a 4–1 win over defending champions Arsenal on the opening day, but United's league form quickly turned sour. In September, United suffered a humiliating 5–1 away defeat against fierce rivals Manchester City. Following this and an early season run of six defeats and two draws in eight games, a banner declaring "Three years of excuses and it's still crap...ta-ra Fergie." was displayed at Old Trafford, and many journalists and supporters called for Ferguson to be sacked. Ferguson later described December 1989 as "the darkest period [he had] ever suffered in the game", as United ended the decade just outside the relegation zone.

However, Ferguson later revealed that the board of directors had assured him that they were not considering dismissing him. Although naturally disappointed with the lack of success in the league, they understood the reasons for the sub-standard results (namely the absence of several key players due to injury) and were pleased with the way that Ferguson had reorganised the club's coaching and scouting system.

Following a run of seven games without a win, Manchester United were drawn away to Nottingham Forest in the third round of the FA Cup. Forest were performing well that season and were in the process of winning the League Cup for the second season running, and it was expected that United would lose the match and Ferguson would consequently be sacked, but United won the game 1–0 thanks to a Mark Robins goal and eventually reached the final. This cup win is often cited as the match that saved Ferguson's Old Trafford career, even though it has since been stated that his job was never at risk. United went on to win the FA Cup, beating Crystal Palace 1–0 in the final replay after a 3–3 draw in the first match, giving Ferguson his first major trophy as Manchester United manager. United's defensive frailties in the first match were unilaterally blamed on goalkeeper Jim Leighton, forcing Ferguson to drop his former Aberdeen player and bring in Les Sealey.

The first league title

Although United's league form improved greatly in 1990–91, they were still inconsistent and finished sixth. There were some excellent performances that season, including a 6–2 demolition of Arsenal at Highbury, but results like an early 2–1 loss at newly promoted Sunderland, a 4–0 September hammering by Liverpool at Anfield, and a 2–0 home defeat by Everton in early March (the game where 17-year-old hot prospect Ryan Giggs made his senior debut) showed that United still had some way to go.

Even after the FA Cup Final victory in the previous season, some still had doubts about Ferguson's ability to succeed where all the other managers since Busby had failed — to win the league title. They were runners-up in the League Cup, losing 1–0 to Sheffield Wednesday. They also reached the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup, beating that season's Spanish champions Barcelona 2–1. After the match, Ferguson vowed that United would win the league the following season, and at long last he seemed to have won over the last of his sceptics after nearly five years in the job.

During the 1991 close season, Ferguson's assistant Archie Knox departed to Glasgow Rangers to become assistant to Walter Smith, and Ferguson promoted youth team coach Brian Kidd to the role of assistant manager in Knox's place. He also made two major signings – goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel and defender Paul Parker – to bolster his side. There was much anticipation about the breakthrough of the young Ryan Giggs, who had played twice and scored once in the 1990–91 campaign, and the earlier emergence of another impressive young winger in the shape of Lee Sharpe, who despite their youth had made Ferguson feel able to resist plunging into the transfer market and buying a new player to take over from the disappointing Danny Wallace on the left wing. He had also added the Ukrainian Andrei Kanchelskis to the right wing, giving him a more attacking alternative to older right footed midfielders Mike Phelan and Bryan Robson.

The 1991–92 season did not live up to Ferguson's expectations and, in Ferguson's words, "many in the media felt that [his] mistakes had contributed to the misery". United won the League Cup and Super Cup for the first time, but lost out on the league title to rivals Leeds United after leading the table for much of the season. A shortage of goals and being held to draws by teams they had been expected to beat in the second half of the campaign had proved to be the undoing of a United side who had performed so well in the first half of the season.

Ferguson felt that his failure to secure the signing of Mick Harford from Luton Town had cost United the league, and that he needed "an extra dimension" to the team if they were to win the league the following season.

During the 1992 close season, Ferguson went on the hunt for a new striker. He first attempted to sign Alan Shearer from Southampton, but lost out to Blackburn Rovers. He also made at least one approach for the Sheffield Wednesday striker David Hirst, but manager Trevor Francis rejected all offers and the player stayed put. In the end, he paid £1 million for 23-year-old Cambridge United striker Dion Dublin – his only major signing of the summer.

After a slow start to the 1992–93 season (they were 10th of 22 at the beginning of November) it looked as though United would miss out on the league title (now the Premier League) yet again. However, after the purchase of French striker Eric Cantona from Leeds United for £1.2 million, the future of Manchester United, and Ferguson's position as manager, began to look bright. Cantona formed a strong partnership with Mark Hughes and fired the club to the top of the table, ending United's 26-year wait for a League Championship, and also making them the first ever Premier League Champions. United had finished champions with a 10-point margin over runners-up Aston Villa, whose 1–0 defeat at Oldham on 2 May 1993 had given United the title. Ferguson was voted Manager of the Year by the League Managers' Association.

Two doubles

The 1993–94 season brought more success. Ferguson added Nottingham Forest's 22-year-old midfielder Roy Keane to the ranks for a British record fee of £3.75million as a long term replacement for Bryan Robson, who was nearing the end of his career.

United led the 1993–94 Premier League table virtually from start to finish.

Ferguson was the very first winner of the Premier League Manager of the Month award, introduced for the start of the 1993–94 season, when he collected the accolade for August 1993.

Cantona was top scorer with 25 goals in all competitions despite being sent off twice in the space of five days in March 1994. United also reached the League Cup final but lost 3–1 to Aston Villa, managed by Ferguson's predecessor, Ron Atkinson. In the FA Cup final, Manchester United achieved an impressive 4–0 scoreline against Chelsea, winning Ferguson his second League and Cup Double, following his Scottish Premier Division and Scottish Cup titles with Aberdeen in 1984–85, though the League Cup final defeat meant that he had not yet achieved a repeat of the treble that he had achieved with Aberdeen in 1983.

