2torial #0828: Learn2 Get By in Indonesian (continued) Learn the basic pronunciation Listening carefully to native speakers is a good way to grasp the sounds and inflections of Indonesian pronunciation. It's easy to follow as Indonesian is consistently phonetic--meaning that words and letters never never veer from their assigned sounds. Unlike English, which gives us charming words like "thought," "drought" and "draught" to decipher, Indonesian is purely WYSIWYS, or "what you see is what you speak." Indonesian is pronounced as it it is read. It incorporates a Roman alphabet (that's the alphabet you're reading right now), which is, for the most part, pronounced similarly to English--with some notable exceptions: "c" is pronounced as "ch," as in "change." coba (cho-ba) = to try cari (cha-ri) = to look for, to seek "g" is always hard, as in "girl." gaji = salary, wages gula = sugar "h" is pronounced very softly, sometimes not pronounced at all. habis (a-bis) = finished hidup (i-dup) = to live "kh" is pronounced as a hard "k," as in "kitchen" khabar = news khusus = special "e" is soft, like the "u" in "but" empat = four beli = to buy Stress: Indonesian is spoken rhythmically with little or no stress. In words that have two or more syllables, a light stress falls on the penultimate syllable. sa'ya (sa-YA) = I te ta' pi (te-TA-pi) = but ke ma' rin (ke-MA-rin) = yesterday The weak "e" in open syllables is never stressed. ke ma' rin (ke-MA-rin) = yesterday kecil' = small Words derived from foreign terms are stressed according to the Dutch or French usage. presiden' (pray-si-den) = president parlemen' (par-le-men) = parliament demokrasi' (dey-mo-kra-si) = democracy poli'si (po-li-si) = policy ekonomi' (ay-ko-no-mi) = economy.   Step 2