20 Ways on How to Learn Bahasa Fast (Indonesian Language)

The word “Bahasa” in English is basically used to refer to both Malaysian and Indonesian. Yet, Indonesian language is almost same like Malay language, but it’s totally different from its grammar, meaning, pronunciation, spelling, and vocabulary. Well, Indonesian language sources of loanwords from many languages.

History of Bahasa 

Indonesian is different from Malay in Malaysia because it has more words and pronunciations that come from Javanese and Dutch. The Language Center published the book that called “Senarai Kata Serapan in Bahasa Indonesia” and stated that there are 10 Indonesian donors for Bahasa Indonesia, they are Dutch, English, Arabic, Sansekerta – old Javanese language, Chinese, Portugues, Tamil, Persian, and Hindi.

Indonesian or Bahasa is the official national language of Indonesia and it is spoken by more than 270 million Indonesian people. It is the main language that has been established under the law of the Indonesian Government as the national language. Many Indonesian people communicate with Bahasa Indonesia as their native tongue to communicate with others but in suburbs.

How to Learn Indonesian?

We will find out most people communicate with their local language and Indonesian/Bahasa Indonesia become a communication tool to unite all the tribes in Indonesia. This is the steps how to learn Bahasa:

1. Using Distinct Time Words

The first rule of how to learn Bahasa Indonesia fast there are no tenses in Bahasa Indonesia that mean time is related by using distinct time words and also verbs do not conjugate to refer to person or quantity either.

2. Listening Indonesian Songs 

If you never heard Indonesian people speak in Bahasa, I recommend you to listen to Indonesian music and reading their lyrics or you can use translator software that can produce how the sound of pronunciations. It is one of easiest ways to learn Bahasa Indonesia.

3. Reading Indonesian Books 

Well, there is no difference in learning Indonesian and English. Just like every languages in the world, Indonesian classifies words from its word class such as nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjective, and pronouns.

Indeed, you can follow these steps to learn Bahasa Indonesia fast and how to sound the words like Indonesian. Unlike English, Indonesian sounds the same to the words to spelling the words. There are some new things to this and there are several sounds that will trick English speakers.

4. Learning Indonesian Sentences 

Same as English language, Bahasa Indonesia uses vowels and consonant to write sentences. The alphabet of Bahasa Indonesia is also made up of 26 letters, 5 of which are vowels, diphthongs and the rest of which are consonants.

Vowels: a e i o u
Consonants: b c d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v w x y z

Vowels	Diphthongs	Consonants
a like a in “far” i like ee in “fees” u like oo in “noon” or “soup” é like e in “mechanic” è like e in “permit” ó like o in “ok” ò like o in “ton” ai like ie in ”tie” au like ow in “how”	ai like ie in “tie” au like ow in “how” oi like oy in “toy”	b like be in “bay” c like ce in “chester” d like de in “day” f like ef in the English standalone “f” g like ge in “game” h like ha in “have’ j like j in “DJ” k like ka when you say “cut” without t l like el in the English standalone “l” m like m in the English standalone “m” n like n in the English standalone “n” p like pe in “pay” without y q like kee in “keen” without n r like er in “air” s like s in the English standalone “s” t like t in “tay” without y v like fe in “fay” without y w like we in “way” without y z like z in the English standalone “z”

These are the example of vocabularies and simple sentences in Bahasa. If you can learn and understand them, you will find out how easy, fast and understandable to learn Indonesian/Bahasa Indonesia. Below are some words commonly used in daily conversation, which can be a good start who wants to learn the Indonesian language the easy way and understandable.

Indeed, the first action how to learn Bahasa is by knowing and understanding the common vocabulary in Indonesian. Here are the best ways how to learn Bahasa fast and understandable:

1. Pronoun 

Bahasa Indonesia	English	Notes
Saya/Aku	I
Anda/Kamu	You
Dia	He/She	It can be used for man and woman
Kami/Kita	We
Mereka	They
Itu	That/This/There/It	“itu” describes things or to make a dummy subject
Bapak/Tuan	Mr./Sir
Ibu/Nyonya	Miss/Mrs./Madam
Bapak-Bapak/Para Tuan	Sirs
Ayah/Bapak	Father
Ibu/Bunda	Mother
Anak	Child
Anak-anak	Children
Anak laki-laki	Son
Anak perempuan	Daughter
Kakek	Grandfather
Nenek	Grandmother
Kakak Laki-laki/Perempuan	Big Brother/Sister
Adik Laki-laki/Perempuan	Little Brother/Sister

2. Common Phrases in Indonesian   

Indeed, this the common phrase that you need to remember for the first learner.

