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And, on presenting a landlady with her key, I announced, “I’m so sorry! Here’s your cat!”. So I’ve had my adventures in learning Indonesian. And, my Bahasa still isn’t pretty. All the same, if you’re thinking of getting off the beaten track in Indonesia, you’ll need a basic vocabulary. These 20 words of Indonesian will give you pretty much what you need to know.
Welcome to learning Indonesian 101. Ada Is there? There is I have. Use this word to request things. Just stick the name of what you’re after onto it.
How to Win Friends and Influence People is just as useful today as it was when it was first published, because Dale Carnegie had an understanding of human nature that will never be outdated.
“ Ada kamar?” “Do you have a room?” “ Ada.” “I do.” 2. Bisa Is it possible? It’s possible. You can Use this when you want to do something, or find out whether someone can do something for you. “ Bisa ke Ubud?” “Can you go to Ubud?” 3. Also used as an interrogative on the end of questions, like the London “innit?” or “yeah?” or West Coast “y’know?” 4. There are two negatives in Indonesian, but this one is always understood.
You can use it to mean “no” or a “not”. “ Tidak bisa.” “It’s not possible.” “ Habis?” “Have you finished?” “ Tidak.” “No.” 5. Habis Finished.
There is no more. Have you finished? When being turned away from a petrol station, “ Habis” means “We are out of petrol.” At a guesthouse, “ habis” means their rooms are full. One of the nice things about learning Indonesian is that many words can be used both as nouns and verbs. “ Ada makan?” “Do you have food?” Just add times of day to make meals: “ Makan pagi” (breakfast) “ Makan siang” (lunch) “ Makan malam” (dinner).
Selamat Safe. Add the times of day to make formal greetings: “ Selamat pagi”: “Good morning.” “ Selamat siang“: “Good day.” “ Selamat malam“: “Good evening”.
“ Selamat jalan“: “Safe journey!” (Goodbye). You can also use it to ask if, for example, it’s safe to leave your bags somewhere. Pagi Morning. In the morning. As in “ Selamat pagi” (good morning), “ makan pagi” (breakfast). “ Ada bis ke Ubud?” “Is there a bus to Ubud?” “ Pagi.” “In the morning.” 9. Siang Midday, in the middle of the day.
“ Selamat siang” (good day). “ Makan siang” (lunch).
(There’s a fourth Indonesian time word, “ sore“, which covers the afternoon, but you don’t necessarily need to know that.) 10. Malam Evening, night, in the evening. “ Selamat malam“: good evening. “ Makan malam“: dinner. “ Ada kamar?” “Do you have a room?
Berapa malam?” “I have one. For how many nights?” 11. Used when booking hotels, for example. The word for toilet is “ kamar kecil” (literally: the little room). Orang Person.
“ Ada kamar?” “ Ada. Berapa orang?” “Do you have a room?” “I do. For how many people?” Also as in “orang utan” – “man of the woods”. Berapa How many?
In a shop: “ Berapa?” “How much?” It’s worth learning your Indonesian numbers, but most Indonesians will write the price down for you on paper or a calculator, or hold up fingers or notes. “ Jam berapa?” “What time.?” 14. “ Jam berapa?” “What time is it?” “ Berapa jam ke Ubud?” “How many hours to Ubud?” 15. “ Dari mana?” “Where are you from?” 16. “ Ke mana?” “Where are you going to?” 17. (Di) Mana Where? “ Di mana kamar kecil?” “Where is the toilet?” “ Ke mana?” “Where are you going to?
“ Ke Kuta.” “I am going to Kuta.” 18: Bis Bus. “ Jam berapa bis ke Ubud?” “What time is the bus to Ubud?” 19: Kapal Boat There are many, many different words for different types of boat. “ Kapal” means big boats, or ferries, but will be understood for most other types of boats. 20: Sudah Already.
Have you yet? In a restaurant: “ Sudah?” “Have you finished?” “ Sudah.” “I have.” In conversation: “ Sudah ke Bali?” “Have you been to Bali yet?” Pronunciation Learning Indonesian pronunciation is pretty intuitive. Three oddities?
