Learn Hardcore Malay: Dia mengaku bahawa itu salah dia. - He/She admits that it is his/her fault.

Malay usually does not mark gender unless you add extra words like lelaki (male) or perempuan (female). So Dia mengaku bahawa itu salah dia can be:

He admitted that it was his fault.
She admitted that it was her fault.

The context tells you which one is intended.

Why is dia used twice in Dia mengaku bahawa itu salah dia?

The two dia have different functions:

The first Dia is the subject (the one doing the action):
- Dia mengaku = He/She admitted
The second dia shows possession in salah dia (literally fault of him/her):
- salah dia = his/her fault

Malay often uses a pronoun after a noun to show possession:

rumah dia = his/her house
kereta dia = his/her car
salah dia = his/her fault

So the literal structure is like:
He/She admitted that that was fault of him/her.

What exactly does bahawa do? Can I leave it out?

Bahawa is a conjunction that introduces a content clause, similar to that in English:

Dia mengaku bahawa itu salah dia.
= He/She admitted that it was his/her fault.

You can often omit bahawa, especially in spoken Malay:

Dia mengaku itu salah dia.

This is still correct and natural in everyday conversation.

Rough guideline:

With bahawa – a bit more formal or careful speech/writing.
Without bahawa – more informal, conversational.

In many cases bahawa and that in English behave similarly: both are often optional.

What is the difference between mengaku, mengakui, and aku?

They are related but not the same:

aku
- Commonly: I/me (informal pronoun)
- In this verb, aku is actually from a root meaning to confess/admit (different from the pronoun, even though it looks the same).
mengaku
- Verb: to admit / to confess
- Pattern: meN- + aku (confess)
- Used without a direct object right after it, or followed by a clause:
  - Dia mengaku salah. = He/She admitted (being) wrong.
  - Dia mengaku bahawa itu salah dia.
mengakui
- Verb: to acknowledge / to recognize / to admit (something)
- Pattern: meN- + aku + -i
- More likely to take a direct object (what is acknowledged):
  - Saya mengakui kesilapan saya.
    = I acknowledge my mistake.
  - Mereka mengakui kejayaan pasukan itu.
    = They acknowledge that team’s success.

In your sentence, mengaku is the natural choice:

Dia mengaku bahawa itu salah dia. ✅
Dia mengakui bahawa itu salah dia. sounds more formal and slightly less natural in casual speech, but is still grammatically okay.

Why is itu used here? Could you say Ini salah dia instead?

Itu generally means that or it, and ini means this.

In this sentence:

itu salah dia = that was his/her fault or it was his/her fault

Itu refers to a previously mentioned action or situation (something already known in the context). Using itu is natural when talking about:

something that already happened
something previously discussed

Ini salah dia = this is his/her fault

Sounds more like you’re talking about something present / very immediate, e.g. pointing at a specific problem that is right in front of you.
It doesn’t fit as well in a typical admission of past fault context.

So in most contexts of admitting blame for something that happened, itu is preferred.

What is the role of salah in salah dia? Is it a noun or an adjective?

Salah in Malay can be both:

Adjective: wrong / incorrect / mistaken
- Jawapan itu salah. = That answer is wrong.
Noun: fault / mistake / wrongdoing
- Itu salah dia. = That is his/her fault.

In salah dia, salah behaves more like a noun: fault / mistake.

You can see this more clearly in a more obviously nominal version:

Itu kesalahan dia.
(kesalahan = mistake/fault, built from salah
- ke-…-an)

So:

salah dia ≈ his/her fault
dia salah ≈ he/she is wrong (here salah is more like an adjective).

Could I say Dia mengaku bahawa dia salah instead? Does it mean the same thing?

Yes, you can say:

Dia mengaku bahawa dia salah.

This is more literally:

He/She admitted that he/she was wrong.

Meaning-wise, it is very close to:

Dia mengaku bahawa itu salah dia.
= He/She admitted that it was his/her fault.

Subtle nuance:

dia salah focuses on the person being wrong.
itu salah dia focuses on the action/situation being that person’s fault.

In most everyday contexts, both will be understood as an admission of fault and are more or less interchangeable.

Why not say kesalahan dia instead of salah dia? Is one more correct?

Both are correct, but there is a difference in feel:

salah dia
- Slightly shorter, more conversational.
- Very common in spoken Malay.
kesalahan dia
- More formal and explicitly nominal.
- Common in written Malay, formal speech, or legal/official contexts.
- Example: Dia mengakui bahawa itu adalah kesalahan dia.

Your sentence:

Dia mengaku bahawa itu salah dia.
sounds natural, neutral, and is fine for everyday use.

How is tense expressed here? How do we know it means admitted and not admit or will admit?

Malay verbs like mengaku do not change form to show tense. There are no endings like -ed, -s, or will built into the verb.

Dia mengaku bahawa itu salah dia can potentially mean:

He/She admits that it is his/her fault. (present)
He/She admitted that it was his/her fault. (past)
He/She will admit that it is his/her fault. (future, less likely without extra words)

Which tense is intended depends on:

context
time expressions, if any, e.g.
- tadi (earlier)
- semalam (yesterday)
- akan (will)

Examples:

Semalam dia mengaku bahawa itu salah dia.
= Yesterday he/she admitted it was his/her fault.
Dia akan mengaku bahawa itu salah dia.
= He/She will admit that it is his/her fault.

Without context, English speakers usually translate this sentence in the past tense because admitting fault is usually about something that already happened.

Is Dia mengaku bahawa itu salah dia formal, informal, or neutral? How else might people say this?

The sentence is neutral and suitable in most situations. It’s not slangy, and not extremely formal either.

Some variations by register:

More casual / spoken:
- Dia mengaku itu salah dia. (drop bahawa)
- Dia mengaku tu salah dia. (colloquial tu instead of itu)
More formal:
- Dia mengakui bahawa itu kesalahannya.
  (mengakui, kesalahan, and -nya make it more formal/compact)
- Dia mengakui bahawa perkara itu adalah kesalahannya.

But Dia mengaku bahawa itu salah dia is perfectly fine and widely understood.

How do you pronounce Dia mengaku bahawa itu salah dia?

Approximate syllable breakdown and stress (Malay stress is light and usually near the end):

Dia → di-a (like dee-ya)
mengaku → me-nga-ku (like muh-nga-koo)
bahawa → ba-ha-wa (like ba-ha-wa, -wa may sound a bit like -wah)
itu → i-tu (like ee-too)
salah → sa-lah (like sa-lah, lah like in la in lava)
dia → again dee-ya

Spoken smoothly:

Dia mengaku bahawa itu salah dia.
/dee-ya muh-nga-koo ba-ha-wah ee-too sa-lah dee-ya/

In casual speech, bahawa may be pronounced quickly, almost like baha or bawa, but in careful speech you keep all three syllables ba-ha-wa.