Indonesian	English
Permisi	Excuse Me
Apa Kabar?	How Are you?
Baik/Kurang Baik	Good/Not Good
Bolehkah saya bertanya?	May I ask you?
Siapa nama kamu?	What is your name?
Nama saya Eric	My name is Eric
Di mana kamu tinggal?	Where do you live?
Saya tinggal di Jakarta	I live in Jakarta
Nama saya John	My name is John
Senang bertemu kamu	Nice to meet you
Saya tidak mengerti	I don’t understand
Apakah kamu bisa berbahasa Inggris?	Do you speak English?
Saya tidak bisa bicara bahasa Indonesia	I don’t speak Indonesian
Tolong bicaranya pelan-pelan	Pleas speak slowly
Terima kasih	Thank you
Sama-sama	You’re welcome

3. Greetings                                                  

Indonesian	English
Selamat Pagi	Good Morning (00am-11am)
Selamat Siang	Good Day (11am-3pm)
Selamat Sore	Good Afternoon (3pm-6pm)
Selamat Malam	Good Evening (6pm-11pm)
Sampai Jumpa	Good bye
Sampai Jumpa Lagi	Good bye (until we meet again)
Selamat Jalan	Good bye (to someone is leaving)
Selamat Tinggal	Good bye (to someone is staying)
Selamat Makan	Enjoy your meal
Selamat Tidur	Good night
Selamat Ulang Tahun	Happy Birthday
Selamat ya!	Congratulations!
Welcome	Selamat Datang

Meanwhile, learn how to greet in Indonesian is the easiest way to learn Indonesian fast. You can then learn its pronunciation too.

4. Numbers

Indonesian	English
Nol	Zero
Satu	One
Dua	Two
Tiga	Three
Empat	Four
Lima	Five
Enam	Six
Tujuh	Seven
Delapan	Eight
Sembilan	Nine
Sepuluh	Ten
Sebelas	Eleven
Dua Belas	Twelve
Tiga Belas	Thirteen
Empat Belas	Forteen
Lima Belas	Fifteen
Enam Belas	Sixteen
Tujuh Belas	Seventeen
Delapan Belas	Eighteen
Sembilan Belas	Nineteen
Dua Puluh	Twenty
Dua Puluh Satu	Twenty-One
One Hundred	Seratus
One Thousand	Seribu
One Million	Satu Juta

5. Conversations on the phone

Indonesian	English
Halo	Hello
Dengan siapa saya berbicara?	Who’s speaking?
Bisa berbicara dengan … ?	Can I talk to (name’s person)?
Mohon tunggu sebentar	Please wait a moment
Apakah ada pesan?	Do you want to leave a message?
Dia sedang tidak ada di tempat	He/She is not available
Mohon hubungi saya kembali	Please call me again

Meanwhile, that’s the common vocabulary you need to know and that’s how to learn Bahasa fast.

Suffix and Affix Uses in Indonesian

Building a sentence in Indonesia is similar to Englis Language, but it doesn’t use tenses. If you want to write an active sentence, the verb should be written with the affix “me-” and for a passive sentence the verb should be written with the affix “di-“.

For examples:

My mother is cooking for dinner. (active sentence)

Ibu Saya memasak untuk makan malam. (Indonesian)

For this example, the verb is “masak” means “cook“. It is the same as the present continuous tense that the verb should be written with -ing where the subject is doing something at the moment yet in Indonesian it is used with the affix ‘me-‘ where the subject actively doing something.

Let’s take a look another example of a passive sentence.

Dinner is cooked by my mother (passive sentence)

Makan malam dimasak oleh Ibu saya. (Indonesian)

The structure of both sentences are same but in Indonesian, the affix is changed from “me-” to “di”. It means that it is represented where dinner is still as the object whereas the subject is “my mother” or “Ibu saya”.

Examples of Sentence Pattern

As you aware that the examples above have basically sentence pattern in English grammar. The details of sentence patterns are as follows:

“My mother” is a subject, “is cooking” is a progressive verb and “for dinner” is an adverb.

In spoken Indonesian, there are no linking verb corresponding to the English words “be, am, is, are, was and were”. the English has tenses for verbs while Indonesian has no similar concept.

“Ibu Saya” is a subject, “memasak” is an active verb and “untuk makan malam” is an adverb.

From this information, we know that the pattern is S-V-A. But in the passive form, we find the different subject.

“Makan malam” is a subject, “dimasak” is a passive verb and “oleh Ibu Saya” is an adverb.

Meanwhile, to learn Indonesian faster, check out the video of how to learn Indonesian here.

And this is the last advice to end this session, you always hear these words that practice makes perfect. If you have friends as native speakers from Indonesia, it would be perfect if you could communicate with them. The more you practice your Indonesian, the better your Indonesian skill communication will be. Please follow our next lessons how to learn Bahasa fast in the next articles.