Ferguson made only one close-season signing, paying Blackburn Rovers £1.2million for David May. There were newspaper reports that Ferguson was also going to sign highly rated 21-year-old striker Chris Sutton from Norwich City, but the player headed for Blackburn Rovers instead.

1994–95 was a harder season for Ferguson. Cantona assaulted a Crystal Palace supporter in a game at Selhurst Park, and it seemed likely he would leave English football. An eight month ban saw Cantona miss the final four months of the season. He also received a 14-day prison sentence for the offence but the sentence was quashed on appeal and replaced by a 120-hour community service order. On the brighter side, United paid a British record fee of £7million for Newcastle's prolific striker Andy Cole, with young winger Keith Gillespie heading to the north-east in exchange. The season also saw the breakthrough of young players Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes, who provided excellent cover for the long periods that United were left without some of their more experienced stars.

However, the championship slipped out of Manchester United's grasp as they drew 1–1 with West Ham United on the final day of the season, when a win would have given them the a third successive league title. United also lost the FA Cup final in a 1–0 defeat to Everton.

Ferguson was heavily criticised in the summer of 1995 when three of United's star players were allowed to leave and replacements were not bought. First Paul Ince moved to Internazionale of Italy for £7.5 million, long serving striker Mark Hughes was suddenly sold to Chelsea in a £1.5 million deal, and Andrei Kanchelskis was sold to Everton.

Ferguson made an approach for Tottenham Hotspur winger Darren Anderton, but the player signed a new contract with the North London club. He then made a bid to sign Dutchman Marc Overmars from Ajax Amsterdam (the European Cup winners), but the player suffered a serious knee injury and was ruled out for months. Media reports suggested that United were going to make an approach for Juventus and Italy forward Roberto Baggio, who was generally regarded as the best player in the world at this time, but the player remained in his homeland and signed for AC Milan instead.

It was widely known that Ferguson felt that United had a number of young players who were ready to play in the first team. The youngsters, who would be known as "Fergie's Fledglings", included Gary Neville, Phil Neville, David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt, who would all go on to be important members of the team. And so the 1995–96 season began without a major signing, at a time when the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle United were making the headlines with big money signings.

When United lost the first league match of the 1995–96 season 3–1 to Aston Villa, the media swooped upon Ferguson with undisguised glee. They wrote United off because Ferguson's squad contained so many young and inexperienced players. Match of the Day pundit, Alan Hansen proclaimed that "you can't win anything with kids".

However, the young players performed well and United won their next five matches, exacting their revenge over Everton for the FA Cup defeat with a 3–2 win at Goodison Park and achieving a 2–1 away win over defending champions Blackburn Rovers who were now looking rather like relegation battlers than title contenders.

Cantona's return from suspension was a boost, but they found themselves 10 points behind Newcastle United by Christmas 1995. A 2–0 home win over the Tynesiders on 27 December narrowed the gap to seven points and a subsequent win over struggling QPR narrowed it to four points, but a 4–1 defeat for United at Tottenham on New Year's Day 1996 and a 0–0 home draw with Aston Villa saw the Magpies re-establish their wide lead and it looked certain that the league title was Newcastle's.

However a series of good results starting in mid January 1996 saw the gap close, and when United travelled to Newcastle and won 1–0 on 4 March, the gap was down to a single point.

United went top of the league soon after the win at Newcastle, who continued to drop points in crucial games.

Early April saw Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan's famous outburst on live television ("I'd love it if we beat them! Love it!"), and is generally regarded as the moment that Ferguson gained the upper hand against his opponent. United's Premier League title success was confirmed on the final day of the season, when they defeated a Middlesbrough side managed by former United captain Bryan Robson in a game which ended in a 3–0 win despite strong displays by Boro confounding pre-match reports that Robson would give his old team an easy ride.

They played Liverpool in that year's FA Cup final, winning 1–0 with a late goal by Cantona. This made them the first team in English football to repeat the double of the league title and FA Cup, and more impressive was the fact that it had been achieved with a similar set of players to the ones who achieved the first double.

1996–97 saw Ferguson guide Manchester United to their fourth Premier League title in five seasons. In late autumn, they suffered three league defeats in a row and conceded 13 goals in the process. They also lost their 40 year unbeaten home record in Europe to unfancied Turkish side Fenerbahçe. But they still reached the Champions League semi final, where they lost to Borussia Dortmund of Germany. At the end of the season, Cantona surprisingly retired from football.

Other success stories of the 1996–97 season were two Norwegian signings, striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (the club's top scorer that season) and defender Ronny Johnsen, who were bargain buys as they were little known outside the Premier League on their arrival the previous summer but went on to be key factors in United's fourth Premier League title.

The treble

Ferguson made two new signings to bolster United's challenge for the 1997–98 season, 31-year-old England striker Teddy Sheringham and defender Henning Berg. However the season ended trophyless as Arsenal won the Premier League under French manager Arsène Wenger, who started a long-lasting rivalry with Ferguson. For much of the season United had looked to be on the road to success. They led the table for much of the season before a series of disappointing results in the final quarter – combined with Arsenal taking advantage of games in hand – saw the league title head to North London. There was much promise in the European Cup as United recorded an impressive 3–2 win over Juventus in the group stages before being eliminated by AS Monaco in the quarter finals. Their FA Cup challenge began with an excellent 5–3 away win over holders Chelsea before a shock fifth round replay exit at a Barnsley side who ended the season relegated from the Premier League.

The summer of 1998 saw striker Dwight Yorke, Dutch defender Jaap Stam and the Swedish winger Jesper Blomqvist join Manchester United for a combined total of nearly £30million.

In December 1998, Ferguson's assistant Brian Kidd accepted an offer to manage Blackburn Rovers and he recruited Steve McClaren from Derby County as his successor. Ironically, Kidd's side were relegated in the penultimate game on the league season when United held them to a 0–0 draw.

