Learn Hardcore Malay: Dia memohon biasiswa di universiti tahun lepas. - He/She applied for a scholarship at the university last year.

Dia can mean he, she, or even they (singular, gender‑neutral). Malay third‑person pronouns are not marked for gender.
You only know whether dia is male or female from context or from earlier information in the conversation. There is no way to tell from the sentence Dia memohon biasiswa di universiti tahun lepas alone.

There’s no past tense ending on memohon. How do we know this means “applied” (past) and not “applies” or “is applying”?

Malay verbs generally do not change form for tense. The verb memohon can mean “apply / applies / is applying / applied” depending on context.
In this sentence, tahun lepas (last year) tells us the action is in the past, so we translate memohon as “applied”.
Speakers can also add aspect markers like sudah or telah (“already”) for emphasis on completion:

Dia telah memohon biasiswa di universiti tahun lepas. – “He/She had/already applied for a scholarship at the university last year.”

Is the word order Dia memohon biasiswa di universiti tahun lepas fixed? Can I move tahun lepas or di universiti around?

The word order is not completely fixed; Malay is quite flexible here. Your sentence:

Dia memohon biasiswa di universiti tahun lepas.
Subject – Verb – Object – Place – Time (perfectly natural)

Some other natural possibilities:

Tahun lepas dia memohon biasiswa di universiti. – Emphasis on last year
Dia memohon biasiswa tahun lepas di universiti. – Also possible, though slightly less common.

As long as the sentence remains clear and you keep the basic S–V–O structure, moving time and place phrases is usually acceptable and just changes the focus or rhythm slightly.

What’s the difference between mohon and memohon?

Mohon is the root form (“to request / to apply”), and memohon is the meN‑ prefixed verb, often used as a standard active verb:

memohon = “to apply (for), to request (something)” in a full sentence
mohon often appears in short or set phrases, especially polite ones:
- Mohon maaf. – “(I) apologize.” / “Please forgive me.”
- Mohon perhatian. – “May I have your attention.”

In a full sentence with a clear subject, memohon sounds more standard and formal:

Dia memohon biasiswa. – “He/She applied for a scholarship.”

You can hear dia mohon biasiswa in speech, but dia memohon biasiswa is more typical in careful or written Malay.

In English we say “apply for a scholarship.” Why doesn’t Malay use a preposition like untuk after memohon?

In Malay, memohon can take its object directly, so biasiswa functions as the direct object:

memohon biasiswa = “to apply for a scholarship”

You would not usually say memohon untuk biasiswa; that sounds unnatural in standard Malay.

However, untuk does appear when the thing after it is a purpose, not the direct object:

Dia memohon kepada universiti untuk mendapatkan biasiswa.
“He/She applied to the university in order to get a scholarship.”
Here untuk mendapatkan biasiswa (“in order to get a scholarship”) describes the purpose of the application.

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

di means “at / in / on” – location.
ke means “to / toward” – direction or destination.

In Dia memohon biasiswa di universiti tahun lepas, di universiti is understood as:

“at the university” (the place or institution where the application was made / submitted).

If you wanted to emphasise the destination (“apply to a university”), you could say:

Dia memohon ke universiti itu. – “He/She applied to that university.”

So:

memohon biasiswa di universiti – applied for a scholarship at the university
memohon ke universiti – applied to the university (not specifying for what)

In English we say “a scholarship” and “the university”. Why is there no word for “a/the” before biasiswa or universiti?

Malay generally does not use articles like a, an, or the. Nouns stand bare:

biasiswa – “a scholarship / the scholarship / scholarships” (depending on context)
universiti – “a university / the university”

If you want to be more specific, Malay uses other words instead of articles:

sebuah universiti – “a university” (one university)
universiti itu – “that university / the university (we both know about)”
biasiswa itu – “that scholarship / the scholarship”
beberapa biasiswa – “some scholarships”

In your sentence, Dia memohon biasiswa di universiti tahun lepas, context would tell us whether we should translate it as “a scholarship” or “the scholarship”, and “a/the university” in English.

Does biasiswa here mean one scholarship or several scholarships?

Biasiswa by itself is number‑neutral; it does not show singular or plural. It can mean:

one scholarship
some / several scholarships

You show number with other words if needed:

sebuah biasiswa – one scholarship (more common: satu biasiswa)
satu biasiswa – one scholarship
beberapa biasiswa – a few scholarships
banyak biasiswa – many scholarships

So Dia memohon biasiswa di universiti tahun lepas could be translated contextually as:

“He/She applied for a scholarship at the university last year.” or
“He/She applied for scholarships at the university last year.”

What’s the difference between tahun lepas and tahun lalu? Are both correct?

Both tahun lepas and tahun lalu mean “last year”, and both are correct.

tahun lepas – very common in Malaysia, everyday speech.
tahun lalu – also correct and common; sometimes felt a bit more formal / written, but in practice both are widely used.

You can use either in this sentence:

Dia memohon biasiswa di universiti tahun lepas.
Dia memohon biasiswa di universiti tahun lalu.

The meaning is the same.

Can I drop dia and just say Memohon biasiswa di universiti tahun lepas?

In careful, full sentences, you normally keep the subject pronoun dia.
Saying only Memohon biasiswa di universiti tahun lepas sounds like a note, sentence fragment, or headline, not a complete sentence in standard prose.

However, in informal contexts (messages, notes, summaries), people sometimes omit pronouns when the subject is obvious. Grammatically complete standard Malay here is:

Dia memohon biasiswa di universiti tahun lepas.

How would I say this in the passive voice, like “The scholarship was applied for by him/her last year”?

A natural passive version would be:

Biasiswa itu dipohon olehnya di universiti tahun lepas.
Literally: “The scholarship was applied for by him/her at the university last year.”

Notes:

dipohon is the passive form of memohon.
olehnya = “by him/her”.
Adding itu to biasiswa (biasiswa itu) makes it “that scholarship / the scholarship”, which fits typical English passive sentences.