The 1,2,3 of Bahasa Melayu

Selmat Datang! Nama saya Corinne, guru anda! Hari ini, saya akan menajar kamu Behasa Melayu. Welcome! My name is Corinne, your teacher! Today I will teach you Bahasa Melayu!

This lesson dives into numbers and the basics of counting- which happens to be super simple! Jom!

Numbers: 

The system for numbers in Bahasa Melayu is probably one of the most simple ones in the world and it’s not difficult to know vastly complex numbers after learning the first ten.

1. Satu
2. Dua
3. Tiga
4. Empat
5. Lima
6. Enam
7. Tujuh
8. Lapan
9. Sembilan
10. Sepuluh
11. Sebelas
12. Duabelas

For high level numbers there becomes an extremely simple pattern.

• 10 – Sepuluh (puluh)
• 100 – Seratus (ratus)
• 1,000 – Seribu (ribu)
• 1,000,000 – Sejuta (juta)

Now the moment of brilliance, what if you would like to say “372” in Bahasa Melayu?

Tiga ratus – Three hundred

Tujuh puluh – Seventy

Dua – Two

It is basically that simple with the caveat of the numbers 11-19 but they also follow the pattern by simply adding belas after every number (e.g. Enam belas – sixteen). The basic ten numbers and the endings for 10-1,000,000 can basically cover all your number needs for daily life.

Let’s try a little activity!