Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Dia sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat pagi ini. - He/She deliberately came late to the meeting this morning.

In Indonesian, dia is a gender‑neutral third‑person singular pronoun. It can mean he, she, or even they (for a single person whose gender you don’t want to specify).

You find the gender only from context (who you’re talking about). Grammatically, there is no difference:

Dia guru saya. – He / She is my teacher.
Dia sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat pagi ini. – He / She intentionally came late to the meeting this morning.

If you need to be extra respectful (for older or high‑status people), you might see beliau instead of dia.

There is no past tense marker in Dia sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat pagi ini, so how do we know it’s talking about the past?

Indonesian normally does not mark tense with verb changes. Time is shown by:

Time words in the sentence
pagi ini (literally this morning) naturally suggests a time that has already happened (if you’re speaking later in the day). So context makes it past.
Context and conversation time
If people are talking after the meeting, saying
Dia sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat pagi ini
is naturally understood as He/She intentionally came late… (past).

To make the past even clearer, people often use:

tadi pagi – earlier this morning
Dia sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat tadi pagi.
sudah / telah – already (aspect marker)
Dia sudah sengaja datang terlambat… (a bit awkward here; more natural: Dia memang sengaja datang terlambat… – He/She really did it on purpose.)

For future, you would use a future time word or akan:

Besok pagi dia akan sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat.
Tomorrow morning he/she will intentionally come late to the meeting.

What is the exact nuance of sengaja here? Is it the same as on purpose / deliberately?

Yes. sengaja means intentionally / on purpose / deliberately. It strongly states that the action is not accidental.

In this sentence:

Dia sengaja datang terlambat…
implies the person chose to be late, perhaps for a reason (protest, making a point, etc.), not because of traffic or bad luck.

Common contrasts:

Dia sengaja datang terlambat. – He/She intentionally came late.
Dia tidak sengaja datang terlambat. – He/She came late by accident / unintentionally.
Dia datang terlambat tanpa sengaja. – He/She came late unintentionally.

You can also say:

Dia datang terlambat dengan sengaja. – He/She came late on purpose.
This is a bit more formal, but the meaning is the same. In everyday speech, sengaja alone (as in the original sentence) is perfectly natural.

Why is the word order Dia sengaja datang terlambat, and not Dia datang sengaja terlambat?

The usual pattern for Indonesian is:

Subject – (adverb) – verb – complement

Many adverbs like sengaja (intentionally), sering (often), selalu (always), tidak (not) typically come before the verb phrase:

Dia sengaja datang terlambat. – He/She intentionally came late.
Dia sering datang terlambat. – He/She often comes late.
Dia tidak datang. – He/She did not come.

Dia datang sengaja terlambat sounds wrong or at least very unnatural, because sengaja is strongly linked to the action, and the natural place is before the verb (datang).

You could move sengaja to the very front for emphasis:

Sengaja dia datang terlambat ke rapat pagi ini.
On purpose, he/she came late to the meeting this morning. (emphatic, almost complaining/accusatory)

Why do we need both datang and terlambat? Could we just say Dia terlambat ke rapat pagi ini?

Both versions are correct, but they feel slightly different:

Dia terlambat ke rapat pagi ini.
- Literally: He/She was late to the meeting this morning.
- Focus: the state of being late.
Dia sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat pagi ini.
- Literally: He/She intentionally came late to the meeting this morning.
- datang emphasizes the act of coming/arriving, modified by terlambat (late).

In many cases, datang can be dropped without changing the meaning too much:

Dia sengaja terlambat ke rapat pagi ini.
This is understandable and used in speech, but datang terlambat sounds more complete and natural in standard Indonesian when talking about arriving late.

What does the prefix ter- in terlambat do? How is terlambat different from lambat or telat?

lambat on its own means slow or late. When you add ter-, you typically get:

terlambat – late (adjective/adverb)

In practice:

lambat – slow (speed) or late (less common in speech in this sense)
terlambat – late (for time/appointments)
telat – colloquial form of terlambat, very common in informal speech.

Examples:

Kereta ini lambat. – This train is slow.
Maaf, saya terlambat. – Sorry, I’m late.
Maaf, saya telat. – Same meaning, but more casual.

In your sentence:

datang terlambat = come late / arrive late, using the standard form terlambat.

