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Austronesian · Indonesia

Numbers in
Bahasa Indonesia

Sepuluh, seratus, seribu, sejuta
8 minread
6sections
se- = 1before every big unit
2.743
dua ribu tujuh ratus empat puluh tiga
00

The big picture

Indonesian has the most regular number system in this catalog. Compounds are built like Lego: stack digit + unit-word + digit + unit-word, separated by spaces. The one morpheme worth learning is se-, a prefix meaning "one" that attaches to every unit word — sepuluh, seratus, seribu, sejuta.

i
If you only remember one thing: se- means "one" before unit words. So 10 is sepuluh (not satu puluh), 100 is seratus, 1.000 is seribu, 1.000.000 is sejuta. Past one of each unit, switch back to the regular digit: dua puluh, dua ratus, dua ribu.
01

Zero to ten

Eleven words to memorize — the only items in the entire system that don't follow a rule. After this, everything composes.

0
nol
1
satu
2
dua
3
tiga
4
empat
5
lima
6
enam
7
tujuh
8
delapan
9
sembilan
se- + puluh
10
sepuluh
02

11 – 99: belas & puluh

Teens use belas (digit + belas). Tens use puluh (digit + puluh). Compounds just stack: dua puluh satu = 21 ("two ten one"). All written as separate words, not fused.

11 – 19: digit + belas

se- + belas
11
sebelas
12
dua belas
13
tiga belas
14
empat belas
15
lima belas
17
tujuh belas
19
sembilan belas

20 – 90: digit + puluh

20
dua puluh
30
tiga puluh
40
empat puluh
50
lima puluh
60
enam puluh
70
tujuh puluh
80
delapan puluh
90
sembilan puluh

21 – 99: just stack

21
dua puluh satu
35
tiga puluh lima
47
empat puluh tujuh
68
enam puluh delapan
76
tujuh puluh enam
99
sembilan puluh sembilan
i
No "and" connector, no hyphens, no fused word. Just three (or more) separate words, in left-to-right place-value order. Empat puluh tujuh reads literally as "four ten seven" = 47. The structure is the meaning.
03

Hundreds, thousands, millions

Same rule, scaled up. Every new unit word — ratus, ribu, juta, miliar, triliun — takes se- for "one of." Compose left-to-right, biggest unit first.

The se- ladder

10 sepuluh se + puluh (ten)
11 sebelas se + belas (teen)
100 seratus se + ratus (hundred)
1.000 seribu se + ribu (thousand)
1.000.000 sejuta se + juta (million)
1.000.000.000 semiliar se + miliar (billion)

Multiples

200
dua ratus
500
lima ratus
900
sembilan ratus
2.000
dua ribu
10.000
sepuluh ribu
100.000
seratus ribu
2 M
dua juta
1 B
semiliar / satu miliar

In the wild

345
tiga ratus empat puluh lima
3 × ratus + 4 × puluh + 5
2.743
dua ribu tujuh ratus empat puluh tiga
2 × ribu + 7 × ratus + 4 × puluh + 3
8.015
delapan ribu lima belas
8 × ribu + (5 + belas) — no zero filler needed
!
Long-scale, like its European counterparts. Indonesian miliar = 10⁹ (matches French milliard, German Milliarde, Russian миллиард). For 10¹², Indonesian uses triliun. The borrowed terms come from Dutch — a colonial legacy that aligned the country with long-scale Europe.
04

Ordinals: ke- prefix

Just prefix ke- to the cardinal. kedua (2nd), ketiga (3rd), kelima (5th). The one exception is "first" — pertama, not kesatu (though kesatu is acceptable in some contexts). Written form often uses a hyphen with digits: abad ke-21.

special
1st
pertama
2nd
kedua
3rd
ketiga
4th
keempat
5th
kelima
6th
keenam
7th
ketujuh
10th
kesepuluh
21st
ke-21 / ke-dua puluh satu
written form uses hyphen + digit; spoken form spells it out
05

Things to remember

Five rules that cover essentially the entire system.

1.
Se- for "one of" before every unit word: sepuluh, seratus, seribu, sejuta, semiliar, sebelas. Past one of each unit, switch back to a regular digit (dua puluh, dua ratus).
2.
Separate words, no fusion. 47 = empat puluh tujuh (three words). 2.743 = dua ribu tujuh ratus empat puluh tiga (six words). Unlike German or Italian, never fused into one.
3.
No "and", no hyphens, no irregulars 2-99. Just stack place values left-to-right. Tiga ratus empat puluh lima reads exactly like "three hundred four ten five" = 345.
4.
Long-scale, via Dutch. Miliar = 10⁹, triliun = 10¹². If you came from English, your billion is miliar, not triliun.
5.
Ordinals: prefix ke- to the cardinal. One exception: pertama for "first." Written form often uses ke-21, ke-100 with hyphen + digit.
Drill it

Reading is one thing.
Hearing it at speed is another.

The companion iOS app generates random numbers in your chosen range and reads them aloud in Indonesian. Five minutes a day.

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