Notes on Indonesian Pronunciation, Stress and Grammar

1. Pronunciation

Vowels	English Pronunciation	Indonesian Words	Meanings
a	father	apa	what
i	neat	minum	to drink
	bid	Indonesia	Indonesia/Indonesian
e	-let -but	-teh -tentu	-tea -definite, sure
o	-caught -book	-sore -ayo	-afternoon -let's, bye
u	soup	duduk	to sit

Diphtongs	English Pronunciation	Indonesian Words	Meanings
ai	-day -ice	-sampai -baik	until, to arrive good
ay		ayam	chicken
au	-know -out	-saudara -mau	sibling, family, you (formal) to want, to be going to

Consonants	English Pronunciation	Indonesian Words	Meanings
b	boy	baik	good
c	next year	coba	to try
d	dog	dari	from
f	foot	maaf	sorry
g	good	gedung	building
h	house	harus	must
j	Goodyear	jalan	to walk, street
k*	skate uh-oh	kata duduk	word to sit
l	lazy	lagi	more, again
m	mother	minum	to drink
n	nothing	nilai	value, grade
p*	spin	permisi	to be excused, permission
q*
r*	rolling 'r'	rumah pergi kabar	house to go news
s	say	saya	I (formal)
t*	stay	tinggal	to live, stay
v*
w	well	wah	wow
x*
y	you	ya	yes
z*

Notes

In Indonesian p t k care unaspirated, meaning they are produced without a strong burst of air.
k at the end of words, for instance in the word duduk 'to sit' is a glottal stop like the sound that occurs in 'uh-oh.'
q occurs on words mostly borrowed from Arabic, however, Indonesian speakers usually pronounce q with k like in 'skate.'
ris pronounced with a trill (rolling 'r').
v occurs in loan words (words borrowed from other languages) but is usally pronounced with 'f.'
x occurs in loan words but is usually pronounced with 's.'
z occurs in loan words but is usually pronounced with 'j.'

*Other Consonants*	English Pronunciation	Indonesian Words	Meanings
ng	song	ngomong mengapa bingung	to say, to talk (colloquial) why to be confused
ngg	finger	tunggu	to wait
ny	canyon	bertanya	to ask (a question)
sy	lease your house	tamasya	to have a picnic or vacation

2. Word Stress

For more than one syllable word the stress falls on the second to the last syllable of a word. When that syllable carries a weak vowel, for instance a schwa (?) (in 'but'), the stress will fall on the last syllable. Stress syllables are written in capital letters.

E.g.	seLAmat	'safe, congratulations'
	KAlau	'if'
	mengerTI	'to understand'
	sauDAra	'sibling, you (formal)'
	tenTU	'definite, sure'
	perGI	'to go'

3. Brief Notes on Grammar

Word order for Noun Phrases:
Modifiers (e.g. noun, adjective and personal pronouns, etc.) come after head nouns.

e.g.	toko buku	'store – book'	à	book store
	buku besar	'book – big'	à	big book
	buku saya '	'book – my'	à	my book

Tense is not marked in the verbs. Tense and aspect are marked by independent words (adverbs of time, auxiliaries/time markers, etc.) or determined by contexts.

Common sentences consist of a subject and a predicate.

Source: John Wolff, et.al. Beginning Indonesian through Self Instruction, 1992