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A basic course in Bahasa Malaysia (or Malaysian language - originally Malay language)   ©PJG
Books on Bahasa Malaysia.
These lessons are copyrighted and their publication in any form is strictly prohibited.


Hi, welcome!
Bahasa Malaysia is Malaysia's national language and is formerly known as Bahasa Melayu (Malay language). It is not only spoken in Malaysia but is also widely spoken in Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore. Some people say that Bahasa Malaysia is an easy language. To a certain extent it is, but believe me, it is not so easy that you can afford to study it while listening to your favourite music at the same time!
The truth is there is no EASY language in the world. Everything is relative so when people say that Malay is an easy language what they really mean is that it IS easy when compared to studying a language like English, French or Mandarin, for example. Thus if you might need to spend at least 300 hours studying English, French or Mandarin before you are able to use it in a simple conversation, you need only spend say, 100 hours studying Malay before you are able to do so. This is because in Malay there is no past tense or past participles of verbs to study as in English, the verbs are not conjugated as in French and you don't have to worry about getting the tones right in order to be understood as you have to in Mandarin.

 Lesson 8  Numbers (10-99)


BEFORE YOU BEGIN:
If you have mastered counting from one to nine in Lesson 5 you now need to know only two more words (belas and puluh) to be able to count from 10 to 99.
Counting from 11 to 19 in Malay is simple when you remember how 13 to 19 are counted in English (as in four-teen, six-teen, eighteen, nine-teen). The "teen" in the second syllable is replaced by belas, that's all. Study the examples in the first column.
Counting the tens (10, 20, 30, 40, etc.) in Malay is like counting the tens in English (note the second syllable in forty, six-ty, eighty, nine-ty). The "ty" is replaced by puluh, that's all. Study the examples in the second column.
As for all the other numbers in-between 10 and 99 they are formed in exactly the same way as in English . Thus when you have a number such as 47 you only have to say forty (empat puluh) first, then seven (tujuh). For more examples see Column 3 in the table below (I have underlined the part in tens to help you). Good luck!

Click to listen  

A second reading (by Michelle Nor Ismat, a native speaker)
sebelas = 11
dua belas = 12
tiga belas = 13
empat belas = 14
lima belas = 15
enam belas = 16
tujuh belas = 17
lapan belas = 18
sembilan belas = 19
sepuluh = 10
dua puluh = 20
tiga puluh= 30
empat puluh = 40
lima puluh = 50
enam puluh = 60
tujuh puluh = 70
lapan puluh = 80
sembilan puluh = 90
83 = lapan puluh tiga
21 = dua puluh satu
36 = tiga puluh enam
47 = empat puluh tujuh
54 = lima puluh empat
65 = enam puluh lima
78 = tujuh puluh lapan
82 = lapan puluh dua
99 = sembilan puluh sembilan

Try to say the random numbers below (they change every day). When you are able to do so without looking at the table you would have mastered this lesson. Congratulations! Good work!
            66            36             44            69            58            43            81             22

For those who want to know more:
When satu is added to another word it is often contracted to se and tagged on to the following word. Thus "satu" puluh (one ten or 10) becomes sepuluh.
This is also the case with sebelas (= 11 - remember that in Malay all numbers from 11 to 19 end in belas).




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