Learn Hardcore Malay: Dia terus belajar di perpustakaan walaupun letih. - He/She continues studying in the library even though he/she is tired.

Dia is a third-person singular pronoun meaning he, she, or sometimes they (singular, gender-neutral). Malay does not mark gender in pronouns.

How do you know if it’s he or she?

From context: Who are you talking about?
From previous sentences: Often the gender is made clear earlier.

If you really need to specify gender, you can say:

lelaki itu – that man
perempuan itu / wanita itu – that woman
dia (lelaki) – he (male)
dia (perempuan) – she (female)

But in normal conversation, dia alone is usually enough.

What exactly does terus mean here, and is it about time or continuity?

In Dia terus belajar di perpustakaan walaupun letih, terus mainly gives the sense of continuing or going on without stopping.

Common meanings of terus:

To continue / keep doing something
- Dia terus belajar – He/she kept studying / continued studying.
Immediately / straight away (in other contexts)
- Lepas makan, dia terus tidur. – After eating, he/she immediately slept.

In this sentence, because we have walaupun letih (even though tired), the natural reading is:

He/she continued studying (did not stop), even though tired.

Could I say Dia belajar terus di perpustakaan instead? What’s the difference with Dia terus belajar?

You can say Dia belajar terus di perpustakaan, but the nuance shifts slightly.

Dia terus belajar di perpustakaan
- Focus: He/she starts/keeps on studying and doesn’t stop.
- terus is tightly linked to belajar at the beginning, so it sounds like a decision or state of continuing.
Dia belajar terus di perpustakaan
- Focus: He/she is studying non‑stop / keeps studying at the library.
- terus feels more like continuously / without a break.

In many everyday situations they may both be understood similarly, but Dia terus belajar… is the more natural, standard phrasing for “He/she continued studying…”.

Does belajar mean to study or to learn, and how is it different from mengajar?

Belajar is a verb that covers both to study and to learn, depending on context:

Dia belajar di perpustakaan. – He/she studies at the library.
Saya belajar bahasa Melayu. – I am learning Malay.

Mengajar means to teach:

Dia mengajar di sekolah. – He/she teaches at a school.

Quick summary:

belajar = to study / to learn (the student’s side)
mengajar = to teach (the teacher’s side)

Why is it di perpustakaan and not ke perpustakaan? What’s the difference between di and ke?

di = at / in / on (location)
ke = to (movement towards a place)

In the sentence:

Dia terus belajar di perpustakaan – He/she continues studying at the library.
- The focus is on where the studying happens (location), so di is correct.

If you wanted to talk about going to the library, you would use ke:

Dia pergi ke perpustakaan. – He/she goes to the library.

So:

Being somewhere → di
Going somewhere → ke

Is walaupun letih grammatically complete, even though there is no dia after walaupun?

Yes, walaupun letih is grammatically acceptable and very natural in Malay.

Full form: walaupun dia letih – although he/she is tired.
Short form: walaupun letih – although (he/she is) tired.

Malay often omits repeated subjects and the verb “to be” in this kind of subordinate clause:

The subject dia is already clear from the main clause.
Malay does not use am/is/are the way English does, so dia letih literally is “he/she tired,” and dropping dia is still understandable.

Both walaupun letih and walaupun dia letih are correct; the shorter one sounds a bit more natural and fluid in everyday speech.

What does walaupun mean, and is it the same as meskipun?

Walaupun means although / even though.

In meaning, walaupun and meskipun are very close and often interchangeable:

Dia terus belajar walaupun letih.
Dia terus belajar meskipun letih.

Both can mean:

He/she continued studying even though (he/she was) tired.

Style nuance (very roughly):

walaupun – very common in everyday speech and writing.
meskipun – also common, sometimes feels slightly more formal or literary in certain contexts, but native speakers use both freely.

What is the difference between letih, penat, and lelah? They all seem to mean tired.

All three can often be translated as tired, but there are some nuances and preference differences (including regional):

letih
- Common, neutral.
- Often used in spoken and written Malay.
- Can sound a bit like physically or mentally worn out.
penat
- Very common in everyday conversation.
- Often sounds like physically tired (after work, exercise, walking, etc.).
- Example: Saya penat, baru lepas kerja. – I’m tired, just finished work.
lelah
- More common in Indonesian; in Malaysia it’s understood but used less in casual speech.
- Can sound a bit more literary or expressive, like weary / exhausted.

In Malaysia, a very natural spoken version of the sentence would be:

Dia terus belajar di perpustakaan walaupun penat.

The meaning is almost the same as with letih.

There is no word for was in the Malay sentence. How do I know the tense (past, present, future)?

Malay generally does not mark tense with verb changes the way English does. The verb belajar stays the same for past, present, and future:

Dia belajar.
- He/she studies.
- He/she studied.
- He/she will study.
- Context decides.

In Dia terus belajar di perpustakaan walaupun letih, the time reference comes from context, not grammar. Depending on the situation, it could mean:

He/she continued studying… (past)
He/she keeps studying… (present)
He/she will go on studying… (future, but less common without extra time words).

To make time clearer, Malay often adds time expressions:

semalam – yesterday
tadi – just now / earlier
sekarang – now
nanti – later

Example:

Semalam dia terus belajar di perpustakaan walaupun letih. – Yesterday he/she continued studying at the library even though (he/she was) tired.

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral? Can I use it in writing and speech?

Dia terus belajar di perpustakaan walaupun letih. is neutral and standard Malay.

It is perfectly fine in:
- Everyday conversation
- School essays
- Formal writing (e.g., a report, a narrative text)

For very casual spoken language, people might shorten or relax it a bit, but your sentence is already very natural and not overly formal.

How might this sentence sound in very casual spoken Malay?

In casual speech, Malaysians might:

Shorten di to dekat or kat (informal)
Swap letih for penat
Possibly drop di altogether in fast speech

Examples of casual variants:

Dia terus belajar kat perpustakaan walaupun penat.
Dia terus belajar dekat perpustakaan walaupun penat.

Your original sentence is still completely natural in speech; these versions are just more colloquial.

How do I pronounce dia, terus, perpustakaan, walaupun, and letih?

Approximate pronunciation using English-like spelling:

dia → dee-ah (2 syllables: di‑a)
terus → tuh-roos
- te like the te in terrace (but shorter)
- rus rhymes roughly with loose (but shorter)
perpustakaan → puhr-poos-ta-ka-an
- per – like per in person (short)
- pus – like poos in boost (short)
- ta – like ta in taco
- ka – like ka in karate
- an – like un in button
walaupun → wah-low-poon
- wa – like wa in water
- lau – like low (British-ish lo)
- pun – like poon
letih → luh-tih
- le – like le in lemon (short)
- tih – like teeh (short, high vowel)

Malay pronunciation is generally very regular:

One vowel = one sound.
Each syllable is clearly pronounced; nothing is strongly reduced like in English.