Dia suka kerja sukarelawan di kampus.

He/She likes volunteer work at the campus.

Breakdown of Dia suka kerja sukarelawan di kampus.

• suka: to like
• dia: he/she
• di: at
• kerja: the work
• kampus: the campus
• sukarelawan: volunteer

Questions & Answers about Dia suka kerja sukarelawan di kampus.

Does dia mean “he” or “she”? How do you know the gender?

In Malay, dia is gender‑neutral and can mean “he,” “she,” or “they (singular)” depending on context.

Malay usually does not mark gender in pronouns. If you really need to emphasize gender, you can add a noun:

• dia lelaki itu – that man (he)
• dia perempuan itu – that woman (she)

But most of the time, context (previous sentences, names, etc.) tells you whether dia is “he” or “she.” The sentence by itself does not specify.

Is suka a verb like “to like”? Can it also mean “to love”?

Suka works like a verb and is usually translated as “to like”:

• Dia suka kopi. – He/She likes coffee.

It can also have a softer “love/enjoy” meaning depending on context, especially with activities or hobbies:

• Dia suka baca buku. – He/She likes/loves reading books.

For strong romantic love, Malay more often uses cinta (romantic love) or sayang (affectionate love), not suka alone.
So in your sentence, suka is best understood as “likes / enjoys.”

Why is there no word for “does” or “is” like in English “He likes / He is liking”?

Malay does not use auxiliary verbs like “do/does” or “is/are” the way English does.

• Dia suka kerja sukarelawan di kampus.
  Literally: He/She like volunteer work at campus.

From context, we understand it as “He/She likes doing volunteer work on campus.”

There is no separate word for “does” or “is”; the simple verb suka covers the meaning.

How do we know the tense? Does Dia suka kerja sukarelawan di kampus mean present, past, or future?

Malay does not mark tense on the verb the way English does. Dia suka… could mean:

• He/She likes (general habit, present)
• He/She liked (in the past, if the context is past)
• He/She will like (in some future contexts, though this is less common)

Tense is normally shown by time words or the surrounding context:

• Dulu dia suka kerja sukarelawan di kampus.
  In the past, he/she liked doing volunteer work on campus.

• Sekarang dia suka kerja sukarelawan di kampus.
  Now he/she likes doing volunteer work on campus.

Without extra words, the default reading is usually a general present habit: something the person generally likes to do.

Is kerja sukarelawan one phrase? What exactly does it mean?

Yes, kerja sukarelawan is a noun phrase, literally:

• kerja – work
• sukarelawan – volunteer (person)

Together, kerja sukarelawan means “volunteer work” or “voluntary work.”

So the structure is noun + noun (work + volunteer), but the meaning is like an English compound noun: “volunteer work.”

What is the difference between kerja sukarelawan and kerja sukarela?

Both are used, but there’s a small nuance:

• kerja sukarelawan
  Literally “volunteer’s work / work of volunteers.” Very commonly used to mean “volunteer work / volunteer activities.”

• kerja sukarela
  sukarela means “voluntary” (as an adjective), so this is literally “voluntary work.”
  Also understandable and correct.

In everyday usage, kerja sukarelawan is very common in Malaysia when talking about organized volunteer activities, especially related to NGOs, universities, etc. Kerja sukarela may sound a bit more formal or descriptive (“work done voluntarily”), but the difference is small and both are acceptable.

Is sukarelawan an adjective here? Why can a “volunteer (person)” describe “work”?

Grammatically, sukarelawan is a noun meaning “volunteer (person).”
In kerja sukarelawan, Malay uses a very common noun + noun pattern:

• kerja pejabat – office work
• kerja rumah – housework
• kerja ladang – farm work
• kerja sukarelawan – volunteer work

So sukarelawan is still a noun, but in a compound noun phrase it behaves like a descriptive element, similar to English “chicken soup,” “office job,” “student card,” etc. It is not acting as a true adjective in Malay grammar, just as the second noun in a compound.

