Dia belajar politik.

Dia is a third-person singular pronoun meaning he, she, or sometimes they for one person in a general sense. Malay does not normally distinguish gender in this pronoun.

So Dia belajar politik can mean:

• He studies politics
• She studies politics

You only know the gender from context.

It can mean learn or study, depending on context.

In Dia belajar politik, the most natural English translation is usually He/She studies politics, especially if politik is a subject or field of study.

A few useful comparisons:

• belajar bahasa Melayu = study/learn Malay
• belajar memasak = learn cooking / learn to cook
• belajar untuk peperiksaan = study for an exam

So belajar is a broad verb covering both ideas.

Malay does not use a verb like to be in the same way English does in this kind of sentence.

English:

• He is studying politics
• She studies politics

Malay:

• Dia belajar politik

Malay often leaves tense and aspect unstated unless the context makes it necessary. The sentence can mean:

• He/She studies politics
• He/She is studying politics

Context tells you which is meant.

Usually from context.

Dia belajar politik by itself is neutral and can refer to:

• a general fact/habit: He studies politics
• a current action: He is studying politics

If you want to make the ongoing meaning clearer, Malay often adds sedang:

• Dia sedang belajar politik = He/She is currently studying politics

If the context already makes it obvious, sedang is often unnecessary.

This follows the normal Malay sentence pattern:

Subject + Verb + Object/Complement

So:

• Dia = subject
• belajar = verb
• politik = what is being studied

This is very similar to basic English word order:

• He studies politics

Malay does not use articles the way English does. There is no direct equivalent of a/an/the in most ordinary sentences.

So:

• politik can simply mean politics
• you do not need a separate word for the politics or a politics here

In this sentence, politik is just the name of the subject or field.

No. After belajar, Malay commonly puts the subject directly after the verb.

So:

• Dia belajar politik = He/She studies politics

Not:

• Dia belajar tentang politik for this meaning

However, tentang can be used in some contexts when you mean about:

• Dia belajar tentang politik Malaysia = He/She learns about Malaysian politics

But for studying a subject, the direct form belajar politik is very natural.

Yes. Politik is a normal Malay noun meaning politics.

It can refer to:

• politics as a field of study
• politics in general
• political matters, depending on context

In Dia belajar politik, it most naturally means politics as a subject/discipline.

It is neutral and completely normal.

• Dia is standard
• belajar is standard
• politik is standard

So the sentence works in everyday speech and normal writing.

You can use a more specific noun phrase, for example:

• Dia belajar sains politik = He/She studies political science

Compare:

• Dia belajar politik = He/She studies politics
• Dia belajar sains politik = He/She studies political science

The second sounds more like an academic subject name.

You can say:

• Dia belajar politik di universiti.

If you want to stress that it is happening now:

• Dia sedang belajar politik di universiti.

Useful parts:

• di = at/in
• universiti = university

Use tidak before the verb:

• Dia tidak belajar politik. = He/She does not study politics / is not studying politics

For verbs, tidak is the normal negator.

Compare:

• Dia belajar politik. = He/She studies politics.
• Dia tidak belajar politik. = He/She does not study politics.

A few common ways:

• Adakah dia belajar politik? = Does he/she study politics?
• Dia belajar politik? = Does he/she study politics?
  This is common in speech, with question intonation.

You can also ask for the missing information:

• Dia belajar apa? = What does he/she study?
• Siapa belajar politik? = Who studies politics?

Dia is usually pronounced roughly like dee-ah in careful speech.

A simple guide:

• di sounds like dee
• a sounds like ah

So: dee-ah

In fast speech, pronunciation may sound a bit smoother or more compressed, but dee-ah is a good learner-friendly approximation.