PRONUNCIATION

For English speakers, colloquial Bahasa Indonesia is perhaps among the easiest to learn. Unlike Arabic or Chinese, Indonesian uses the Roman alphabet, and spelling is consistently phonetic. Basic intonation is generally conventional: rising intonation for questions and falling intonation for statements. Words are segmented into syllables all of which receive almost equal stress and are pronounced almost equally one by one.

Vowels
There are five vowels in Indonesian.

a	always pronounced like the a in 'father'	ada to exist apa what makan eat
e	has two different pronunciations
	e is pronounced like the e in 'enjoy' and 'establish'	empat four beli buy beras rice
	e is also pronounced similar to the ei in 'weight'	enak delicious desa village cabe chili pepper
i	always pronounced like the ee in 'meet' or 'bee'	ini this itu that biji seed
o	always pronounced like the o in 'go' but short	toko shop botol bottle kotor dirty
u	always pronounced like the oo in 'spoon' and 'tooth'	buku book guru teacher untuk for

Diphthongs
Diphthongs are made by combining vowels with one another.

ai	pronounced like the word 'eye'	air water pantai beach
au	pronounced like the ow in 'cow' and 'now'	haus thirsty pulau island
iu	combines the ee-oo sound	siul whistle cium kiss
io	combines the ee-o sounds	biola violin kios newstand
ia	combines the ee-a sounds	siapa who siang noon
ua	is similar to the wa sound in 'watch'	uang money luar outside

Consonants
There are 24 consonants in Indonesian. Most consonants are pronounced roughly as in English (close enough to get you by.) The main exceptions are as follows:

c	always pronounced like ch in 'chicken'	cari search cinta to love
g	always hard as in 'girl'	guna to use gelas glass
h	normally very soft in the beginning or middle of a word; in the final position, h must be pronounce audibly	hidup to live tahu to know guruh thunder guru teacher
kh	represents one phonetic unit, and is found primarily in words of Arabic derivation	khabar news akhir end
ng	pronounced much like the ng in 'hanger'; notice that ng may occur at the beginning of a word	ngantuk sleepy tangan hand datang to come
ngg	pronounced like the ng in 'finger' and 'tango'	panggil to call tunggu to wait
ny	similar to the ny in 'canyon'	nyamuk mosquito tanya to ask
r	trilled or rolled, as it is in Spanish	ratus hundred baru new belajar to learn
k	at the end of a syllable, k serves as a glotal stop and is never aspirated (no puff of air)	banyak many anak child kata word

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PRONUNCIATION
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A WORD ON STRESS
Be aware that word stress may vary from region to region. In Sumatra, stress is generally placed on the second to last syllable; in Java and many other regions, stress is placed on the final syllable of the word. When in doubt, all syllables should be stressed evenly as no stress is better than the wrong stress.

NOTE: The pronunciation audio guides found throughout the site feature a native speaker with a Javanese accent.

SOUND FIMILIAR?
Some words in Indonesian were 'borrowed' from other languages. Can you guess what the following words mean?

GUESS AGAIN!
Some words are not at all what they seem. The following words may look like words borrowed from English, but you may be surprised at their meaning.