Is it more natural to say Dia suka menjadi sukarelawan di kampus? What’s the difference?

Both are natural, but the focus is slightly different:

• Dia suka kerja sukarelawan di kampus.
  Focuses on the activity itself:
  “He/She likes volunteer work on campus.”

• Dia suka menjadi sukarelawan di kampus.
  menjadi sukarelawan = “to be / to become a volunteer.”
  This focuses more on the role/identity:
  “He/She likes being a volunteer on campus.”

In many contexts they are interchangeable, but:

• talking about what he/she does → kerja sukarelawan is great.
• talking about being a volunteer as a role → menjadi sukarelawan fits a bit better.

Can I say Dia suka buat kerja sukarelawan di kampus? Why is buat sometimes added?

Yes, that is very natural:

• Dia suka buat kerja sukarelawan di kampus.
  Literally: “He/She likes to do volunteer work on campus.”

Buat means “to do / to make.” Native speakers often insert buat (or melakukan) before kerja to make it sound more like:

• “do volunteer work” instead of just “volunteer work.”

So you may hear:

• Dia suka kerja sukarelawan di kampus.
• Dia suka buat kerja sukarelawan di kampus.

Both are correct; the second just adds the explicit verb “do.”

What exactly does di mean here? Why di kampus and not something else?

Di is the basic preposition meaning “at / in / on” for locations:

• di rumah – at home
• di sekolah – at school
• di bandar – in the city
• di kampus – on campus / at the campus

So di kampus = “on campus / at the campus.”

You might also hear dekat kampus in casual speech:

• Dia suka kerja sukarelawan dekat kampus.
  “near/around campus” or often just a very colloquial way of saying “at campus.”

But di kampus is standard, neutral, and correct.

Why is there no “the” before kampus? How do you say “at the campus” vs “at a campus”?

Malay generally does not use articles like “a/an/the.” So:

• di kampus can mean “at campus,” “at the campus,” or “at a campus,” depending on context.

If you need to be specific, you usually add more information, not an article:

• di kampus universiti itu – at that university’s campus
• di kampus UKM – at UKM’s campus
• di kampus saya – at my campus

But there is no direct equivalent of English “the” or “a.”

Is the word order fixed? Could I say Dia suka di kampus kerja sukarelawan?

The natural word order in Malay for this kind of sentence is:

1. Subject – Dia
2. Verb – suka
3. Object – kerja sukarelawan
4. Place phrase – di kampus

So: Dia suka kerja sukarelawan di kampus.

Putting di kampus in the middle, like Dia suka di kampus kerja sukarelawan, is ungrammatical and sounds very wrong.

You can, in some contexts, move the place phrase for emphasis, but you must also adjust the structure, for example:

• Di kampus, dia suka kerja sukarelawan.
  “On campus, he/she likes doing volunteer work.”

Here, di kampus is moved to the front as a topic, but it doesn’t break the verb–object unit (suka kerja sukarelawan).

Is kampus a Malay word or just borrowed from English? Are there alternatives?

Kampus is a loanword from English “campus,” and it is fully accepted in both Malay and Indonesian.

It usually refers to:

• the physical area of a university/college, and by extension,
• the university/college environment.

Alternatives you might see, depending on context:

• universiti – the university as an institution (not exactly “campus”)
• kolej – college (can refer to the institution or residential college)
• kawasan universiti – university area

But for “on campus / at campus,” di kampus is standard and natural.

Can dia be omitted here, like in some other languages?

In standard Malay, subject pronouns are usually kept, especially in simple sentences like this:

• Dia suka kerja sukarelawan di kampus.

Dropping dia to say just Suka kerja sukarelawan di kampus is possible in very informal speech or when it’s totally clear from context who you are talking about, but in writing and in careful speech, you normally keep dia.

So for learners, it’s better to keep the pronoun:

• Dia suka … ✔️ (recommended)
• Suka kerja sukarelawan di kampus. (informal, context-dependent)