The Indonesian Alphabet (26 Latin Letters)

Level: Beginner. Good news for your first day: Indonesian uses the same 26 Latin letters as English. There is no new script to learn. The only work is a handful of letter names and one sound — c — that is not what English speakers expect.

By the end of this page you can…

…name every Indonesian letter, spell a word aloud, read c as “ch”, and recognise the four digraphs (kh, ng, ny, sy) that act as single sounds.

The 26 letters

The alphabet is identical in shape to English; what changes is the names you use when spelling aloud. The ones worth memorising:

Letter	Name (say it like)	Letter	Name (say it like)
c	“ché”	q	“ki”
e	“é”	v	“fé”
g	“gé”	w	“wé”
h	“ha”	x	“éks”
j	“jé”	y	“yé”
k	“ka”	z	“zét”

The vowels are pure and steady: a = “ah”, i = “ee”, u = “oo”, o = “oh”, and e has two values (a weak “uh” and a clear “eh”). There are no silent letters and no tones — you say every letter, so spelling is a reliable guide to pronunciation.

The letters that sound different

A few consonants carry a surprise for English or other-language learners:

c → “ch” (see above).
j → the “j” in jam (English judge): jalan (road).
g → always hard, as in go: gula (sugar), never a soft “j”.
v → usually like “f”: televisi (“te-le-FEE-si”).
r → lightly rolled or tapped, as in Spanish.
final k → often a soft catch in the throat (a glottal stop): tidak (“TEE-da’”).

The four digraphs

Indonesian writes four sounds with two letters that count as one unit. They are not separate new letters, but you should recognise them:

Digraph	Sound	Example
kh	a throaty “kh” (or plain k)	khusus (special)
ng	the “ng” in “sing”	bunga (flower)
ny	the “ny” in “canyon”	nyamuk (mosquito)
sy	the “sh” in “ship”	syarat (condition)

How to say it

c — “ch” as in church: cinta, cuci.
e — two values: a weak “uh” (besar) and a clear “eh” (meja).
ng — the “ng” in sing, even at the start: nganga.
ny — the “ny” in canyon: nyonya.
final k — a light glottal catch: anak, tidak.

Example words

cinta

love

c = ch: 'CHEEN-ta'
baca

read

c = ch: 'BAH-cha'
kucing

cat

c = ch; final -ng like 'sing'
jalan

road / to walk

j as in 'judge'
gula

sugar

hard g: 'GOO-la'
makan

to eat

pure vowels: 'MAH-kan'
minum

to drink

i = 'ee', u = 'oo'
bunga

flower

ng digraph in the middle
nyamuk

mosquito

ny digraph like 'canyon'
khusus

special

kh digraph, throaty k
syarat

condition / requirement

sy digraph like 'sh'
tidak

no / not

final k = soft glottal catch
televisi

television

v sounds like f
meja

table

clear e 'eh'; j as in judge

Spelling a word aloud

To spell Budi: “bé – u – dé – i”. For cinta: “ché – i – en – té – a”. For a word with a y, say “yé”; for z, say “zét”. Because nothing is silent, spelling and saying a word line up closely.

Recap card for the Indonesian alphabet and the c equals ch rule with a friendly study buddy

Quick recap before the quiz.

Practice

Quiz

Get the sounds in order: Indonesian pronunciation overview
Start the course: Start Learning Indonesian Here
Your first grammar: Indonesian demonstratives ini and itu and the Indonesian grammar section

The Indonesian Alphabet (26 Latin Letters)

By the end of this page you can…

The 26 letters

The letters that sound different

The four digraphs

How to say it

Example words

Spelling a word aloud

Practice

Indonesian alphabet practice

Quiz

The Indonesian alphabet

Next

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Pronunciation & writing