1998–99 saw the club winning an unprecedented treble of the Premier League title, FA Cup and Champions League. The season was characterised by highly dramatic matches. In the Champions League semi-final second leg, United conceded two early goals away to Juventus; however, inspired by Roy Keane, who would later miss the final through suspension, United came back to beat Juventus 3–2 and reach their first European Cup final since 1968. In the FA Cup semi-final, United faced close rivals Arsenal and appeared to be heading for defeat when Keane was sent off and Arsenal were awarded a last-minute penalty. Peter Schmeichel saved the penalty, and in extra time Ryan Giggs ran the length of the pitch to score perhaps the most memorable goal of his career to win the match. They then defeated Newcastle United 2–0 in the FA Cup Final at Wembley thanks to goals from Teddy Sheringham and Paul Scholes. The European triumph was the most incredible of all. With 90 minutes on the clock they were 1–0 down to Bayern Munich at the Nou Camp in Barcelona following a Mario Basler free kick, but in 3 minutes of injury time allowed by referee Pierluigi Collina, Teddy Sheringham, a substitute, equalised and extra time looked certain. But with just seconds left on the clock, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, also a late substitution, scored the winning goal and history was made.

On 12 June 1999, Ferguson received a knighthood in recognition of his services to the game.

Title hat-trick

Manchester United ended the 1999–2000 season as champions with just three Premier League defeats, and a cushion of 18 points. The massive gap between United and the rest of the Premier League, although they had faced stiff competition from the likes of Arsenal and Leeds United until the final weeks of the season, caused some to wonder if the club's financial dominance was developing into a problem for the English game.

In April 2000, it was announced that Manchester United had agreed to sign Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy from PSV Eindhoven for a British record fee of £18million. But the move was put on hold when van Nistelrooy failed a medical, and he then returned to his homeland in a bid to regain fitness, only to suffer a serious knee injury which ruled him out for almost a year.

28-year-old French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez was signed from Monaco for £7.8million—making him the most expensive goalkeeper to be signed by a British club, and United won the title again, becoming only the fourth side in history to win the English league title three seasons in succession. They also matched Liverpool's record (set in 1991) of 10 successive top two finishes.

However, the press largely saw the 1999–2000 and 2000–01 campaigns as failures as United had failed to win the European Cup, falling at the quarter final stages to Real Madrid in 2000 and Bayern Munich in 2001.

During the 2001 close season Ruud van Nistelrooy joined, and soon after Manchester United again broke the British transfer record—this time paying Lazio £28.1million for Argentine attacking midfielder Juan Sebastián Verón, although he failed to live up to the high expectations his transfer fee suggested and he was sold to Chelsea for £15million only two years later.

Rebuilding and transition

Two games into the 2001–02 season, Dutch central defender Jaap Stam was sold to Lazio in a £16million deal. The reason for Stam's departure was believed to have been claims in his autobiography ''Head to Head'' that he had been illegally spoken to about a move to Manchester United by Ferguson, before his previous club PSV Eindhoven had been informed. Ferguson replaced Stam with Internazionale's 36-year-old central defender Laurent Blanc.

Before the season began, Ferguson also lost his assistant Steve McClaren, who took over as manager of Middlesbrough, and gave the role to long-serving coach Jim Ryan until a more permanent successor could be found.

By 8 December 2001, after a terrible run of form which saw one win and six defeats on a period of seven league games, Manchester United were ninth in the Premier League — 11 points behind leaders Liverpool who had a game in hand. There were widespread fears that they might not even qualify for Europe, let alone win the league title.

Then came a dramatic turn around in form: between mid-December and late January, as eight successive wins saw Manchester United climb to the top of the Premier League and put their title challenge back on track. Despite this, United finished third in the League as rival Arsène Wenger clinched the title for Arsenal at Old Trafford with a 1–0 win in the penultimate game of the season after United dropped points in a couple of other crucial games during the run-in.

United were also unsuccessful in Europe, losing the Champions League semi-final on away goals to Bayer Leverkusen. Early exits from the League Cup and FA Cup meant that the season ended trophyless. As they were third in the league and had not reached a cup final, it was the first time since 1989 that they had finished a season without being winners or runners-up of a major competition.

The 2001–02 season was to have been Ferguson's last as Manchester United manager, and the looming date of his retirement was cited as a reason for the team's loss of form. Ferguson himself admitted that the decision to pre-announce his retirement had resulted in a negative effect on the players and on his ability to impose discipline. But in February 2002 he agreed to stay in charge for at least another three years.

The close season saw Manchester United break the British transfer record yet again when they paid Leeds United £30million for 24-year-old central defender Rio Ferdinand.

That summer, Ferguson brought in Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz as his assistant.

Manchester United won their eighth Premier League title yet just over two months before the end of the season they were eight points behind leaders Arsenal. But an improvement in form for United, and a decline for Arsenal, saw the Premier League trophy gradually slip out of the Londoners' grasp and push it back in the direction of Old Trafford. Ferguson described the 2002–03 title triumph as his most satisfying ever, due to the nature of a remarkable comeback. The excellent run-in had produced 10 wins and a draw (including 4–0 home win over Liverpool and a 6–2 away demolition of Newcastle United) from the final 11 games, and no defeats since Boxing Day.

Not for the first time, Ferguson had proven to be a master of managerial mind-games, successfully rattling the composure of Arsenal and their otherwise unflappable manager Arsène Wenger.

Ferguson guided Manchester United to their eleventh FA Cup at the end of the 2003–04 season, but it was a disappointing season which had seen them finish third in the Premier League (which was won by an undefeated Arsenal side) and suffer Champions League elimination at the hands of eventual winners FC Porto. Rio Ferdinand missed the final four months of the season, as he served the beginning of an eight-month ban for missing a drugs test. New signings like Eric Djemba-Djemba and José Kléberson were disappointing, United tried to sign Ronaldinho and Fergie believed the deal was as good as done before Peter Kenyon caused it to fall apart, but there was at least one productive signing in teenage Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo. Striker Louis Saha, added in January, also proved to be reasonably successful covering for the injured Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in attack.

