Learn Hardcore Malay: Dia sukar percaya berita itu kerana sumbernya tidak jelas. - He/She finds it hard to believe that news because its source is not clear.

Dia is gender‑neutral: it does not show if the person is male or female.
Dia is normally singular. For plural "they", Malay usually uses mereka, not dia.
Malay pronouns do not change for tense (past, present, future); context tells you the time.

Is sukar an adjective (like "difficult") or a verb ("to be difficult")?

In Malay, sukar is often called an adjective, but it behaves like a stative verb: it already includes the sense of "is/was difficult".

So:

You say dia sukar percaya (literally "he/she difficult believe")
→ understood as "it is difficult for him/her to believe".
You do not need an extra word for "is". Malay usually drops the verb "to be" before adjectives/states.

Similar words that work the same way:

susah, payah, mudah, senang, jelas, pasti, etc.
All can act as "is X" without adding adalah or ialah in normal speech.

Why is it sukar percaya and not sukar untuk percaya or sukar untuk mempercayai?

All of these are possible, but they differ slightly in style and formality:

Dia sukar percaya berita itu
- Most natural and concise in everyday Malay.
- sukar
  - bare verb (percaya) is very common:
    sukar faham, sukar buat, sukar terima, etc.
Dia sukar untuk percaya berita itu
- Adds untuk ("to") and sounds a bit more careful or formal, but still common in speech and writing.
- Structure: sukar untuk + verb ("difficult to + verb").
Dia sukar untuk mempercayai berita itu
- Uses the meN- form mempercayai (verb form from percaya).
- Sounds more formal/written, or more "proper" in careful language.

All three are grammatical; the original version is just the simplest and most natural in many contexts.

Why is it percaya berita itu and not something like percaya kepada berita itu?

Malay allows both patterns:

percaya + direct object
- Dia sukar percaya berita itu.
- Very common, especially in informal or neutral style.
- Literally: "He/she finds it hard to believe that news."
percaya kepada + noun
- Dia sukar percaya kepada berita itu.
- More explicitly "believe in / believe (something)" with a preposition.
- Often used with abstract things, people, or beliefs, e.g.
  percaya kepada Tuhan (believe in God),
  percaya kepada murid-muridnya (believe in his/her students).
percaya akan is also seen in some writing, but kepada is more common in modern usage.

In your sentence, percaya berita itu is completely normal and idiomatic.

What exactly does berita itu mean, and why is itu after berita?

Berita = news
Itu = that / the

Berita itu literally means "that news", but often functions like "the news" in English when context is clear.

In Malay:

The demonstrative itu (that/the) usually comes after the noun:
- rumah itu – that house / the house
- budak itu – that kid / the kid
- berita itu – that news / the news

If you put itu before (itu berita), it sounds more like "that news (over there)" as a topic or exclamation, and it’s much less common in this kind of sentence. The natural order in noun phrases is noun + itu.

What is the role of kerana here? Is it the same as sebab?

Kerana introduces a reason clause, like "because" in English.

Dia sukar percaya berita itu kerana sumbernya tidak jelas.
→ "… because its source is unclear."

About kerana vs sebab:

In modern usage, kerana and sebab often overlap in meaning (because).
Kerana is usually felt to be slightly more formal/standard in writing.
Sebab is very common in speech and can also act as a noun meaning "cause/reason":
- Apakah sebabnya? – What is the reason?
- As a conjunction (because), you'll hear Sebab… very often in conversation.

You could say:

Dia sukar percaya berita itu sebab sumbernya tidak jelas.
This is perfectly natural in informal speech.

What does sumbernya mean, and what does the -nya ending do?

Sumber = source
-nya is a clitic that can mark possession ("its/his/her") or sometimes add emphasis.

In sumbernya here, -nya is possessive:

sumbernya ≈ its source / the source of it
(the source of the news)

So:

kerana sumbernya tidak jelas ≈ "because its source is unclear."

Compare:

sumber itu = that source / the source
sumbernya = its source / his source / her source / their source (singular entity’s source)

Which to use?

sumber itu just points to a specific source that’s already known.
sumbernya ties the source more clearly to something mentioned (here berita itu), like "the news’s source" / "the source of that news".

Why is it tidak jelas and not something like bukan jelas? What’s the difference between tidak and bukan?

Both tidak and bukan mean "not", but they are used in different environments.

Use tidak:

Before verbs:
tidak mahu, tidak tahu, tidak percaya
Before adjectives / stative verbs:
tidak jelas, tidak pasti, tidak besar

Use bukan:

Before nouns:
Dia bukan doktor. – He/She is not a doctor.
Before pronouns or noun phrases:
Ini bukan saya. – This is not me.
For corrective/emphatic negation in some cases.

Since jelas here is a stative adjective ("clear"), the correct negation is:

tidak jelas = "not clear / unclear"

Bukan jelas would sound wrong in this sentence.

Why is there no word for "is/was" in sumbernya tidak jelas?

Malay normally drops the copula ("to be") before adjectives and stative verbs.

So instead of:

"its source is not clear"

Malay simply says:

sumbernya tidak jelas
literally "its source not clear"

This pattern is very common:

dia marah – he/she is angry
buku itu mahal – that book is expensive
keputusan masih belum muktamad – the decision is still not final

You only need special copular forms like adalah/ialah in particular formal or structural contexts; they are not used in ordinary adjective predicates like this.

Can I move the kerana clause to the front, like in English "Because the source is unclear, it is hard for him/her to believe the news"?

Yes. Both orders are grammatical:

Original:
- Dia sukar percaya berita itu kerana sumbernya tidak jelas.
Fronted reason clause:
- Kerana sumbernya tidak jelas, dia sukar percaya berita itu.

Differences:

Meaning is the same.
Putting kerana sumbernya tidak jelas first just emphasises the reason slightly more.
In speech, you’ll often hear both orders; intonation will help signal the structure.

How do we know if this sentence is past, present, or future, since there is no tense marking?

Malay verbs do not change form for tense. The time reference is understood from:

Context
Time words (yesterday, tomorrow, just now, etc.)

Your sentence by itself is tenseless:

Dia sukar percaya berita itu kerana sumbernya tidak jelas.
Could be interpreted as:
- He/She finds it hard to believe the news… (present/general)
- He/She found it hard to believe the news… (past)

If you want to be explicit, you add time markers:

Tadi dia sukar percaya berita itu kerana sumbernya tidak jelas.
(Earlier, he/she found it hard to believe the news…)
Esok dia pasti sukar percaya berita itu kerana sumbernya tidak jelas.
(Tomorrow he/she will surely find it hard to believe the news…)

The verb forms themselves (sukar, percaya) stay the same.