Bahasa Indonesia — The Basics
Bahasa Indonesia (literally: “Language of Indonesia") is the official national language — and a linguistic marvel: An artificially created unifying language, based on Malay trade pidgin, that connects over 270 million people with 700+ different native languages.
Most Balinese people speak Balinese (Basa Bali) among themselves in everyday life — a completely different language with its own writing system and three language levels (high, medium, low). Bahasa Indonesia is the second language that everyone understands and uses in public communication.
Why Bahasa is so easy:
- No conjugation: “I go" = saya pergi. “You go" = kamu pergi. “He/she went" = dia pergi. “We will go" = kita pergi. The verb never changes!
- No articles: No “the," no “a/an"
- No grammatical genders: dia = he/she/it
- Plural by duplication: anak = child, anak-anak = children
- Latin alphabet: Written as spoken. C = “ch," J = “j," and that's it for exceptions.
Pronunciation: Almost phonetic. Vowels like in German (a, i, u, e, o). “r" is rolled. Stress is usually on the penultimate syllable.
💡 Tipp
Just a few words of Bahasa Indonesia at the market or in the warung will be rewarded with a beaming smile. Balinese people are incredibly appreciative when tourists make the effort to learn their language — even if it's just “Terima kasih" (Thank you).