Questions & Answers about Dia dilihat di pasar semalam.
What does dia mean in this sentence?
dia is the third-person singular pronoun: ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’. Malay pronouns don’t indicate gender, so you rely on context (or extra words) to know if dia refers to a male or female. Here, dia is simply “the person who was seen.”
How do we form the passive voice in Malay, as seen in dilihat?
The passive in Malay is made by adding the prefix di- to the verb stem.
- Verb stem: lihat (‘to see’)
- Passive form: di- + lihat → dilihat (‘was seen’)
The subject (who is being seen) precedes the passive verb.
How can I tell the difference between the passive prefix di- and the preposition di meaning “at” or “in”?
They look the same but follow different spacing rules:
- Passive di- attaches directly to a verb: dilihat, ditulis, diberi.
- Prepositional di is a separate word with a space before a noun: di pasar (‘at the market’), di rumah (‘in the house’).
There’s no verb for “was” in Malay. How do I know the sentence is past tense?
Malay verbs are not conjugated for tense. Time is shown by adverbs or particles. Here, semalam (‘yesterday’) tells you the action happened in the past. You could also add or before the verb for clarity:•