Learn Hardcore Malay: Dia belum pasti sama ada mahu menjadi jurutera atau akauntan, tetapi cita-citanya jelas. - He/She is not yet sure whether to become an engineer or an accountant, but his/her ambition is clear.

Dia belum pasti.
He/She is not sure yet (but will probably decide later).
Dia tidak pasti.
He/She is not sure (may sound more neutral or more permanent in that moment, no hint of “yet”).

In your sentence, belum is natural because it’s about a decision that will be made in the future.

Why is there no word for “is” in Dia belum pasti? Where is the “to be” verb?

In Malay, a linking verb like “is/are/am” is often simply omitted before adjectives.

Dia belum pasti.
Literally: He/She not-yet sure.
Meaning: He/She is not sure yet.

Other examples:

Saya lapar. = I (am) hungry.
Mereka sibuk. = They (are) busy.

You only use adalah (a kind of “to be”) in certain more formal or specific structures, especially before a noun phrase, not usually before simple adjectives like pasti, lapar, sibuk in everyday speech.

What is the function of sama ada … atau … here? Is it like “whether … or …” or just “or”?

Yes, sama ada … atau … works very much like “whether … or …” in English.

In the sentence:

… sama ada mahu menjadi jurutera atau akauntan …
= … whether (he/she) wants to become an engineer or an accountant …

Structure:

sama ada = whether
A atau B = A or B

Common patterns:

Saya belum pasti sama ada saya boleh datang atau tidak.
I’m not sure yet whether I can come or not.

You can sometimes drop sama ada in casual speech and just say:

Dia belum pasti mahu menjadi jurutera atau akauntan.

This still means something like “He/She is not sure whether to become an engineer or an accountant.”
Including sama ada just makes the “whether … or …” structure more explicit and slightly more formal/clear.

Why do we use mahu here? Could we also use hendak or nak?

Mahu means “to want (to)” and is neutral and common in both speech and writing.

… sama ada mahu menjadi jurutera atau akauntan …
= whether (he/she) wants to become an engineer or an accountant.

Alternatives:

Hendak – close in meaning to mahu, slightly more formal/traditional in some regions, still very common.
- Dia belum pasti sama ada hendak menjadi jurutera atau akauntan.
Nak – informal/colloquial form of hendak/mahu, used a lot in casual speech.
- Dia belum pasti sama ada nak jadi jurutera atau akauntan.

In writing for learners or in standard text, mahu (or hendak) is usually preferred over nak.

What is the difference between menjadi and jadi in this sentence? Why mahu menjadi and not just mahu jadi?

Both jadi and menjadi can mean “to become,” but:

Menjadi is the standard, more formal form, often preferred in writing.
Jadi is shorter and more colloquial when used as “become.”

So:

… mahu menjadi jurutera atau akauntan … (more standard/formal)
… nak jadi jurutera atau akauntan … (more casual speech)

Grammatically, both are acceptable. The sentence you have uses menjadi because the overall style is fairly neutral/standard.

Why is there no word like “a/an” before jurutera and akauntan? Should it be seorang jurutera?

Malay normally does not use articles like “a/an/the.” Countability is often understood from context.

mahu menjadi jurutera atau akauntan
= wants to become an engineer or (an) accountant (meaning is clear without a classifier).

However, you can say seorang jurutera / seorang akauntan:

Dia mahu menjadi seorang jurutera.
Dia mahu menjadi seorang akauntan.

Seorang is a classifier for people (roughly “one person (who is) …”).
Both versions are correct. The sentence without seorang is slightly more compact and very common.

Does Dia mean “he” or “she”? How do you mark gender in Malay?

Dia is gender-neutral. It can mean “he,” “she,” or even “they” (singular, in context) in English.

Malay usually does not mark gender in pronouns. You know the gender from context or extra information, not from the word dia itself.

If needed, you can specify gender separately, for example:

Dia (lelaki) itu seorang jurutera.
That man is an engineer.

But normally just dia is enough, and the listener understands from context (for example, if you already mentioned “my sister,” “my father,” etc.).

What does tetapi mean, and how is it different from tapi?

Both tetapi and tapi mean “but / however.”

Tetapi is more formal/standard, common in writing or careful speech.
Tapi is informal/colloquial, very common in everyday conversation.

In your sentence:

… tetapi cita-citanya jelas.
= … but his/her ambition is clear.

Spoken version could easily be:

… tapi cita-citanya jelas.

Both are correct; choice mainly depends on formality.

What does cita-cita mean, and why is it written with a hyphen and repeated?

Cita-cita means “ambition / aspiration / life dream(s).”

The repetition with a hyphen is reduplication, a common way in Malay to form new words or plural-like concepts. Here:

cita (original root, now rarely used alone in everyday speech)
cita-cita = ambition(s), aspirations

Examples:

Sejak kecil, cita-cita saya ialah menjadi doktor.
Since I was young, my ambition has been to become a doctor.

So cita-cita is treated as a single vocabulary item meaning “ambition,” even though it looks like a repeated form.

What does the -nya in cita-citanya do?

The suffix -nya here is a possessive marker meaning “his/her/its” (or sometimes “their,” depending on context).

cita-cita = ambition(s)
cita-citanya = his/her ambition(s)

So:

… tetapi cita-citanya jelas.
= … but his/her ambition is clear.

You could also express possession with dia:

cita-cita dia = his/her ambition

But cita-citanya is more compact and sounds very natural.

Could we say cita-cita dia instead of cita-citanya? Is there any difference?

Yes, both are possible:

cita-citanya jelas
cita-cita dia jelas

Meaning: his/her ambition is clear.

Subtle differences:

cita-citanya
- More compact and often a bit more natural in flowing sentences.
- Feels slightly more written or neat.
cita-cita dia
- Slightly more spoken/informal in some contexts.
- Can add a tiny bit of emphasis on dia if needed.

In your sentence, cita-citanya jelas is perfectly natural and idiomatic.

What does jelas mean here? Is it literally “clear,” and in what sense?

Yes, jelas literally means “clear” and can be used in both:

Physical / sensory sense
- Gambar itu sangat jelas.
  That picture is very clear.
Figurative / abstract sense
- Mesejnya jelas.
  The message is clear.

In cita-citanya jelas, it means:

His/her ambition is clear (well-defined, not vague).

So even though he/she is unsure which profession (engineer or accountant), there is still a clear overall ambition (for example, to be a professional in that kind of field).

Can the word order of the whole sentence be changed? For example, can we move tetapi or split the sentence?

You have some flexibility, but you should keep the basic clause structure.

Original:

Dia belum pasti sama ada mahu menjadi jurutera atau akauntan, tetapi cita-citanya jelas.

Possible variations:

Split into two sentences:
- Dia belum pasti sama ada mahu menjadi jurutera atau akauntan. Namun, cita-citanya jelas.
  (Namun = however.)
Slightly different conjunction:
- Dia belum pasti sama ada mahu menjadi jurutera atau akauntan, tetapi dia mempunyai cita-cita yang jelas.
  (adds dia mempunyai = “he/she has,” and yang to modify cita-cita)

You normally don’t move tetapi away from the start of the second clause; it should introduce the contrasting clause, just like “but” in English.