Dia sempat merasa bersalah, toh keluarganya tetap menyambutnya dengan hangat.

In this sentence, sempat means something like did at one point, briefly had time to, or did happen to.

So Dia sempat merasa bersalah suggests:

• he/she did feel guilty for a while, or
• he/she at least had that feeling at some point

It does not mean the guilt necessarily lasted a long time. It adds the nuance that the feeling occurred, perhaps briefly, before the next idea in the sentence.

Very often, sempat is used when something happened before something else, or happened despite circumstances:

• Saya sempat makan sebelum berangkat. = I managed to eat before leaving.
• Dia sempat bingung. = He/She was confused for a moment.

So here, it softens the statement a little: the person did feel guilty, but then the sentence moves on to what happened afterward.

Merasa bersalah means to feel guilty.

• merasa = to feel
• bersalah = guilty / at fault

So:

• Dia merasa bersalah = He/She felt guilty.

If you only say Dia bersalah, that usually means He/She is guilty or He/She is at fault, which sounds more like an objective judgment.

That is an important difference:

• Dia merasa bersalah = this is about the person’s emotion
• Dia bersalah = this is about whether the person was actually wrong

In your sentence, the focus is on the person’s inner feeling, so merasa bersalah is the natural choice.

Toh is a discourse particle that adds a nuance like:

• after all
• anyway
• in the end
• as it turned out
• despite that

In this sentence, toh introduces a fact that makes the guilt less necessary or less justified:

• Dia sempat merasa bersalah, toh keluarganya tetap menyambutnya dengan hangat.

This suggests something like:

• He/She did feel guilty, but after all, the family still welcomed him/her warmly.

So toh creates a mild contrast. It can sound like:

• There was no need to feel so guilty, because the family still welcomed him/her warmly anyway.

It is a very natural Indonesian particle, but it does not always translate neatly word-for-word into English.

Because toh and tetap do different jobs.

• toh is a particle that sets up the speaker’s attitude: after all / anyway / despite that
• tetap means still / nevertheless / remained

So in:

• toh keluarganya tetap menyambutnya dengan hangat

the meaning is roughly:

• after all, his/her family still welcomed him/her warmly

Using both together strengthens the contrast:

• the person felt guilty
• but despite that, the family still gave a warm welcome

Without tetap, the sentence would still work, but it would lose some of that clear contrast.

They are doing two different things.

1. keluarganya

Here -nya shows possession:

• keluarga = family
• keluarganya = his/her family

2. menyambutnya

Here -nya is the object pronoun:

• menyambut = to welcome
• menyambutnya = to welcome him/her

So the full second clause is:

• keluarganya tetap menyambutnya dengan hangat
• his/her family still welcomed him/her warmly

Even though both are -nya, one means his/her, and the other means him/her. Indonesian uses -nya in several common ways like this.

Dia can mean either he or she. Indonesian does not normally mark gender in third-person singular pronouns.

So:

• Dia = he / she
• -nya can also mean his / her / him / her, depending on context

You only know the gender if:

• the wider context makes it clear, or
• the speaker specifically mentions it elsewhere

This is very normal in Indonesian, so learners need to get used to leaving gender unspecified unless the context requires it.

Not exactly.

Menyambut means to welcome, to receive on arrival, or to greet in a welcoming way.

Menerima usually means to receive, to accept, or to take something.

Compare:

• Keluarganya menyambutnya dengan hangat.
  = His/Her family welcomed him/her warmly.

• Keluarganya menerimanya.
  = His/Her family accepted him/her.

These are related ideas, but not identical.

Menyambut focuses on the act of greeting or receiving someone warmly. Menerima focuses more on acceptance.

In your sentence, menyambutnya dengan hangat gives a more vivid and emotional picture: the family did not just accept the person; they welcomed them warmly.

Because dengan hangat functions like warmly in English.

• dengan = with / in a ... manner
• hangat = warm

So:

• menyambutnya dengan hangat = welcome him/her warmly

Indonesian often uses:

• dengan + adjective

where English would use an adverb.

Examples:

• berbicara dengan sopan = speak politely
• menatap dengan tajam = stare sharply
• menyambut dengan hangat = welcome warmly

You may sometimes hear adjectives used without dengan in informal speech, but dengan hangat is the standard and natural phrasing here.

It is emotional warmth, not physical temperature.

Literally, hangat means warm, as in warmth. But in expressions like menyambut dengan hangat, it means:

• warmly
• affectionately
• kindly
• in a friendly way

So the family is not physically warm; they are giving the person a warm, kind reception.

This metaphor works much like English a warm welcome.

That is a good, natural translation.

A slightly fuller translation that captures more nuance would be:

• He/She did feel guilty for a while, but after all, his/her family still welcomed him/her warmly.

Why the extra nuance?

• sempat adds did at one point / briefly
• toh adds after all / anyway
• tetap adds still / nevertheless

But if you are translating naturally rather than word-for-word, He/She felt guilty, but his/her family still welcomed him/her warmly is perfectly reasonable.

Yes, it helps separate the two clauses and makes the contrast easier to follow.

The sentence has two main parts:

1. Dia sempat merasa bersalah
2. toh keluarganya tetap menyambutnya dengan hangat

The comma marks a pause between:

• the person’s emotional reaction
• the contrasting fact that the family still welcomed them warmly

It is similar to how English often uses a comma before a contrastive clause.

In casual writing, punctuation in Indonesian can be flexible, but here the comma is helpful and natural.

Toh is common and natural, but it is somewhat conversational in tone.

It is not slang, and it is not wrong in writing, but it has a spoken, discourse-particle feel. It reflects the speaker’s attitude and sounds more personal than a purely neutral connector.

More formal alternatives might include:

• namun
• meskipun demikian
• walaupun begitu

But those are not exact substitutes. Toh has its own nuance of after all / anyway / as it turns out.

So in this sentence, toh makes the wording feel natural and expressive rather than stiffly formal.