Dia mengambil napas dalam-dalam sebelum ujian.

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Breakdown of Dia mengambil napas dalam-dalam sebelum ujian.

• dia: he/she
• sebelum: before
• mengambil: to take

Questions & Answers about Dia mengambil napas dalam-dalam sebelum ujian.

What does Dia mean here? Does it mean he or she?

Dia is a third-person singular pronoun. It can mean he or she; Indonesian does not mark gender in pronouns. Context usually makes it clear, but if context doesn’t matter, you just translate it as he or she according to what sounds natural in English.

Why is the verb mengambil used with napas? Is it literally “to take a breath”?

Yes. Mengambil comes from ambil (take), and mengambil napas literally means to take a breath.

This is a very common collocation in Indonesian, similar to English take a breath/take a deep breath. You’ll also see:

• mengambil napas dalam-dalam – to take a deep breath / to breathe deeply
• menghela napas – to sigh
• tarik napas – take a breath / inhale (more colloquial/imperative)

So although it’s literally take a breath, idiomatically it matches English quite well.

What exactly does napas mean, and why do I sometimes see nafas instead?