At the beginning of the 2004–05 season, teenage striker Wayne Rooney (the world's most expensive teenager at more than £20million) and Argentine defender Gabriel Heinze joined United while Cristiano Ronaldo continued where he had left off the previous season by putting in more match-winning performances. But the lack of a striker after van Nistelrooy spent most of the season injured saw the club finish third for the third time in four seasons. In the FA Cup they lost on penalties to Arsenal. A second round exit from the European Cup at the hands of AC Milan and a semi-final exit from the League Cup at the hands of eventual winners Chelsea (who also clinched the Premier League title) meant that 2004–05 was a rare instance of a trophyless season for United.

Ferguson's preparations for the season were disrupted by a high-profile dispute with major shareholder John Magnier, over the ownership of the racehorse Rock of Gibraltar. When Magnier and business partner J. P. McManus agreed to sell their shares to American business tycoon Malcolm Glazer, it cleared the way for Glazer to acquire full control of the club. This sparked violent protests from United fans, and disrupted Ferguson's plans to strengthen the team in the transfer market. In spite of this, United looked to solve their goalkeeping and midfield problems. For this, they signed the Dutch keeper Edwin van der Sar from Fulham and Korean star Park Ji-Sung from PSV.

The season was one of transition. On 18 November, Roy Keane officially left the club, his contract ended by mutual consent. United failed to qualify for the knock-out phase of the UEFA Champions' League. In the January transfer window Serbian defender Nemanja Vidić and French full-back Patrice Evra were signed, and the side finished in second place in the league, behind runaway leaders Chelsea. Winning the League Cup was a consolation prize for lack of success elsewhere. Ruud van Nistelrooy's future at Old Trafford seemed to be in doubt after not starting in the Carling Cup final, and he departed at the end of the season.

Second European trophy

In 2006, Michael Carrick was signed as a replacement for Roy Keane for £14 million, although the figure may eventually rise in the future to £18.6 million depending on appearances and results. United started the season well, and for the first time ever won their first four Premier League games. They set the early pace in the Premier League and never relinquished top spot from the tenth match of the 38–game season. The January 2006 signings had a huge impact on United's performances; Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidić came in to form a solid back line along with already existing players Rio Ferdinand and skipper Gary Neville. The signing of Michael Carrick, which was questioned and criticised by a large portion of the media, brought stability and further creativity in the United midfield, forming an effective partnership with Paul Scholes. Park Ji-Sung and Ryan Giggs both underlined their value to the first team squad by adding significant pace and incisiveness in attack with Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ferguson celebrated the 20th anniversary of his appointment as manager of Manchester United on 6 November 2006. Tributes also came from Ferguson's players, both past and present, as well as his old foe, Arsène Wenger, his old captain, Roy Keane, and current players. The party was spoiled the following day when United endured a single-goal defeat at the hands of Southend in the fourth round of the Carling Cup. However, on 1 December it was announced that Manchester United had signed 35 year old Henrik Larsson on loan, a player that Ferguson had admired for many years, and attempted to capture previously. On 23 December 2006, Cristiano Ronaldo scored the club's 2000th goal under the helm of Ferguson in a match against Aston Villa.

Manchester United subsequently won their ninth Premier League title but were denied a unique fourth double by Chelsea's Didier Drogba scoring a late goal in the FA Cup Final at Wembley.

In the Champions League, the club reached the semi-finals, recording a 7–1 home win over Roma in the quarter-final second leg, but lost at the San Siro to Milan 3–0 in the second leg of the semi-final after being 3–2 up from the first leg. Still, it was a strong sign that United were on their way back to dominance after a couple of years of being overshadowed by Arsenal and more particularly Chelsea.

For the 2007–08 season, Ferguson made notable signings to reinforce United's first team. Long-term target Owen Hargreaves joined from Bayern Munich, bringing an end to a year of negotiations. Ferguson further bolstered the midfield with the additions of young Portuguese winger Nani and Brazilian playmaker Anderson. The last summer signing was of West Ham United and Argentina striker Carlos Tévez after a complex and protracted transfer saga.

United had their worst start to a season under Ferguson, drawing their first two league games before suffering a 1–0 defeat to local rivals Manchester City. However, United recovered and began a tight race with Arsenal for the title. After a good run of form, Ferguson claimed that throughout his time at Manchester United, this was the best squad he had managed to assemble thus far.

On 16 February 2008, United beat Arsenal 4–0 in an FA Cup Fifth Round match at Old Trafford, but were knocked out by eventual winners Portsmouth (a mid table side in the league) in the quarter final on 8 March, losing 1–0 at home. United having had a penalty claim turned down, Ferguson alleged after the game that Keith Hackett, general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board, was "not doing his job properly". Ferguson was subsequently charged by the FA with improper conduct, which he decided to contest. This was the second charge Ferguson faced in the season, following his complaints against the referee after United lost 1–0 at Bolton Wanderers – a charge he decided not to contest.

On 11 May 2008, Ferguson led Manchester United to a tenth Premier League title, exactly 25 years to the day after he led Aberdeen to European glory against Real Madrid in the European Cup Winners' Cup. Nearest rivals Chelsea – level on points going into the final round of matches, but with an inferior goal difference – could only draw 1–1 at home to Bolton, finishing two points adrift of the champions. United's title win was sealed with a 2–0 win over Wigan Athletic, managed by former United captain Steve Bruce, who before the game blew the whistle on suggestions that he would give his old club an easy ride – just as Bryan Robson had done 12 years earlier.

