Dia memiliki rumah kecil.

Dia is a third-person singular pronoun, and it can mean either he or she. Malay does not normally distinguish gender in this pronoun, so you understand the gender from context.

So:

• Dia memiliki rumah kecil. = He owns a small house.
• Dia memiliki rumah kecil. = She owns a small house.

Malay also commonly drops pronouns when the context is clear, but here dia is explicitly stated.

Memiliki means to own, to possess, or to have as property.

It comes from the root milik, which is related to ownership or belonging. The prefix meN- turns it into a verb, so memiliki means to own.

In this sentence:

• Dia = he/she
• memiliki = owns
• rumah kecil = a small house

So the verb is specifically about possession or ownership, not just temporary having.

Memiliki is correct, but it sounds somewhat more formal or written than the most casual everyday speech.

In conversation, Malay speakers often use other patterns, such as:

• Dia ada rumah kecil. = He/She has a small house.
• Dia punya rumah kecil. = He/She has a small house.
  This is common in speech, but more colloquial.

So memiliki is absolutely fine and natural in formal writing, textbooks, news, and careful speech, but less common in casual everyday conversation than ada.

In Malay, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

So:

• rumah kecil = small house
• literally: house small

This is a very normal Malay word order. Some more examples:

• kereta merah = red car
• buku baru = new book
• anak baik = good child

So rumah kecil follows the standard Malay pattern: noun + adjective.

Malay does not usually use articles like English a, an, or the.

So rumah kecil can mean:

• a small house
• the small house

The exact meaning depends on context.

If you want to make it more clearly definite, Malay can use words like itu:

• rumah kecil itu = that small house / the small house

But in the basic sentence Dia memiliki rumah kecil, no article is needed.

Malay verbs do not change form for tense the way English verbs do. Memiliki stays the same.

So Dia memiliki rumah kecil could mean, depending on context:

• He/She owns a small house.
• He/She owned a small house.
• He/She will own a small house.
  though for future, extra time words are usually added

Malay usually shows time through context or time expressions such as:

• dulu = before / in the past
• sekarang = now
• nanti = later

Examples:

• Dulu dia memiliki rumah kecil. = He/She used to own a small house.
• Sekarang dia memiliki rumah kecil. = He/She now owns a small house.

Without a time marker, learners often translate it as a simple present.

The sentence follows the common Malay pattern:

Subject + Verb + Object

Here:

• Dia = subject
• memiliki = verb
• rumah kecil = object

So:

• Dia memiliki rumah kecil.
• He/She owns a small house.

Inside the object phrase, the order is:

Noun + Adjective

So rumah kecil literally follows the Malay structure house small.

Not by itself in this sentence. Here, rumah kecil is a noun phrase meaning a small house or the small house, functioning as the object of memiliki.

If you want to say The house is small, Malay would usually say:

• Rumah itu kecil. = The house is small.
• Rumahnya kecil. = His/Her house is small.

So:

• rumah kecil = small house
• rumah itu kecil = the house is small

That difference is important.

In this sentence, rumah is understood as singular unless context suggests otherwise.

Malay does not always mark plural the way English does. If you want to make plurality very clear, you can use reduplication:

• rumah-rumah kecil = small houses

But in many cases, Malay leaves number to context.

So:

• Dia memiliki rumah kecil. = He/She owns a small house.
• Dia memiliki rumah-rumah kecil. = He/She owns small houses.

The un-reduplicated rumah normally suggests one house here.

Yes. A learner may also encounter:

• ia = he/she
  More formal and mostly written; also more restricted in usage than dia
• beliau = he/she
  Respectful, used for honored people such as leaders, teachers, or elders

For everyday general use, dia is the most common and useful form.

So a sentence like:

• Beliau memiliki rumah kecil.

would be grammatically similar, but it would sound respectful and would only fit certain contexts.

Yes. Mempunyai is also correct and means to have or to possess.

Compare:

• Dia memiliki rumah kecil. = He/She owns a small house.
• Dia mempunyai rumah kecil. = He/She has/owns a small house.

Both are grammatical. In many contexts they are very close in meaning, though memiliki can sound a bit more specifically tied to ownership, while mempunyai is a broader have.

A very common everyday alternative is still:

• Dia ada rumah kecil.

So learners may see several valid ways to express this idea.