Guide to Malay Pronunciation

Selamat Datang! Welcome!

Pronouncing Malay words is very easy because basically,
What You See is What You Say!

Here are some guidelines :-

Vowel	English equivalent	Malay example
a	car	saya (I, me)
a (2)	error	saya (I, me)
e	error	enam (six)
e (2)	ray	mereka (them)
i	key	tiga (three)
o	low	kosong (zero)
u	spoon	satu (one)

The second form of "a" is only used if "a" is at the end of a word.

This is always the case in spoken Malay.

You can either using this form, OR stick to first version of "a" as this is the "textbook" pronunciation. Both are correct.

In the given example of the word "saya", the second syllable "ya" can be pronounced in either way.

The second form of "e" is less common - but unlike "a (2)", there is no rule of thumb to know when this form is used. The only way is to familiarise with the irregular words that use "e (2) ".

In most cases, the first version of "e" is used.

Almost all consonants in Malay have the same pronunciation as English, but some are emphasised below :

Consonant	English equivalent	Malay example
c	chair	cawan (cup)
g	gum	gula (sugar)
j	jam	jagung (corn)
k	key	awak (you)
y	yellow	saya (I)

The consonants "ng" appear frequently in Malay and sound similar to that of English.

Be extra careful if "ng" is in the middle of a word -- do not split the letters into two, e.g. tengahari (afternoon) is pronounced as [te-ngah-hari], NOT [ten-gah-hari]

The consonants "kh", as in "khabar baik" (I'm fine) has an Arabic origin and should be pronounced like the Scottish word "Loch Ness". For regular conversations, the sound of either k or h are normally used, both are equally correct.

The letter k at the end of a word [e.g. awak (you)] should not be pronounced like the word "block", it should just be a thin "k" sound instead.