On 21 May 2008, Ferguson won his second European Cup with Manchester United as they beat Chelsea 6–5 on penalties in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, following a 1–1 draw after extra time in the first ever all-English UEFA Champions League Final. A penalty miss from Cristiano Ronaldo meant that John Terry's spot-kick would have given the trophy to Chelsea if successfully converted, but Terry blew his chance of glory and in the end it was Edwin van der Sar's blocking of a Nicolas Anelka penalty which gave the trophy to Manchester United for the second time under Ferguson and for the third time overall.

After winning the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League Ferguson had stated that his intention to leave Manchester United within the next three years, meaning that he would be gone by the summer of 2011. Manchester United Chief Executive David Gill moved quickly to calm the speculation about Ferguson's pending retirement.

Another two league titles and League Cups

Although the team had a slow start to the 2008–09 season, United won the Premier League with a game to spare, making Ferguson the first manager in the history of English football to win the Premier League three times consecutively, on two separate occasions. Ferguson had now won 11 league titles at Manchester United, and the 2008–09 season title success put them level with Liverpool as league champions on a record 18 occasions in total. They also won the Football League Cup on penalties after a goalless Wembley draw with Tottenham Hotspur.

They contested the 2009 Champions League final against FC Barcelona on 27 May 2009 but lost 2–0.

After the presentation ceremony, Ferguson conceded that he would stay on at United for as long as his health permitted him and that he would be glad to win the league title once more. This would make United's total league wins one more than rivals Liverpool, becoming the outright leader in total wins.

In 2009–10, Ferguson added another Football League Cup to his honours list as United defeated Aston Villa 2–1 in the Wembley final on 28 February 2010. However, his dreams of a third European Cup were ended a few weeks later when United were edged out of the competition in the quarter-finals by Bayern Munich on away goals. And their hopes of a record 19th league title were ended on the last day of the season when Chelsea beat them to the Premier League title, crushing Wigan Athletic 8–0 and rendering United's 4–0 win over Stoke City meaningless. Around this time, several newspapers carried reports that Ferguson was due to retire at the end of the 2010–11 season, but he denied these rumours and insisted that he wants to go out on a high and will not retire during a time of struggle.

On 8 August 2010, Ferguson added another FA Community Shield to his honours list as United defeated Chelsea 3–1 in the final in Wembley. On 19 December 2010, Ferguson became Manchester United's longest serving manager in history, overtaking Sir Matt Busby's record of 24 years, 1 month and 13 days in charge of the club. He ended the season by winning his 12th and Manchester United's 19th league title and thus overtaking Liverpool's record of 18. Manchester United faced Barcelona again on 28 May 2011 in the 2011 Champions League Final, their third in four years, but United lost 3–1. Analyst Alan Hansen stated that he believed Ferguson was "the key component" in United's success that season, so key in fact that "[he] would have claimed the crown with any of the other top sides had he been in charge of them". With Edwin van der Sar, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes all retiring in 2011, Ferguson spent big by signing defender Phil Jones from Blackburn Rovers and winger Ashley Young from Aston Villa for around £17 million each, and goalkeeper David de Gea from Atlético Madrid for around £19 million.

1999 testimonial

On 11 October 1999, a special testimonial match was played in honour of Ferguson's contribution to the team. Manchester United played against a team dubbed "Rest of the World XI", managed by Ottmar Hitzfeld, with his team consisting of names such as Henrik Larsson, Gianluca Vialli, Cafu, Paul Gascoigne, George Weah, Peter Schmeichel and Eric Cantona, but with 20 minutes to go there was a mass substitution of their players, who were replaced by a former Manchester United XI; Peter Schmeichel, Paul Parker, Clayton Blackmore, Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, Darren Ferguson, Mark Hughes, Lee Sharpe, and three number sevens: Bryan Robson, David Beckham and Eric Cantona. The World XI won the game 4–2.

Controversies

Ferguson has been involved in numerous controversial incidents during his United career.

Gordon Strachan

In his 1999 autobiography Ferguson stated of Strachan "I decided this man could not be trusted an inch – I would not want to expose my back to him in a hurry". Strachan's reaction to the attack, in is own autobiography, ''My Life in Football'', was one of being "surprised and disappointed", but did not sue for libel, and more recently they have "declared something of a truce".

David Beckham and draw fixing

In 2003, Ferguson was involved in a dressing room argument with United player David Beckham, resulting in an injury to Beckham, alleged to have been caused by Ferguson kicking a football boot in frustration which hit the player in the face. On 5 April 2003, Ferguson claimed that the Champions League draw was fixed in favour of Spanish and Italian teams, resulting in a fine on 1 May of 10,000 Swiss francs (£4,600).

Rock of Gibraltar

In 2003, Ferguson launched legal action against the then major United shareholder John Magnier over stud rights for race horse Rock of Gibraltar. Magnier counter-sued Ferguson filing a "motion to comply" requiring Ferguson to substantiate his claim for half of Rock of Gibraltar's stud fees. The legal issues were further compounded by the request for "99 Questions" to be answered over Ferguson's transfer dealings, including those of Jaap Stam, Juan Verón, Tim Howard, David Bellion, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kléberson. The case was eventually settled out of Court.

The BBC

Ferguson refused to give interviews to the BBC after a documentary called ''Father and Son'' was shown on UK television in 2004. According to an article in ''The Independent'' newspaper, the documentary had "portrayed his agent son, Jason, as somebody who exploited his father's influence and position to his own ends in the transfer market." The same newspaper article made it clear that "Ferguson Jnr" was never found guilty of any wrong-doing, and it quoted Ferguson Senior as follows: "They [the BBC] did a story about my son that was whole lot of nonsense. It all made-up stuff and 'brown paper bags' and all that kind of carry-on. It was a horrible attack on my son's honour and he should never have been accused of that.". Subsequent interviews on BBC programmes such as ''Match of the Day'' were done by his assistant Carlos Queiroz, and later Mike Phelan.

