Indonesian Pronunciation

Need more Indonesian? Try the audio and video lessons at IndonesianPod101.com

Indonesian Sounds

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

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

Indonesian Diphthongs

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.