Mereka

Mereka is the standard third-person plural pronoun in Indonesian and Malay, meaning they or them. It refers to a group of people or entities that has been mentioned or is understood from context. The pronoun is gender-neutral and does not distinguish between individuals within the group.

In sentences, mereka can function as either the subject or the object. There is no separate object form; the same form is used in both positions. For example: Mereka sedang menonton film (They are watching a film) and Saya melihat mereka (I see them). Indonesian and Malay also use mereka as a possessive determiner before a noun to mean their, as in buku mereka (their book) or rumah mereka (their house). Prepositional phrases such as kepada mereka (to them) or untuk mereka (for them) show how the pronoun combines with common grammatical elements.

Usage notes emphasize that, while mereka primarily refers to human groups, it can appear in broader or figurative contexts, including organizations or animals in anthropomorphic or rhetorical use. In formal writing, as in journalism or academic texts, mereka remains the standard choice for referring to plural subjects. There is no gender marking or honorific distinction within the pronoun itself, which contributes to its neutral tone in both everyday speech and formal discourse.

In comparison with other pronouns, mereka is distinct from mereka’s singular counterpart dia, which denotes a single person. Like other Indonesian and Malay pronouns, mereka relies on context to identify the specific group being discussed.