Under new Premiership rules intended for the 2010–11 season, Ferguson was required to end his BBC boycott. However he refused to end his boycott and Manchester United confirmed the club would pay the resulting fines. On 25 August 2011, Ferguson met with BBC director general Mark Thompson and BBC North director Peter Salmon; the result of which was that Ferguson agreed to end his seven year boycott.

Mind games and relationships with other managers

Ferguson is well known for using what the press have called "mind games" with fellow Premiership managers. This approach normally involves making a derogatory comment at a pre-match press conference about the opposition Manager or their team. This has led to several spats in the past with managers such as Kevin Keegan, Arsène Wenger, Rafael Benítez and Mark Hughes.

Recalling of loan players

Following the sacking of his son, Darren by Preston North End, Ferguson immediately recalled loaned players Ritchie De Laet, Joshua King and Matthew James from Preston under its new managerial system. He later explained that it was the players' own request not to return to Preston after the change of manager. Stoke City Boss, Tony Pulis followed soon after in recalling 2 former Manchester United players from Preston as well, stating the need for the players to supplement his team's intensive schedule.

Referees

Ferguson has received numerous punishments for abusing and publicly criticising match officials when he has perceived them to be at fault:

20 October 2003 – Two match touchline ban and fined £10,000 after using abusive and/or insulting words towards fourth official Jeff Winter.

14 December 2007 – Two match touchline ban and fined £5,000 after using abusive and/or insulting words towards Mark Clattenburg.

18 November 2008 – Two match touchline ban and fined £10,000 after confronting Mike Dean after a game.

12 November 2009 – Four match touchline ban (two suspended) and fined £20,000 for comments made about the fitness of Alan Wiley.

16 March 2011 – Five match touchline ban (three plus the two suspended for the above offence) and fined £30,000 for comments made questioning the performance and fairness of Martin Atkinson.

It has also been suggested that Ferguson's intimidation of referees results in ''Fergie Time'', that is, unusually generous injury time being added in matches where Manchester United are behind. The phrase is at least as old as 2004, and a statistical analysis by ''The Times'' suggests that this comment might be valid, though the article points out other footballing criteria may explain the correlation between extra added time and United being behind.

Legacy

One recurring theme of Ferguson's management of Manchester United has been his view that no player is bigger than the club. He has consistently taken a "my way or the highway" approach in his dealings with players and the pressure of this management tactic has often been the cause of many notable players' departures. Over the years players such as Gordon Strachan, Paul McGrath, Paul Ince, Jaap Stam, Dwight Yorke, David Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Gabriel Heinze have left the club after varying degrees of conflict with Ferguson. It is also suggested that one of the most inspirational players in the club's history, Roy Keane, was a victim of Ferguson's wrath following damning criticism of his teammates on the club's in-house television channel, MUTV. This disciplinary line that he takes with such highly paid, high-profile players has been cited as a reason for the ongoing success of Manchester United.

Personal life

Ferguson lives in Wilmslow, Cheshire, with his wife, Cathy Ferguson, Lady Ferguson (née Holding). They married in 1966 and have three sons: Mark (born 1968) and twins (born 1972) Darren, current manager of Peterborough United and former manager of Preston North End, and Jason, who runs an events management company.

In 1998, Ferguson was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party. He is also a lifelong Labour voter.

Honours

Player

; St. Johnstone

Scottish Football League Division 2 (2nd tier) (1): 1962–63

; Falkirk

Scottish Football League Division 2 (2nd tier) (1): 1969–70

Managerial

Ferguson was made an Inaugural Inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 in recognition of his impact on the English game as a manager. In 2003, Ferguson became an inaugural recipient of the FA Coaching Diploma, awarded to all coaches who had at least 10 years' experience of being a manager or head coach.

He is the Vice-President of the National Football Museum, based in Preston, and a member of the Executive Committee of the League Managers Association.

In addition to being the only manager to win the top league honours, and the 'Double', North and South of the England–Scotland border (winning the Premier League with Manchester United, and the Scottish Premier Division with Aberdeen), he is also the last manager to win the Scottish championship with a non Old Firm team, achieving this in the 1984–85 season with Aberdeen. He is also the only mananger in English football to have managed to finish in the top three league places in 20 consecutive seasons, since the 1991–92 season.

He has won 48 trophies as a manager, making him the most successful British football manager in history.

; St. Mirren

Scottish First Division (1): 1976–77

; Aberdeen

Scottish Premier Division (3): 1979–80, 1983–84, 1984–85

Scottish Cup (4): 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1985–86

Scottish League Cup (1): 1985–86

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1982–83

UEFA Super Cup (1): 1983

; Manchester United

Premier League (12): 1992–93, 1993–94, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11

FA Cup (5): 1989–90, 1993–94, 1995–96, 1998–99, 2003–04

League Cup (4): 1991–92, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2009–10

FA Charity/Community Shield (10): 1990 (shared), 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011

UEFA Champions League (2): 1998–99, 2007–08

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1990–91

UEFA Super Cup (1): 1991

Intercontinental Cup (1): 1999

FIFA Club World Cup (1): 2008

Individual

Football Writers' Association Tribute Award: 1996

Mussabini Medal: 1999

UEFA Champions League Manager of the Year: 1998–99

BBC Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award: 1999

BBC Sports Personality of the Year Team Award: 1999

IFFHS Club Coach of the Year: 1999

LMA Manager of the Decade: 1990s

LMA Special Merit Award: 2011

Laureus World Sports Award for Team of the Year: 2000

BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award: 2001

English Football Hall of Fame: 2002

Onze d'Or Coach of the Year (2): 1999, 2007

Professional Footballers' Association Merit Award: 2007

UEFA Team of the Year (2): 2007, 2008

Premier League 10 Seasons Awards (1992/3 – 2001/2)

