Key Indonesian sounds, letter pronunciation, and stress patterns. Front: the Indonesian letter, word, or sound pattern. Back: meaning plus a plain-English pronunciation note.
35 cards · basic cards · AI-written, checked twice. Edit anything.
- c
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Always pronounced like the 'ch' in 'chair', never like an English 'k' or 's', e.g. in 'cinta' (love).- ng
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A single nasal sound like the 'ng' in 'singer', which can also appear at the start of a word, e.g. 'ngobrol' (to chat).- ny
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A single palatal nasal sound like the 'ny' in 'canyon', e.g. in 'nyanyi' (to sing).- r
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A rolled or tapped 'r', similar to Spanish, never silent the way it can be in some English accents.- e (schwa)
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Most commonly a neutral schwa sound like the 'a' in 'sofa', e.g. the first 'e' in 'kecil' (small).- e (clear)
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Some words use a clearer 'e' like in 'bed' instead of the schwa, e.g. in 'sate' (satay). Context and memorization tell you which.- h
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Usually pronounced softly and sometimes barely audible between vowels, e.g. in 'tahu' (to know).- kh
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A raspy sound from the back of the throat, found mainly in Arabic loanwords, e.g. 'khusus' (special).- sy
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Pronounced like the English 'sh', found in Arabic loanwords, e.g. 'syarat' (condition, requirement).- Word stress
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Indonesian stress is light and generally falls on the second-to-last syllable, but it rarely changes a word's meaning the way English stress can.- Double vowels (aa, ii)
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Each vowel in a sequence like 'aa' is pronounced separately and briefly, not lengthened into one long vowel.- Final consonants
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Final consonants like 'k', 't', and 'p' at the end of a word are often unreleased, pronounced very softly and cut short.- k (final position)
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At the end of a word, 'k' is usually a glottal stop, like the catch in the middle of 'uh-oh', not a hard 'k' sound, e.g. in 'tidak' (no).- Question intonation
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Yes/no questions often keep statement word order, with a gentle rising intonation at the end.- sy vs s
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Do not merge these: 's' is a plain hiss like in 'sun', while 'sy' is a full 'sh' sound like in 'shoe'.
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