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Pronunciation guide

Unlike English, Indonesian uses a very consistent phonetic spelling system and once you’ve learnt the rules you should be able to work out how to say any word you see written down. For the most part, it’s relatively easy for English speakers to get to grips with basic Indonesian pronunciation, though learning to accurately mimic the native speaker-style intonation takes a bit longer. Generally a fairly equal stress is placed on the different syllables in Indonesian words, though a slight extra stress is often placed on the next to last syllable in words of three syllables or more.

Consonants

The consonants b, d, f, g, j, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, w are all pronounced about the same way as in English.

The letters q, v, x, z are very rare in Indonesian and usually only appear in loanwords from other languages. Q is pronounced like k in English. Z sometimes sounds similar to j in English.

Consonants that are pronounced differently in Indonesian from English are the following:

c	pronounced like the ch in church; example: cokelat = “chocolate”
kh	a raspy k sound like the ch in loch; example: khidmat = “service”
ny	pronounced like the ny in canyon; example: tanya = “to ask”
r	rolled, as in Spanish or Italian; example: tari = “to dance”
sy	pronounced like the sh in shall; example: syarat = “conditions”

The Indonesian consonant that generally gives English speakers most trouble is ng, although it is actually a sound that commonly occurs in English. The important thing to remember is that the sound changes slightly if it is immediately followed by another g.

ng	pronounced like the ng in singer; example: ingat = “to remember”
ngg	pronounced like the ng in anger; example: tanggal = “date”

Aspirated and unaspirated consonants

H is aspirated—given an extra little push of breath—when it occurs at the end of a word; at the start or middle of a word it is pronounced as in English.

Examples:

tanah = “land”

tahan = “to hold”

K and t are unaspirated when they appear at the end of the word—they are cut short, without the final little push of breath that would be present in English.

Examples:

tarik = “to pull”

pahit = “bitter”

Vowels and diphthongs

a	as in car
e	as in get
i	as in hit
o	as in bob
u	as in put

Diphthongs

ai	like the ie in tie
au	like the ow in cow
oi	like the oi in coin
ua	like uer in truer