Mereka masih berjuang.

they

Breakdown of Mereka masih berjuang.

• masih: still
• berjuang: to struggle; fight for

Questions & Answers about Mereka masih berjuang.

What does mereka mean exactly?

Mereka means they. It is the standard third-person plural pronoun in Malay.

A few useful notes:

• It usually refers to people, not things.
• Malay pronouns do not change for subject and object the way English does, so mereka can correspond to they or them depending on context.
• In this sentence, because it comes before the verb, it is clearly the subject, so it means they.

Why is there no tense marker in the sentence?

Malay verbs do not change form for tense the way English verbs do. In English, you might distinguish fight, fought, and are fighting. In Malay, the verb itself usually stays the same, and time is understood from:

• context
• time words such as semalam for yesterday or esok for tomorrow
• aspect words such as masih, sudah, akan, and sedang

So in Mereka masih berjuang, the sense of ongoing action comes from masih, not from a change in the verb berjuang.

What does masih mean here?

Masih means still. It shows that the action is continuing and has not stopped.

So Mereka masih berjuang means that they were already struggling or fighting before, and that situation continues now.

Compare:

• Mereka berjuang = They fight / They are fighting / They struggle
• Mereka masih berjuang = They are still fighting / still struggling