K is silent – or, rather glottal — at the end of a word, c is pronounced as a “ch” sound, and the “ng” sound is like the “ng” in the middle of “singing”. Do you have any language shortcuts you can share?
I’d love to hear them. Drop me a comment and let me know. Read my post on. Or head on over to, the Amazon-owned bookshop which ships free to, including Indonesia, the US, Europe, Australia, India, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia, and pick up a copy of the wonderful. I didn’t know it existed when I wrote this post. While travelling in Indonesia, it is so useful to access your Windows Desktop from and your online SharePoint with.
That’s a good call, thanks Peter (and damn your eyes! I should probably have included belum, and did in an earlier draft (which also included stuff on tense setting) but then a) I’d have gone up to 21 and b) I’d have had to explain when you use belum instead of tidak.
The use of “tidak” answering “sudah” was wrong — of course you say “belum” — but “tidak” does work. It failed to make the cut along with saya, anda, mau, permisi and maaf I set myself the crazy goal of 20, but I think you can actually do most of the basics in areas where folk speak Bahasa with those 20 words. But, yes, sudah needs belum like ya needs tidak. Good little round up that is definitely handy for people that have no indo skills. The problem with any language book such as that horrible LP one is that they assume you are going to want to know things like, where can I buy film for my camera????
Really silly. I also think it’s worth noting that “mau ke mana” is usually just a greeting and that “jalan jalan” is a good catch all as a response.
I love the innocence of it. As for shortcuts, I think it’s very difficult to learn any language! All I would suggest is to think of every sentence you are likely going to want to say and learn those before going to a place. Those 20 words cover most of the things you’ll encounter anywhere really. Except I guess for the pronouns and a few basic verbs such as “want”.
I have never been to Indonesia but I have seen a phrasebook once. I was amazed to see how many Indonesian words look/sound similar to Afrikaans words. Kamar = room (kamer in Afrikaans) I think it is because both South Africa and Indonesia used to be Dutch colonies and both have adopted some Dutch words.
On the other hand, the Dutch brought a lot of Indonesians (in those days known as Malays) to South Africa as slaves and it is possible that we adopted some Malay words into Afrikaans. Does anyone know a little more about this language cross-over? Off the top of my head: the language of administration and business (konfirmasi, imigrasi, etc.) comes from European roots, but I’m not sure whether they would be Dutch or Portuguese, as the Portuguese had influence in the area. Kamar would be cognate with Latin camera, French chambre, English chamber, so my money is on that coming from European roots also, but I wonder whether it’s actually Portuguese (who kept their southern African colonies for a surprisingly longtime) rather than Dutch. BUT, I don’t know Dutch or German, so that’s off the top of my head.
Yes there are many dutch words.they colonised Indonesia for 300 years. There are also Portuguese, Hindi and sanskrit due to the traders. There is also religious roots to the language from islam ie. Arabic.The language began in Malay in the straits of Malacca, both are quite similar and there are english words as well. The language united the nation and was integral in their independence from Dutch rule.also facilitated by the Japanese invasion in WWII. From Jen B.A. Indonesian Language and culture.
Makan = Eat: Verb. Makan – nan Makanan = Food: Noun. Di – Makan Dimakan = Eaten: Verb,Passive.
Another example: Minum = Drink: Verb Minum-an = Drink: Noun di-minum = Drink: Verb,Passive.When a Verb has “di” in front of it, mostly it will become Passive 7. It’s true we use “Selamat” and add it to the greets such as “Pagi”, “Siang”, “Sore”, “Petang”, “Malam”. But, it’s not commonly used when you put it in a sentence about security things like “It’s safe to leave your bags somewhere.”. Mostly Indonesian use “Aman”. Greet from Indonesia. Thanks, Lutung. I wanted to keep it simple, rather than introducing men-s and ber-s and per-s and di-s and -an-s and -kans and so forth.