Why is the preposition ke used in ke rapat? Could we use di instead?

ke means to / towards, indicating movement or destination.
di means at / in / on, indicating location.

In this sentence, datang (come) is a movement verb, so we use ke:

Dia datang ke rapat. – He/She came to the meeting.

If you say:

Dia terlambat di rapat.

it sounds more like “He/She was late at the meeting” and is unusual; native speakers strongly prefer:

Dia terlambat ke rapat. – He/She was late for the meeting.
or
Dia datang terlambat ke rapat. – He/She came late to the meeting.

General rule: movement verb (pergi, datang, masuk, pulang, etc.) → usually ke for the destination.

What exactly does rapat mean here? Is it the same as meeting in English, and how is it different from pertemuan?

In this context, rapat means a meeting, especially:

work meetings
committee or organizational meetings
formal or semi‑formal discussions

Examples:

rapat kantor – office meeting
rapat mingguan – weekly meeting

pertemuan is more general: any meeting / gathering / encounter, often used for:

more formal events
meetings between groups/officials
scheduled sessions

Examples:

pertemuan orang tua murid – parents’ meeting (at school)
pertemuan bilateral – bilateral meeting (between two countries)

In everyday office/school life, rapat is the most natural word for a work-style meeting.

How should I understand pagi ini and its position in rapat pagi ini? Is it like “this morning’s meeting”?

Yes. pagi ini literally means this morning:

pagi – morning
ini – this

When you say rapat pagi ini, it means:

the meeting this morning
or
this morning’s meeting

So the whole phrase:

rapat pagi ini = the meeting (that took place) this morning

About position:

Dia sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat pagi ini.
He/She intentionally came late to the meeting this morning.

You can also move the time phrase to the beginning or end of the sentence:

Pagi ini dia sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat.
Dia sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat, pagi ini. (less common; sounds like an afterthought)

But rapat pagi ini is a very natural way to say this morning’s meeting as a single noun phrase.

Can I move pagi ini somewhere else in the sentence? Is there a rule about where time expressions go?

Time expressions in Indonesian are quite flexible. The most common positions are:

At the beginning (very common):
- Pagi ini dia sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat.
Near the end:
- Dia sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat pagi ini. (your sentence)
As a separate phrase at the very end (more informal/speechy):
- Dia sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat, pagi ini.

All of these are understandable. The most natural, compact way to express this morning’s meeting is exactly how your sentence does it: ke rapat pagi ini.

Could we drop dia and just say Sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat pagi ini?

You can drop dia in casual spoken Indonesian if it is crystal clear from context who you’re talking about, but:

Dia sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat pagi ini. – clear, normal.
Sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat pagi ini. – sounds like a fragment, as if you’re listing actions or complaining about “someone” in general.

Omitting subjects is more common in:

instructions
headlines
notes
when the subject was just mentioned in the previous sentence and is obvious.

For a stand‑alone sentence, especially in writing or as a practice sentence, it’s better to keep dia.

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral in tone?

The sentence is neutral and can be used in both spoken and written Indonesian:

Vocabulary: all standard words (dia, sengaja, datang, terlambat, rapat, pagi ini).
No slang, no overly formal words.

Slight variations by register:

More casual:
Dia sengaja telat ke rapat pagi ini. (using telat)
More formal:
Beliau sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat pagi ini. (using respectful beliau)

How would I turn this into a negative sentence, like “He/She didn’t intentionally come late…”?

You mainly add tidak in front of sengaja:

Dia tidak sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat pagi ini.
He/She came late to the meeting this morning by accident / not on purpose.

This reverses the meaning:

Dia sengaja datang terlambat… – on purpose
Dia tidak sengaja datang terlambat… – not on purpose / unintentionally

If you want to emphasize that the lateness happened but was not intentional, this is the most natural pattern.

How would I make this into a yes‑no question, like “Did he/she intentionally come late to the meeting this morning?”?

Indonesian yes‑no questions often keep the same word order and rely on:

Intonation (speaking)
The question word apakah (more formal/written) at the start.

So:

Dia sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat pagi ini?
(Rising intonation) – Did he/she intentionally come late to the meeting this morning?

More formal/written:

Apakah dia sengaja datang terlambat ke rapat pagi ini?
– Did he/she intentionally come late to the meeting this morning?

You don’t need to move dia or sengaja; just add intonation or apakah.