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letter | pronunciation | example | meaning |
A | car | aku | I (informal) |
B | bar | bola | ball |
C | cheese, but softer, as in Italian ci, ce | cinta | love |
D | day | dua | two |
E | an opened one: French les | nenek | Grandma |
a semi-opened one: end | elang | hawk | |
a closed one: opened | embun | dew | |
F | fun | foto | photo |
G | good | gadis | girl |
H | hard, hush | hotel | hotel |
I | film | ikan | fish |
J | judge (Arabic ج) | janji | promise, to promise |
K | kind | kata | word |
L | law | lampu | lamp |
M | mother | mimpi | dream, to dream |
N | new | novel | novel |
O | an opened one: of, ball (as in Arabic ر,ق) | omong | to say (informal) |
a closed one: old | orang | man, people | |
P | pure | pandai, pintar | clever |
Q | quality | Quran | The Koran |
R | trilled like Italian, Spanish r, like rrrrrrrrright (Arabic ر) | rumah | house |
S | sand | surat | letter |
T | time | ||
U | good, blue | uang | money |
V | viva | voli | volley |
W | hard one: wave | wafat | to die (polite) |
soft one: swing | waktu | time | |
X | extreme | xerofit | xerofit |
Y | hard one: you, yard | yunior | junior |
soft one: sounds like long ee (Arabic ي) | yatim | kid who does not have father | |
Z | zorro, not like Italian z (tz), but like bee sound zzzz (Arabic ز) | zigot | zygote |
Double Consonants | Pronunciation | Example | Meanings |
kh | Arabic ﺥ | khusus | specific |
ng | singing English song | senang | to be happy, glad, cheerful, pleased |
ngg | mango, anggar | anggun | posh, beautiful, la serenit |
ny | Sonya (name), Italian Signore | nyanyi | to sing |
sy | Shy, Italian scendere | syarat | requirement |
Diphthongs | Pronunciation | Example | Meaning |
ai | I, find, Italian hai | baik | good, well, nice |
au | now, Raul, Italian naufragare (like Arabic و) | mau | to will, want (informal) |
ia | Italian, la mia bianca scia | siang | afternoon |
iu | future, Italian pi, giustizzia | cium | kiss, to kiss |
oi | boy, voice, Italian noi | Amboi! | Wow!, "Gosh!" |
ua | Italian la sua | suara | voice |
Note: Some Indonesian words have double vowels, such as saat (time, when..), bait (a paragraph in a poetry).
Sometimes, a word has 'triple diphtongs', like beliau (he, she, polite), sesuai (suitable). You have to pronounce all the letters, because Indonesian pronunciation does not 'swallow' any word of its words.
There are more diphthongs in Indonesian, but these are the most important.
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