I guess what I should properly have said is that the verb form makan/minum (eg) can be used in phrases that for Europeans would be noun phrases (but I think I’d have lost some of my audience). I also agree that “selamat” is not what Indonesians use. However, I have constructed the butchered sentence “Apakah tas itu selamat disana?” and been understood, so in a list of only 20 words it’s quite a useful one. My Indonesian is terrible, though. As you can probably tell. Great article. Went to university and lived in Java, so speak Indonesian fairly well.
Also agree with the ‘belum’ comment. Always found that no matter how little Indonesian that Westerners speak (even if it’s jut terima kasih), that Javanese and Balinese people truly appreciate the effort and will tell you you’re very good at speaking the language.
Can recommend a great book: “A History of the Indonesian Language” by Sneddon as a very readable text about how the language developed, how it’s intertwined with Indonesian nationalism and identity, and how it’s subtly different from Malaysian. Ha, that’s a very good point! Indonesian dictionaries are useless even for beginners. The amount of silly mistakes in them is just hilarious. Lots of comments to this post. I’d add just that tidak is usually pronounced like tida or tida’ (with a glottal stop) and in Java-Bali and some other parts people say ‘nga’ instead of tidak. Also, saying ‘nasi campur satu’ (one mixed rice) and ‘air putih’ (plain water) will get you a decent size healthy meal all over Indonesia for sometimes as little as 50 cents ?.
It’s s great idea to list the 20 basic words. I’m an Indonesian teacher in Australia and going from the uni textbooks to street language whilst living in Indo was a bit of a shock It took me time to downgrade from formal language.
So awesome that you put it so simply and it’s relevant. I do agree with needing belum and mau. Only because words like ada, mau, boleh can be used as a question or an answer for so many things. The first words I teach my friends at usually ini, itu, disini, Di sana, Ada, tak Ada, mau, tak mau,Sudah, belum, bisa, tak bisa, boleh. Because they are easy to answer and ask questions with in conversation. Yay selamat belajar semua- happy studying everyone!
We’re having a similar problem with Chinese at the moment. In that we’re learning the formal constructions, whereas in fact spoken Chinese is as condensed as possible. “Do you often go to see your friend?” “I often go to see him.” (instead of ‘Yes’) “How is his health?” “There’s no problem with his health” (etc).
I didn’t actually realise Indonesian HAD any grammar (apart from tidak/bu) until I started learning it Brilliant that Australians are learning Indonesian. Sadly, the Indonesian gov’t is currently trying to stop teaching English at elementary schools, as I’m sure you know. I don’t think so.
English still being the must learn language for all Indonesian. In Indonesia English is like third language beside their local and national language. Usually Indonesian have this, English is third language, followed by Bahasa Indonesia as the national language, and local/traditional language like bahasa Jawa, Sunda, Melayu, Betawi, Bali, and more. But, in some big city people talk only with Bahasa Indonesia and English. Actually for traveler, you don’t really need to learn the whole local language like Chinese. What you need to learn are number, basic question and answer, words for help, words for direction like perempatan and pertigaan. You need to learn this: Tolong - Help.
It has two meaning first meaning is for asking an emergency help. Like, when you fall or got accident and speak louder as possible. Tolong!
- Help! And second meaning, actually is not really important but have a deep meaning for people who talk to. Tolong, es teh manis satu! - A glass of ice tea, please! I know its a bit hard for beginner, but beliave me you’ll get more respect. Maaf - Sorry. You know how to use it!
Permisi - Excuse me, or asking for permission. Use when you’re in a crowd place and need way. Just say Permisi!
loudly. But, don’t too loud because people may become angry or annoying. The word kamar kecil is not really popular because its kinda old word and a bit Melayu. Just say Toilet and they will recognise it. Or you can say WC, don’t spell it say it. kamar kecil is an old word that comes from Melayu.
Bahasa Indonesia is much easier than Chinese or even English. Btw, don’t use your british accent, because Indonesian isn’t really familiar. Almost all of them use American accent because they said American accent is more simple and easy to listen.
