Indonesian vowels are pronounced clearly and consistently. Below is a guide to the pronunciation of the five vowels in Indonesian using IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols. If you are not familiar with IPA symbols, you can look them up on Wikipedia, and here is a chart with sounds for each IPA symbol.

A /a/

The letter A is pronounced as /a/, similar to the “a” in “father”.

Example: anak (child) – pronounced as /ˈanak/.

    anak ‘child’

    apa ‘what’

E /e/ and /ə/

The letter E can be pronounced in two ways:

• /e/ – similar to the “e” in “bed”.
• /ə/ – similar to the “a” in “sofa” (a schwa sound).

In the next lesson we are covering the pronunciation of /e/ and /ə/ in detail.

I /i/

The letter I is pronounced as /i/, similar to the “ee” in “see”.

Example: ibu (mother) – pronounced as /ˈibu/.

    ibu ‘mother’

    ini ‘this’

O /o/

The letter O is pronounced as /o/, similar to the “o” in “go”. Similar, but not the same! The English language has many ways to pronounce the letter ‘o’, but it does not have the /o/ sound. The Indonesian /o/ is pronounced like offerto in Italian, faux in French, or “oben” in German.

Example: orang (person) – pronounced as /ˈorang/<./p>
    orang ‘person’

    otak ‘brain’

U /u/

The letter U is pronounced as /u/, similar to the “oo” and Diphthongs in “food”, the “o” in “prove”, or the “ui” in “suite”. Better comparable are the “u” in German “Grube”, “oux” in French “doux”, or “u” on Italian “tutto”.

Example: umur (age) – pronounced as /ˈumur/.

    umur ‘age’

    aku ‘I’.

Diphthongs

In Indonesian, a diphthong is a complex vowel sound that begins with one vowel and gradually transitions to another within the same syllable. The two diphthongs in Indonesian are:

1. Diphthong /ai/

The /ai/ diphthong starts with the vowel /a/ and glides toward the vowel /i/. It is often found in words like:

• santai (relaxed)
• pantai (beach)
• bersaing (to compete)

⚠ In colloquial speech, final “-ai” is often pronounced, and sometimes also written, as “e”. The word satai (kebab), for instance, is mostly pronounced as sate.

2. Diphthong /au/

The /au/ diphthong starts with the vowel /a/ and glides toward the vowel /u/. Examples include:

• harimau (tiger)
• kerbau (buffalo)
• laut (sea)

    sungai ‘river’

    bagaimana ‘how’

    mau ‘want’

    jauh ‘far’