Dia memecahkan kaca itu.

Dia is a third-person singular pronoun meaning he or she. Indonesian does not normally distinguish gender in this pronoun, so you know whether it is he or she only from context.

A few useful notes:

• dia = he/she
• ia = a more formal/literary version of dia
• beliau = he/she, but respectful, usually for someone important or older

So in this sentence, dia simply means he or she.

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense the way English verbs do. The verb memecahkan can refer to past, present, or future depending on context.

Time is usually shown by:

• context
• time words such as kemarin (yesterday), tadi (earlier), sekarang (now), besok (tomorrow)
• aspect markers such as sudah (already), sedang (in progress), akan (will)

For example:

• Dia memecahkan kaca itu kemarin. = He/She broke that glass yesterday.
• Dia sedang memecahkan kaca itu. = He/She is breaking that glass.
• Dia akan memecahkan kaca itu. = He/She will break that glass.

So the bare sentence does not by itself fix the tense.

Because pecah by itself is usually intransitive or adjectival, with the idea of break / be broken / shattered. It describes the state or event of something breaking.

But in this sentence, the subject is actively doing something to an object: breaking the glass. For that, Indonesian normally uses the transitive verb memecahkan.

Compare:

• Kaca itu pecah. = The glass broke / is broken.
• Dia memecahkan kaca itu. = He/She broke the glass.

So:

• pecah = to break / be broken, often not taking a direct object
• memecahkan = to break something

Memecahkan is built from the root pecah.

Structure:

• pecah = break, broken, shatter
• meN-
  • pecah
    • -kan → memecahkan

What happens here:

1. The active verb prefix meN- is added.
2. Because the root begins with p, the p drops after this prefix.
3. The nasal changes shape to mem-.
4. The suffix -kan is added.

So:

• pecah
• meN- + pecah → memecah-
• memecah + -kan → memecahkan

This is a very common pattern in Indonesian morphology.

The prefix meN- usually forms an active verb, especially in standard Indonesian. It often signals that the subject is actively doing the action.

In memecahkan:

• dia is the doer
• kaca itu is the thing affected

So meN- helps make this a normal active transitive verb: to break something.

You will see different surface forms of meN- depending on the first sound of the root:

• men-
• mem-
• meng-
• meny-

Here it becomes mem- because of the root pecah.

In this word, -kan helps make the verb clearly transitive and often gives a causative sense: cause something to become broken.

So:

• pecah = broken / break
• memecahkan = break something, cause something to shatter

A useful way to think about it is:

• pecah = the glass breaks
• memecahkan = someone breaks the glass

In many Indonesian verbs, -kan has several functions, but here the most helpful interpretation is that it turns the idea into breaking an object.

Because the basic Indonesian word order is usually Subject – Verb – Object, just like normal English order.

So:

• Dia = subject
• memecahkan = verb
• kaca itu = object

That gives:

• Dia memecahkan kaca itu.
• He/She broke that glass.

This word order is very standard and natural.

In Indonesian, demonstratives such as ini and itu usually come after the noun.

So:

• kaca ini = this glass
• kaca itu = that glass

This is one of the most important word-order differences from English.

So although English says that glass, Indonesian says glass that in terms of word order:

• kaca itu

In many contexts, itu literally means that, but in natural translation it can sometimes feel closer to the, especially when the noun is already identifiable.

So kaca itu can mean:

• that glass
• the glass

Which one sounds best depends on context.

For learners, it is safest to remember:

• basic meaning: that
• but in actual use, it often helps specify a known noun, so English may translate it as the

The core meaning of kaca is glass.

Depending on context, it can refer to:

• glass as a material
• a glass pane
• window glass

But mirror is usually cermin, not kaca by itself.

So in this sentence, kaca itu most naturally means that glass or that pane of glass, depending on the situation.

Yes. Dia memecahkan kaca. is possible.

The difference is:

• Dia memecahkan kaca. = He/She broke glass / a glass / the glass, depending on context
• Dia memecahkan kaca itu. = He/She broke that glass / the glass

Adding itu makes the object more specific and identifiable.

Sometimes in conversation, yes, if the subject is already clear from context. Indonesian often leaves out things that are understood.

For example, in conversation:

• Memecahkan kaca itu. could be understood in context, though by itself it sounds incomplete in careful standard usage.

But as a full, clear sentence, Dia memecahkan kaca itu. is the standard form.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

• Dia → dee-ah
• memecahkan → muh-meh-CHAH-kan
• kaca → KAH-cha
• itu → ee-too

A few points:

• c in Indonesian is pronounced like ch in chair
• e in me- is often a neutral vowel, like the a in sofa
• stress is not as strong or as crucial as in English

So the whole sentence is roughly:

dee-ah muh-meh-CHAH-kan KAH-cha ee-too

Yes. Besides physically breaking something, memecahkan can also mean solve, especially for problems.

For example:

• memecahkan masalah = solve a problem

So the verb can mean:

• physically break something
• figuratively break through or solve something

In Dia memecahkan kaca itu, though, the meaning is clearly the physical one because the object is kaca.