Sorry, Riyan, I meant stopping teaching English in elementary school – there’s been a lot about it in the Jakarta Post lately. I’d agree English is the third language for educated Indonesians, and it’s widely spoken in metropolitan Java and Bali. I found less and less English the further east I went through Indonesia, and in parts of east Indonesia (notably Halmahera) people will only speak their local language, without even Indonesian, let alone English. Maaf, permisi and tolong are useful additions to any list, indeed. I didn’t realise kamar kecil was unpopular. It’s still used for signs all over the place. Was trying to remember my Indonesian and stumbled on this again!
Great list Theodora ? You are right about it being the basic words that would get you everywhere! It was the same for me, I don’t “speak Indonesian” but I get anywhere with the few words I know! No proper grammar of course, but it is just understandable, and allows me to pick up on key words in what people are saying to understandIt was very useful especially when traveling in Java, as no one speaks English at all!! I would add to the list Minum for drink, and also the directions: Terus: Straight Lampu Merah: Red light (Merah: red is very important for Marlboro red smokers ? ) Kanan: right Kiri: left Those should be very important when you ask a question with “Dimana”, I always got long answers with lots of babbling in between, but I only concentrated on finding these words in the answer to know my way Now I wanna go back to Indonesia ?.
Hi Deborah, Thank you for asking. It’s OK to link to the post on your blog, but not to replicate it entirely, and as a new blogger it’s important that you understand that it’s not OK to use other people’s work and images. There’s a range of reasons for this, but one is that it’s duplicate content, which Google frowns on, another is that it’s someone else’s work, which belongs to them (for images, you can use Creative Commons works from Flickr and Wikimedia Commons, but need to check the usage rights first). Links are good, because they send your reader over to my blog to read my work; taking the content just sends readers to your blog where they could be reading my content on mine.
So, if you wouldn’t mind replacing the post with (eg) the first two or three phrases and a read more link directing people to my site, that would be great. Hopefully this isn’t too discouraging for you! Enjoy blogging! This is a good blog. I am from Indonesia and I am very happy when I read your answer about Bahasa Indonesia.
You know that Indonesia People are friendly If you speak Bahasa with them. They will be very happy although your bahasa is bad. They will do respect you. There are some inportant words to all of you if you wonna visit Indonesia. dimana alamat ABC? = Where is ABC address? kapan = when dimana = where siapa = who apa = what bagaimana = how berapa = how much, how many Ohyeee.
Now, I’m studying english in Bandung, Indonesia. So, I am looking for some friends to ptactice english. We can exchange our language knowladge and culture knowledge by BBM, Line, WhatsApp, or Facebook.
If you are attracted, you can send your email to ” “. Terimakasih / thanks. Here are some correction fop the point 6. Ada makan?” “Do you have food? In this question, your translation is not perfectly correct. Indonesian people, very rare to say this sentence question. Ada makan is a kind of slang question.
It is usually spoken by the reenager which means is ” have you eaten?” But the point is not about we have eaten or not yet, the point for this question is, we have a time, chance, to eat or not? So the “ada makan” can be translated perfectly in English is ” do you have any chance or time to eat (before you arrive here in front of me)? Do you have food?
It can be translated in indonesia as ” ada makanAN? Just add the suffix an, the meaning will tottaly change if you add suffix an. Addition, in indonesia question word ussually add by wor KAH, just googling it, i can explained it by writing here, yoo long to explain. Gotta add a comment here, I hope you don’t mind. “Habis?” “Have you finished?” the answer to this question should always be either “sudah” or “belum”. The use of “tidak” is very odd here.
“Ada makan?” “Do you have food?” the translation for meal/food is “makanan” while “makan” means to eat. You can also use it to ask if, for example, it’s safe to leave your bags somewhere. Actually, the “safe to leave your bags” translates into “aman taruh barang di sini”. It’s not “selamat”, but “aman”. Aman here means more to the security of an object than a “safe” in “selamat”. BONUS: “Siang” refers more to 11a.m. And “Sore” is more to 3 p.m.
Additionally, 6p.m. Is called as Magrib, taking the Arab/Moslem time to do their 6 p.m. Prayer, and after 6.p.m. Is considered as “Malam”.
Is called “Subuh”. There you go. Enjoy Indonesia!