* Manager of the Decade

* Most Coaching Appearances (392 games)

Premier League Manager of the Year (10): 1993–94, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2002–03, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11

Premier League Manager of the Month (25): August 1993, October 1994, February 1996, March 1996, February 1997, October 1997, January 1999, April 1999, August 1999, March 2000, April 2000, February 2001, April 2003, December 2003, February 2005, March 2006, August 2006, October 2006, February 2007, January 2008, March 2008, January 2009, April 2009, September 2009, January 2011

LMA Manager of the Year (3): 1998–99, 2007–08, 2010–11

World Soccer Magazine World Manager of the Year (4): 1993, 1999, 2007, 2008

Orders and special awards

Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE): 1983

Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE): 1995

Knight Bachelor: 1999

Statistics

As a player

|- |1957–58||rowspan="4"|Queen's Park||rowspan="3"|Second Division | || || || || || || || || || |- |1958–59|| || || || || || || || || || |- |1959–60|| || || || || || || || || || |- !1957–60 !! Total !31 !! 15 !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! |- |1960–61||rowspan="5"|St. Johnstone||rowspan=2|First Division | || || || || || || || || || |- |1961–62|| || || || || || || || || || |- |1962–63||Second Division|| || || || || || || || || || |- |1963–64||First Division|| || || || || || || || || || |- !1960–64 !! Total !37 !! 19 !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! |- |1964–65||rowspan="4"|Dunfermline Athletic||rowspan="3"|First Division | || || || || || || || || || |- |1965–66|| || || || || || || || || || |- |1966–67|| || || || || || || || || || |- !1964–67 !! Total !89 !! 66 !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! |- |1967–68||rowspan="3"|Rangers||rowspan=2|First Division | || || || || || || || || || |- |1968–69|| || || || || || || || || || |- !1967–69 !! Total !41 !! 25 !! 6 !! 10 !! 4 !! 9 !! 6 !! 0 !! 57 !! 44 |- |1969–70||rowspan="5"|Falkirk||rowspan="4"|First Division | || || || || || || || || || |- |1970–71|| || || || || || || || || || |- |1971–72|| || || || || || || || || || |- |1972–73|| || || || || || || || || || |- !1969–73 !! Total !95 !! 36 !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! |- |1973–74||rowspan=2|Ayr United||First Division |24||9|| || || || || || || || |- !1973–74 !! Total !24 !! 9 !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! 317||170|| || || || || || || || 317||170|| || || || || || || ||

As a manager

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
G	W	D	L	GF	GA	Win %
align=left
align=left
align=left
align=left
align=left
Total

Notes

References

External links

Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United Managerial Record at mufcinfo.com

A look back at 20 years in charge at Man United, includes video interview with Bryan Robson and Ian Rush

Alex Ferguson celebrates 1,000th game with Manchester Utd

English Football Hall of Fame

Sir Alex Ferguson: A career profile with pictures

Sir Alex Ferguson's managerial stats according to the official Manchester United statistics website

Vujadin Boškov |after= Otto Rehhagel|years=1990–91}} Jupp Heynckes |after= Vicente del Bosque|years=1998–99}} Carlo Ancelotti |after= Josep Guardiola|years=2007–08}} }}

Category:Scottish football managers Category:Aberdeen F.C. managers Category:East Stirlingshire F.C. managers Category:Manchester United F.C. managers Category:Expatriate football managers in England Category:Scotland national football team managers Category:St. Mirren F.C. managers Category:Premier League managers Category:The Football League managers Category:1986 FIFA World Cup managers Category:Scottish footballers Category:Ayr United F.C. players Category:Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Category:Falkirk F.C. players Category:Queen's Park F.C. players Category:Rangers F.C. players Category:St. Johnstone F.C. players Category:British racehorse owners and breeders Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Football players and officials awarded knighthoods Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:English Football Hall of Fame inductees Category:People educated at Govan High School Category:People from Govan Category:Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductees

ar:أليكس فيرغسون az:Aleks Ferqyuson bn:অ্যালেক্স ফার্গুসন bs:Alex Ferguson bg:Алекс Фъргюсън ca:Alexander Chapman Ferguson cs:Alex Ferguson cy:Alex Ferguson da:Alex Ferguson de:Alex Ferguson et:Alex Ferguson el:Άλεξ Φέργκιουσον es:Alex Ferguson eu:Alex Ferguson fa:الکس فرگوسن fr:Alex Ferguson ga:Alex Ferguson gd:Alex MacFhearghais gl:Alex Ferguson gu:એલેક્સ ફર્ગ્યુસન ko:앨릭스 퍼거슨 hi:एलेक्स फर्ग्यूसन hr:Alex Ferguson id:Alex Ferguson is:Alex Ferguson it:Alex Ferguson he:אלכס פרגוסון jv:Sir Alex Ferguson kn:ಅಲೆಕ್ಸ್ ಫರ್ಗುಸನ್ ka:სერ ალექს ფერგიუსონი sw:Alex Ferguson lv:Alekss Fergusons hu:Alex Ferguson ml:അലക്സ് ഫെർഗൂസൺ mt:Alex Ferguson mr:अॅलेक्स फर्ग्युसन ms:Alex Ferguson my:အဲလက်စ်ဖာဂူဆန် nl:Alex Ferguson ja:アレックス・ファーガソン no:Alex Ferguson nn:Alex Ferguson pl:Alex Ferguson pt:Alex Ferguson ro:Alex Ferguson ru:Фергюсон, Алекс sq:Alex Ferguson simple:Alex Ferguson sk:Alex Ferguson sr:Алекс Фергусон fi:Alex Ferguson sv:Alex Ferguson ta:அலெக்ஸ் ஃபெர்குஸன் te:అలెక్స్ ఫెర్గూసన్ th:อเล็กซ์ เฟอร์กูสัน tr:Alex Ferguson uk:Алекс Фергюсон vi:Alex Ferguson wo:Alex Ferguson zh:亚历克斯·弗格森

name	Wu Chun
tradchinesename	吳尊
simpchinesename	吴尊
pinyinchinesename	Wú Zūn
pojchinesename	Gô͘ Kiat-chun
birth name	Goh Kiat Chun (吴吉尊)
origin	Republic of China (Taiwan)
birth date	October 10, 1979
birth place	Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
occupation	singer, actor, spokesperson, model
genre	Mandopop
instrument	Drums, percussion
voicetype	bass
label	HIM International Music (Taiwan)WOW Music (HK)Pony Canyon (Japan)
yearsactive	2005–present
associatedact	Fahrenheit
awards	}}

