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Pronunciation

The pronunciation of Indonesian is not difficult. After all, it doesn’t have tones, as Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese do. So there’s no excuse for not getting it right. Indonesian uses the Roman script, and its spelling system is regular and predictable. We just have to remember what sound is represented by what letter.

Vowels

These are: a, e, i, o, u.

The vowel a is always the short sound of ha!—never like ay, or the a of cat.

The vowel e is mostly the short sound of the e of open or broken; but in a minority of cases it is different, like the e of egg. Normally there is no way of telling these two sounds apart, but in this book the second type of e is marked with an acute accent, é.

The vowel i is short and sharp, like the sound in fit.

The vowel o is like the o in sock.

The vowel u is as in pull, or the oo of foot, but never the long sound of food.

It is helpful to divide words into syllables, and to give each its full value, e.g. ha-us “thirsty;” da-é-rah “area.”

Consonants

As in English, but with the following exceptions:

c is always as ch in English child, never as in cat.

g is always “hard,” as in gate, never the “soft” j sound as in germ.

h is always sounded, e.g. sudah “already,” or Tuhan “God.”

r is also always sounded—give it a light roll.

The Alphabet

As you know, the names of letters and their sounds aren’t exactly the same. And the names of the letters of the Indonesian alphabet are not the same as in English—they come from Dutch. It’s quite important to know how to pronounce them, for example if you have to spell your name. Here is a rough guide on how to say them:

A	ah
B	bé
C	ché
D	dé
E	é
F	éf
G	gé – hard!
H	ha
I	ee
J	jé
K	ka
L	el
M	ém
N	én
O	oh
P	pé
Q	ki
R	air
S	és
T	té
U	oo
V	fé
W	wé
X	iks
Y	yé
Z	sét

The most important letters to watch are A (ah) and R (air— sound the r!), E (é) and I (ee), because they can get confused; and also H (ha) and K (ka).

Some letters, like Q, V, X and Z, are very rare in Indonesian, and are only found in loanwords.