Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Dia sembuh setelah minum obat. - He/She recovers after taking medicine.

Dia in Indonesian is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun. It can mean “he,” “she,” or even “it,” depending on context. There is no grammatical gender on dia. You determine the person’s gender from surrounding context or by explicitly adding words like laki-laki (“male”) or perempuan (“female”), or simply by using a proper name.

How is the past tense shown in Dia sembuh setelah minum obat? There’s no “-ed” or “did.”

Indonesian verbs don’t change form for past, present, or future. Instead, time is indicated by context or by adding words like sudah (“already”) for completed actions, akan (“will”) for future, or adverbs such as kemarin (“yesterday”). Here, the sequence of events (he recovered after taking medicine) and context imply it happened in the past. If you want to be explicit, you could say Dia sudah sembuh setelah minum obat.

What part of speech is setelah, and why does it come before minum obat?

Setelah is a conjunction meaning “after.” It introduces a time clause. In this sentence, it precedes the verb phrase minum obat (“take medicine”). You can also put the time clause at the beginning: Setelah minum obat, dia sembuh, which has exactly the same meaning.

Why is minum not in the “meN-” form (like meminum) when it takes the object obat?

Many everyday verbs, minum included, can directly take an object without the meN- prefix. While meminum exists and is formally transitive, Indonesians almost always say minum obat. It’s shorter and more natural in speech.

Why don’t we repeat Dia in the clause “setelah minum obat”? Why not “setelah dia minum obat”?

When the subject of the subordinate clause is the same as the main clause (here Dia), Indonesian often omits it in the subordinate clause. So setelah minum obat automatically refers back to dia in the main clause.

Is obat countable? Why isn’t there an article before it?

Here obat (“medicine” or “drug”) is treated as an uncountable or mass noun, so no article like “a” or “the” is needed. If you want to specify quantity, you add a number plus a classifier (e.g. dua tablet obat “two tablets of medicine”).

How can I tell that sembuh means “to recover” (intransitive) and not “to cure” (transitive)?

Sembuh can function intransitively (“recover, get better”) or transitively (“to cure someone`). Intransitive use has no object following it, as in Dia sembuh (“He/she recovered”). If you want the transitive meaning, you need an explicit object, e.g. Dokter itu menyembuhkan dia (“The doctor cured him/her”).

Can I switch the order of the clauses without changing the meaning?

Yes. You may write Setelah minum obat, dia sembuh or Dia sembuh setelah minum obat. Both convey “He/she got better after taking medicine.” In writing, you’d typically separate the clauses with a comma when the time clause comes first.