Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Harapan dia adalah punya pekerjaan yang mendukung keluarganya dan membantu orang lain. - His/Her hope is to have a job that supports his/her family and helps other people.

Adalah is often used in more formal Indonesian (speeches, writing, news).
In many spoken sentences it can be left out:
- Harapan dia punya pekerjaan yang… (still acceptable, slightly more casual).
Adalah is generally not used before adjectives:
- ✅ Dia pintar. (He/She is smart.)
- ❌ Dia adalah pintar. (sounds wrong/unnatural)

Why is punya used here? Is it the same as “have” or “own”? Could we use memiliki or mempunyai instead?

Punya is a very common, everyday verb meaning “to have” or “to own”.

In this sentence:

punya pekerjaan = to have a job

You can think of it as slightly informal but widely accepted, even in semi-formal contexts.

Alternatives:

memiliki pekerjaan = to have/possess a job (more formal, often in writing)
mempunyai pekerjaan = to have a job (also more formal than punya, and a bit “bookish” in casual speech)

So these are all grammatically correct:

Harapan dia adalah punya pekerjaan… (natural, common)
Harapan dia adalah memiliki pekerjaan… (more formal)
Harapan dia adalah mempunyai pekerjaan… (formal/literate)

In casual conversation, punya is the most natural.

What is the role of yang in pekerjaan yang mendukung keluarganya…? Is it like “that/which”?

Yes. Here yang works like the English relative pronouns “that” or “which” introducing a relative clause.

Structure:

pekerjaan = job
yang mendukung keluarganya dan membantu orang lain = that supports his/her family and helps other people

So:

pekerjaan yang mendukung… = a job that supports…

General pattern:

noun + yang + clause = noun that/who/which …

Examples:

orang yang tinggal di sini = the person who lives here
buku yang saya baca = the book that I read

In this sentence, yang marks mendukung… dan membantu… as a description of the job.

Do we need to repeat yang before membantu? Why is it only written once?

We do not need to repeat yang.

Here’s what’s happening:

pekerjaan (job) is being described by two actions:
- mendukung keluarganya = supports his/her family
- membantu orang lain = helps other people
These two verbs share the same subject (pekerjaan) and are joined by dan (and).

So the structure is:

pekerjaan yang [mendukung keluarganya] dan [membantu orang lain]

In English we might mentally expand it to:

a job that supports his/her family and (that) helps other people

In Indonesian it is normal and natural to use yang once when the same relative clause continues with dan.

What does mendukung mean exactly, and why is it mendukung and not just dukung?

dukung = the base/root form meaning support (verb or noun depending on context).
mendukung = the meN- prefixed verb form, a standard active transitive verb: to support.

In Indonesian, many verbs are formed by adding the meN- prefix to a root:

baca → membaca = to read
ajar → mengajar = to teach
tulis → menulis = to write
dukung → mendukung = to support

So:

mendukung keluarganya = support(s) his/her family

Using just dukung keluarganya would sound incomplete/imperative, like giving a command: support his/her family! The meN- form is the normal form for describing what the subject does.

How does keluarganya work? Why is there -nya at the end instead of using dia?

Keluarganya is made up of:

keluarga = family
-nya = a possessive suffix (his/her/their), or sometimes the depending on context

So keluarganya here means:

his/her family (most likely referring back to dia)

You could also say:

keluarga dia = his/her family

Both are correct:

mendukung keluarganya (very natural)
mendukung keluarga dia (also acceptable)

The -nya form is extremely common in spoken and written Indonesian and often feels more fluent and compact.

How do we know whether dia is “he” or “she” in this sentence?

We don’t know from the sentence alone. Indonesian does not mark gender in pronouns.

dia can mean he or she.
keluarganya can mean his family or her family.

To know the gender, you need context (earlier sentences, names, or a situation). Without context, English translations often choose he or she arbitrarily, or use they in a gender-neutral way.

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral? Would I say this in a conversation?

Overall, the sentence is neutral, leaning slightly toward neutral–formal.

dia = neutral (more casual than beliau, which is a respectful “he/she”)
punya = everyday, slightly informal verb for have
adalah = often used in more formal or written Indonesian
The structure is smooth and standard; nothing is slangy.

In casual conversation, you might hear:

Harapan dia punya pekerjaan yang mendukung keluarganya dan membantu orang lain.
(dropping adalah)

In more formal writing/speeches, you might see:

Harapannya adalah memiliki pekerjaan yang mendukung keluarganya dan membantu orang lain. (using harapannya
- memiliki)

There’s no future tense word like “will” here. How does the sentence express a future-type idea of “hope to have a job”?

Indonesian doesn’t have verb tenses like English (present, past, future). Time is usually understood from context or marked with time words like akan (will), sudah (already), sedang (currently), etc.

In this sentence:

Harapan dia adalah punya pekerjaan… literally: His/Her hope is to have a job…

Even though no future marker is used, we understand that the job is something in the future or not yet fully realized, because it’s expressed as a hope.

If you want to make the “future” sense explicit, you could say:

Harapan dia adalah akan punya pekerjaan yang…
(His/Her hope is that (he/she) will have a job that…)

But adding akan is often unnecessary; context and the word harapan already imply a future-oriented wish.