Wu Chun () was born on 10 October 1979, birth name Goh Kiat Chun, is a Brunei-born Taiwanese actor, singer, former model and gym instructor.

Wu was a member of Taiwanese Mandopop vocal quartet boy band Fahrenheit from its debut in 2005 to June 2011. He was the last and oldest member to join the boy band and is the bass vocalist of the group. HIM International Music, the groups's record label, announced in an official statement on 22 June 2011 that Wu has left ''Fahrenheit'' to concentrate on his acting career and also to spend more time with his family.

Wu has also starred in many Taiwanese drama such as ''Hanazakarino Kimitachihe'', ''Romantic Princess'', ''Hot Shot'' and ''Tokyo Juliet''.

Biography

Wu studied at the Chung Hwa Middle School in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. He graduated from the RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, with a bachelor's degree in business administration. He also played for Brunei's national basketball team.

Prior to joining Fahrenheit, Wu worked as a model for Yilin in Taiwan and Diva Models in Singapore. He manages a family-owned gym club in Brunei. As of August 2007, Wu is appointed chairman of Palm Garden Hotel and its neighbouring multi-story Fitness Zone centre in Brunei. For his effort and success, Wu was awarded the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in Brunei during the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards in August.

On 5 October 2010, it was announced that Wu will play "Night Tenjo" in a live-action adaptation of Japanese manga series ''Absolute Boyfriend'', with Korean actress Ku Hye Sun as "Riiko Izawa". However on 3 May 2011, Jiro Wang was reported to have replaced Wu as male lead after he pulled out of the project.

Discography

As a member of Fahrenheit Wu Chun has released 4 studio Mandarin albums and 3 Japanese singles. He was the last to join Fahrenheit. His publicized temperature is that of cool autumn, at 59 degrees Fahrenheit.

Filmography

Films

武俠梁祝 ''14 Blades'' ''My Kingdom'' ''Saving General Yang''

Year !! width="150px"	English Title !! width="150px"|Chinese Title !! Role !! Co-stars !! Remarks
2008	The Butterfly Lovers (2008 film)>The Butterfly Lovers''	|	Liang Zhongshan (梁仲山)	Charlene ChoiHu Ge (actor)>Hu GeHarlem Yu
2010	|	錦衣衛	Judge of the Sands (大漠判官)	Donnie YenZhao WeiKate TsuiQi Yuwu
2011	|	大武生	關一龍	Barbie HsuHan Geng	in production
2011	|		sole survivor	Vic Zhou Raymond Lam	in production

Television

终极一班 ''Tokyo Juliet (TV series) 花樣少年少女 ''Romantic Princess'' 終極一家 ''Hot Shot (Taiwan TV series) ''Sunshine Angel''

Year !! width="180px"	English Title !! width="100px"|Chinese Title !! Role !! Co-Stars !! Remarks
2005	''KO One''	|	List of KO One characters>Tian Hong Guang (田弘光) / Wu Shi Zun (武屍尊)		guest star
rowspan="2"	2006	Tokyo Juliet'' ||	東方茱麗葉	Ji Fengliang (紀風亮) / Akira Himemiya	Ariel LinSimon Yam
''Hanazakarino Kimitachihe''	|	Zuo Yiquan (左以泉)	Ella ChenJiro WangDanson Tang
rowspan="2"	2007	|	公主小妹	Nanfeng Jin (南風瑾) / Yoshiki Shido	Angela ZhangCalvin ChenGeorge Hu
''The X-Family''	|	List of The X-Family characters>Fire Ambassador (火焰使者)		guest star
2008	Hot Shot'' ||	籃球火	Wuji Zun (無極尊)	Jerry YanShow LuoGeorge Hu
rowspan="2"	2011	|	陽光天使	Di Yaxin (狄雅辛)	Rainie Yang

Awards

+ Awards
Year	! Award
	TVB8 Awards: Bronze: Best Group
HK Metro Hits Awards: Best Foreign Newcomer
AF Golden Globes 2006: Taiwan's Most Improved Actor
	Top Song, TVB8 Awards: "Really, Really, Like You" 超喜歡你
Sprite Awards: Most Popular Idol Group (Taiwan Area)
Sprite Awards: "Only Have Feelings For You" 只對你有感覺 Favorite Duet Song
Sprite Awards: Best Group (Taiwan & Hong Kong Area)
13th Chinese Music Awards: Best New Group
KKBOX Music Charts: "Only Have Feelings For You" 只對你有感覺: Top 20 Songs of the Year
KKBOX Music Charts: "Hanazakarino Kimitachihe Original Soundtrack" 花樣少年少女: Best Drama Soundtrack
HITO Music Awards 2007: Best Male Group

References

External links

H.I.M International Music Fahrenheit: Official Japan Site

Wu Zun's Official Website

Category:Fahrenheit members Category:1979 births Category:Living people Category:RMIT University alumni Category:Bruneian musicians

es:Wu Chun it:Wu Chun jv:Wu Chun ms:Wu Chun simple:Wu Zun tl:Wu Chun vi:Ngô Tôn zh-yue:吳尊 zh:吳尊