Pronunciation Guide

Indonesian spelling is fortunately strictly phonetic; that is, you always pronounce it the way it is written (quite unlike English).

All vowels and most consonants are pronounced very much like in German or Spanish.

New word

a	apa	like the u in "butter"
b	bis	like the English b
c	cari angin	like the ch in "Charlie"
d	ada	like the English d
e	cewek	like the e in echo but often not pronounced at all if occurring in the first syllable
f	foto	like the English f
g	ganteng	like the g in "gale"
h	rumah	like the English h, but also pronounced at the end of words!
i	ini	like the first i in "India"
j	jalan	like the j in "joker"
k	cowok	like the English k but no glottal stop when at the end of a word
l	jalan	like the English l
m	mau	like the English m
n	ini	like the English n
o	hotel	closed or open o, like in "or" or in "on"
p	pacar	like the English p
q		normally not used in Indonesian
r	terima kasih	rolled like the Spanish r
s	saya	like the first s in Susan
t	tetapi	like the English t but no glottal stop when at the end of a word
u	itu	like the oo "tooth"
v		normally not used in Indonesian
w	cewek	like the w in "water"
x		normally not used in Indonesian
y	saya	like the English y
z	zebra	like the first s in Susan