Indonesian Travel Guide

Vowels

A critical building block to speaking proper and effective Indonesian is to master the vowels.
a is very short, and pronounced like the “a” in “father.”

Example: satu (SAH‑too) one

e is usually hard like “Ed”
Example: empat (EM‑paht) four

However, when placed at the end of a word, the “e” usually sounds like “ay” in “today.”
Example: sate (SAH-tay) sate (grilled meat on a skewer)

i is long like the “i” in “spaghetti”
Example: tiga (TEE‑gah) three

o is long as in “no”
Example: bodoh (BOH‑doh) stupid

u is long like the “u” in “June”
Example: Juni (JOO‑nee) June

au is pronounced with two syllables, such the final two syllables of the Hawaiian island “Oahu”
Example: mau (MAH-oo) want

ai is smooth and long like the word “play”
Example: pantai (PAHN‑tay) beach

There are several regional variations to pronunciation and spelling. In addition to regional variations, some words are officially spelled differently today than they were prior to 1972 (when Indonesia eliminated some of the Dutch influence from the language). For instance, Jakarta and many other words that start with the letter “J” were once spelled with “Dj” at the beginning. Therefore, be prepared to see some variations when reading words that are printed or posted.

Selamat jalan!