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Questions & Answers about Dia menggunakan robot.
Why does dia not tell me whether the person is he or she?
In Malay, dia is a third-person singular pronoun that usually means he, she, or sometimes they in a very general context. Malay does not normally mark gender in pronouns the way English does.
So Dia menggunakan robot could mean:
- He uses a robot
- She uses a robot
You need context to know which one is meant.
Can dia ever mean it?
Usually, dia is used for people, and sometimes for animals treated as animate. It is not the usual choice for it when talking about objects.
If you are talking about a thing, Malay often just omits the pronoun or uses a different wording. So in this sentence, dia is most naturally understood as a person.
Why is the verb menggunakan so long? What is the base word?
The base word is guna, which means use.
menggunakan is formed from:
- meN- = an active verb prefix
- guna = use
- -kan = a suffix that often helps form a transitive verb
So:
- guna = use
- menggunakan = to use, to make use of
In everyday Malay, people also very often just say guna:
- Dia guna robot = He/She uses a robot
That is common in speech and informal writing.