Dia membaca laporan mengenai kemalangan itu.

In Malay, dia is a third-person singular pronoun that does not show gender. So it can mean he or she depending on context.

A few useful points:

• dia = he / she
• Malay usually does not mark gender in pronouns the way English does.
• If you need to make the gender clear, you normally do it through context or by adding a noun, such as lelaki (man/male) or perempuan (woman/female), but this is often unnecessary.

In this sentence, dia simply means he or she.

Membaca is the verb baca with the prefix mem-, which is part of the active verb-forming prefix meN-.

• baca = read
• membaca = to read / reads / is reading

In standard Malay, when the verb has a direct object, the meN- form is very common:

• Dia membaca laporan = He/She reads the report

Using just baca is possible in more casual or spoken contexts, but membaca is the more standard written form here.

The prefix meN- forms an active verb. It is one of the most important verb prefixes in Malay.

Its shape changes depending on the first sound of the root word. With baca, it becomes mem-:

• baca → membaca

In this sentence, membaca shows that dia is actively doing the action of reading.

This prefix does not specifically mean past, present, or future. Malay verbs usually do not change for tense the way English verbs do.

This is due to Malay sound patterns. The prefix meN- changes form depending on the first letter or sound of the root.

Because baca begins with b, the prefix appears as mem-:

• meN-
  • baca → membaca

This kind of change is very common in Malay. You do not need to memorize all the sound rules at once, but it is good to notice that the prefix changes shape naturally.

Laporan means report.

It comes from the root lapor, which is related to reporting:

• lapor = report (verb/root idea)
• laporan = report (noun)

The ending -an often helps form nouns in Malay. So laporan is the thing being read: the report.

Both mengenai and tentang can mean about.

In this sentence:

• laporan mengenai kemalangan itu = the report about that accident

A useful distinction:

• tentang is very common and often feels a bit simpler or more everyday.
• mengenai is also common, but can feel slightly more formal or more typical of written language.

So this sentence could also be:

• Dia membaca laporan tentang kemalangan itu.

That would still be natural.

Kemalangan means accident.

It is formed from the root malang, which is connected with bad luck or misfortune, plus the circumfix ke-...-an:

• malang = unfortunate / unlucky
• ke-malang-an = accident / misfortune

The pattern ke-...-an often forms nouns or abstract ideas in Malay. Here it creates the noun kemalangan.

In Malay, demonstratives such as ini (this) and itu (that) usually come after the noun.

So:

• kemalangan itu = that accident
• laporan itu = that report
• buku ini = this book

This is different from English, where this and that come before the noun.

It most directly means that accident, but in many contexts it can also be understood like the accident.

Malay itu often works as:

• a true demonstrative: that
• something close to a definite marker in context: the

So depending on context, laporan mengenai kemalangan itu could feel like:

• the report about that accident
• the report about the accident

Both are possible translations depending on the situation.

The basic word order is:

Subject + Verb + Object + Prepositional phrase

Breaking it down:

• Dia = subject
• membaca = verb
• laporan = object
• mengenai kemalangan itu = phrase describing what the report is about

So literally:

• Dia / membaca / laporan / mengenai kemalangan itu
• He/She / reads / report / about that accident

This is quite close to English word order, which makes Malay sentences like this fairly approachable for English speakers.

You usually know from context, not from the verb form itself.

Membaca by itself does not mark tense the way English does. So this sentence could mean:

• He/She reads the report about that accident
• He/She is reading the report about that accident
• He/She read the report about that accident

If a speaker wants to make time clearer, they can add time words such as:

• semalam = yesterday
• sekarang = now
• esok = tomorrow

Examples:

• Dia membaca laporan itu semalam. = He/She read that report yesterday.
• Dia sedang membaca laporan itu. = He/She is reading that report.

Sometimes, yes, especially if the subject is already obvious from context.

For example:

• Membaca laporan mengenai kemalangan itu.

However, on its own, that sounds less complete and depends heavily on context. In standard full sentences, especially in writing, including dia is more natural when you want to say he/she clearly.

So:

• Dia membaca laporan mengenai kemalangan itu. = clear full sentence
• Membaca laporan mengenai kemalangan itu. = possible in context, but less explicit

It describes laporan, not membaca.

So the meaning is:

• the report about that accident

Not:

• he/she reads about that accident

If you wanted to say He/She reads about that accident, a more direct wording would usually be:

• Dia membaca tentang kemalangan itu.

But in the original sentence, the thing being read is specifically a report, and that report is about the accident.

A more casual version might be:

• Dia baca laporan pasal kemalangan tu.

Changes:

• membaca → baca
  More informal, especially in speech.
• mengenai → pasal or tentang
  pasal is very conversational.
• itu → tu
  Common spoken shortening.

The original sentence is more standard and suitable for formal writing:

• Dia membaca laporan mengenai kemalangan itu.