How to speak Indonesian

Indonesian is the national language of Indonesia, uniting hundreds of millions of people. Aside from the regions of Indonesia, it is also spoken in countries including Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, the Netherlands, and the United States.

La lingua indonesiana

Indonesian for travellers

Since Indonesian is a language which is spoken by such a large number of people, people who learn Indonesian will soon realize that it can be a welcome asset on their CV. People residing in Indonesia, individuals conducting business with Indonesian companies, and various others will discover numerous advantages in acquiring proficiency in the Indonesian language. Not sure where to get started? Indonesian courses are available both online and through traditional language schools, so you have plenty of options. 

Get started

Differences between English and Indonesian

Indonesian is a very different language from English. It's highly influenced by hierarchical Javanese and uses different tones in different situations for different audiences. For example, the usage of the second person "you" is replaced with more indirect terms or references unless the speaker and the listener know each other well.

Indonesian has no tenses at all and relies on time indicators in sentences, such as "next week" or "yesterday," to denote the time period being spoken about. Plus, Indonesian does not have grammar cases attached to nouns or gender usage either. Plurals are fortunately easy to learn, as you only need to repeat the noun or add a quantitative indicator — such as "few" or "many" — before the noun.

Phonetic in nature, it is written just the way it is spoken, barring a few exceptions. The Indonesian sentence structure is similar to English, as it also follows the same pattern: Subject, then Verb, then Object. So while English and Indonesian certainly have clear differences, it's not as difficult a language to tackle as you might first think.

Learning Indonesian with Babbel 

Babbel users benefit from voice recognition technology, which aids in correcting pronunciation. Recognizing the distinction between the formal, official language and colloquial expressions, Babbel's courses emphasize practical Indonesian, covering listening, writing, and speaking skills. Beginner courses in Babbel guide learners through fundamental grammatical rules and common language expressions. The intelligent Review Manager feature keeps users informed about the vocabulary requiring revision, enhancing overall language learning effectiveness. What are you waiting for? Start learning Indonesian today, and test first lesson of every course for free!

Get started

Recommended by learners like you