Breakdown of Dia tidak mampu membayar premium.
dia
he/she
tidak
not
membayar
to pay
premium
the regular payment for insurance cover
Questions & Answers about Dia tidak mampu membayar premium.
Why does dia not tell me whether the person is he or she?
Because dia is gender-neutral in Malay. It can mean he or she, and you usually figure it out from context.
So:
- Dia tidak mampu membayar premium. = He is not able to pay the premium or She is not able to pay the premium
If you need to make gender explicit, Malay usually adds extra words, but in normal sentences it often leaves gender unspecified.
Why is tidak used here instead of bukan?
In Malay, tidak is used to negate verbs and adjectives, while bukan is mainly used to negate nouns or make corrections.
Here, mampu means able/capable, so tidak mampu means not able.
Compare:
- Dia tidak mampu membayar premium. = He/She is not able to pay the premium.
- Dia bukan doktor. = He/She is not a doctor.
So tidak is the correct negator in this sentence.
What exactly does mampu mean? Is it the same as boleh?