Learn Hardcore Malay: Dia sedang kembali ke pejabat selepas makan tengahari. - He/She is returning to the office after lunch.

Dia kembali ke pejabat.
= He/She returns / is returning to the office. (Neutral: can be habitual or happening now, depending on context.)
Dia sedang kembali ke pejabat.
= He/She is in the process of returning to the office (right now, currently).

So sedang is not grammatically required, but it makes the “happening right now” meaning explicit. Without sedang, Malay relies more on context to convey whether it’s present, habitual, or future.

Can this sentence also refer to the future, like “He will be returning to the office after lunch”?

Yes, Malay does not mark tense the same way English does. There is no built‑in past/present/future tense in the verb form itself.

Dia sedang kembali ke pejabat selepas makan tengahari most naturally means:

“He/She is (currently) returning to the office after lunch.”

However, in the right context, it can also describe a planned or expected action in the near future, similar to English “He is going back to the office after lunch” (a scheduled future).

For a clearly future reading, Malays often add a future marker like akan or use context:

Dia akan kembali ke pejabat selepas makan tengahari.
= He/She will return to the office after lunch.

What is the difference between kembali and balik?

Both can mean “to return / go back”, but they differ slightly in register and nuance:

kembali
- More formal or neutral.
- Common in writing, news, and more formal speech.
- Often used for abstract returning too:
  Dia kembali kepada Tuhan. = He returned to God.
balik
- More colloquial / everyday spoken Malay.
- Often used for going back home or back to a familiar place:
  Dia balik pejabat. / Dia balik ke pejabat.

In this sentence, you could say:

Dia sedang kembali ke pejabat... (slightly more formal)
Dia sedang balik ke pejabat... (very natural in casual speech)

Both are correct; choice is mostly about style and formality.

Why is it ke pejabat and not di pejabat or kepada pejabat?

These prepositions have different functions:

ke = to / towards (direction, movement)
- ke pejabat = to the office (movement toward a place)
di = at / in / on (location, no movement)
- di pejabat = at the office
kepada = to (to a person or recipient, not to a physical place)
- kepada Ali = to Ali (e.g., giving or saying something to Ali)

In Dia sedang kembali ke pejabat:

The verb kembali = to return (movement)
So the place you return to takes ke:
kembali ke pejabat = return to the office.

If you said di pejabat, it would describe where someone is, not where they are going:

Dia di pejabat. = He/She is at the office.

Why doesn’t the sentence say “after he eats lunch”? It’s just selepas makan tengahari without dia again.

In Malay, when two clauses share the same subject, the second clause often drops the repeated subject and just uses a verb phrase or verbal noun.

Dia sedang kembali ke pejabat selepas makan tengahari.

Literally:
“He/She is in the process of returning to the office after [eating lunch].”

The subject “dia” is understood to be the one who ate lunch, even though it is not repeated.

If you really want to make it explicit (for emphasis or clarity), you can say:

Dia sedang kembali ke pejabat selepas dia makan tengahari.

This is still correct, just slightly more explicit/redundant in normal conversation.

Is dia gender‑specific? How do I say “he” vs “she”?

Dia is not gender‑specific. It can mean “he” or “she”, depending on context.

Malay normally does not distinguish gender in third‑person pronouns:

dia = he / she
mereka = they (no gender)

If you need to clarify gender, you usually rely on context or add something like:

Dia (lelaki) itu… = That male/he…
Dia (perempuan) itu… = That female/she…

There is also beliau, a more formal and respectful form used for important people (teachers, leaders, etc.), but it is still gender‑neutral:

Beliau sedang kembali ke pejabat… = He/She (respected person) is returning to the office…

Why is there no article like “the” or “his” before pejabat? How do we know whose office it is?

Malay generally does not use articles like “a” or “the”. Nouns stand without them:

pejabat = “office” / “the office” (depending on context)

Possession is only added when you need to specify:

pejabat dia = his/her office
pejabat saya = my office
pejabat kami = our office

So:

Dia sedang kembali ke pejabat.
= He/She is returning to the office (context decides whether it is “his office”, “the company office”, etc.)

If you want to make it explicit that it’s his/her own office:

Dia sedang kembali ke pejabatnya selepas makan tengahari.
(-nya is a 3rd‑person possessive suffix: his/her.)

Can I move the “after lunch” part to the front: “After lunch, he is returning to the office”?

Yes, that is very natural in Malay. You can say:

Selepas makan tengahari, dia sedang kembali ke pejabat.

Both orders are correct:

Dia sedang kembali ke pejabat selepas makan tengahari.
Selepas makan tengahari, dia sedang kembali ke pejabat.

Putting the time expression (selepas makan tengahari) at the beginning is common when you want to emphasize the time.

What’s the difference between selepas and lepas?

Both mean “after”, but they differ a bit in formality and structure:

selepas
- More standard/formal.
- Common in writing and formal speech.
- Used before nouns or verb phrases:
  selepas makan tengahari, selepas mesyuarat (after the meeting).
lepas
- More colloquial/informal.
- Very common in everyday speech.
- Often used in the same way as selepas in conversation:
  Dia balik ke pejabat lepas makan tengahari.

In a neutral sentence like this, both are acceptable in speech:

Dia sedang kembali ke pejabat selepas makan tengahari. (neutral/formal)
Dia sedang balik ke pejabat lepas makan tengahari. (very casual)

Should tengahari be written as one word or two words? I’ve also seen tengah hari.

In standard Malay spelling:

tengah hari = midday / noon
makan tengah hari = eat at midday → lunch

You will often see “tengahari” or “makan tengahari” written as one word in informal contexts (messages, social media), but formal references (dictionaries, exams, official writing) prefer two words:

Standard:
Dia sedang kembali ke pejabat selepas makan tengah hari.
Informal but very common:
Dia sedang kembali ke pejabat selepas makan tengahari.

For learning and exams, it’s safer to use makan tengah hari as three separate words.