Indonesian — free text-to-speech & real native pronunciation

Indonesian Sounds Missing in English

Indonesian Words That Trip People Up

• 🔊nggak ŋɡˈak The initial 'ngg' misleads English speakers into saying 'n-gak'; it is actually a single velar nasal [ŋ] followed by hard g.
• 🔊khusus xˈusus The 'kh' is not a 'k' or English 'h' but a guttural fricative [x] like Scottish 'loch'.
• 🔊psikolog psikˈoloɡ The 'ps' is fully pronounced as [ps], not simplified to just 's' as in English 'psychology'.
• 🔊ngomong ŋˈomoŋ The leading 'ng' is a velar nasal [ŋ] at the start of the word, not an 'n' or 'ngo' as in 'ongoing'.
• 🔊syukur çˈukur The 'sy' produces a palatal [ç] sound like 'h' in 'huge', not a plain 's' or 'sh'.
• 🔊zaman zˈaman The 'z' is a clear [z] as in 'zoo', not softened to 's' as sometimes happens in English loanwords.
• 🔊cinta tʃˈinta The 'c' is pronounced [tʃ] like 'ch' in 'chair', not a soft 's' or 'k'.
• 🔊dengar dˈɛŋar The 'ng' in the middle is a velar nasal [ŋ] that carries over, not a simple 'n-g' split.
• 🔊enak ˈɛnak The initial 'e' is an open [ɛ] like in 'bed', not the expected 'ee' sound of English 'en'.
• 🔊fakta fˈakta The 'kt' cluster is fully pronounced without inserting a vowel, unlike some English tendencies.
• 🔊gila ɡˈila The 'g' is always a hard [ɡ] as in 'go', never a soft 'j' sound.
• 🔊hati hˈati The 'h' is clearly pronounced [h] at the start, not dropped as in some English dialects.

Hear the Difference

• 🔊pagi pˈaɡi / 🔊bagi bˈaɡi Both end in the same [ɡi] but contrast the initial voiceless [p] versus voiced [b], which English speakers may merge if not aspirated clearly.
• 🔊kata kˈata / 🔊kota kˈota They differ only in the vowel [a] versus [o], but English speakers often neutralize unstressed vowels to schwa and lose the distinction.
• 🔊teman tˈɛman / 🔊taman tˈaman They contrast the mid [ɛ] in the first syllable versus the low [a], which English speakers tend to merge into similar 'eh' or 'ah' sounds.