Dia hampir tenggelam di sungai itu.

that

Breakdown of Dia hampir tenggelam di sungai itu.

• dia: he/she
• hampir: almost
• sungai: the river

Questions & Answers about Dia hampir tenggelam di sungai itu.

What does dia mean? Does it mean he or she?

Dia can mean either he or she. Indonesian third-person singular pronouns usually do not show gender, so you understand the person’s sex from context.

A few useful notes:

• dia is common in everyday speech and writing.
• A more formal/literary variant is ia.
• Indonesian often avoids using pronouns as much as English does if the context is already clear.

How do we know this sentence is in the past tense?

Strictly speaking, you do not know from the sentence alone. Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense the way English verbs do.

So Dia hampir tenggelam di sungai itu could mean:

• He/she almost drowned in that river
• He/she is almost drowning in that river
• in some contexts even a future-like meaning, though that is less likely here

Usually, the time is understood from context. If you want to make past time clear, you can add words like:

• kemarin = yesterday
• tadi = earlier / just now

For example:

• Dia hampir tenggelam di sungai itu kemarin.

What does hampir do in this sentence?