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Indonesian plurals: say it twice, or do not bother

Indonesian has no plural ending. It doubles the word, and most of the time it does not mark plural at all.

a1Lesson 30 of 435 min

By the end of this lesson

  • Form a plural when you actually need one
  • Recognise doubling that has nothing to do with quantity

There is no -s. To make a plural, you say the word twice, joined by a hyphen in writing.

buku ‘book’ becomes buku-buku ‘books’
anak ‘child’ becomes anak-anak ‘children’

But you usually do not need it

This is the part that matters. If the number is already clear, Indonesian does not mark it.

A single book lying alone on the left, and a tall stack of many books on the right.

Saya beli tiga buku. ‘I bought three books.’

No doubling. The word tiga has already said three, so repeating the noun would be redundant, and Indonesian does not tolerate redundancy.

The same goes when the plural is obvious from context. Banyak orang ‘many people’ needs no doubling either.

So the honest rule is: double it only when you need to signal plurality and nothing else in the sentence does.

Doubling that is not plural

The same mechanism does other jobs, which is why you cannot treat doubling as a plural marker.

Jalan-jalan is not ‘roads’. Jalan is ‘to walk’, and doubled it means to wander about with no particular purpose. It is the standard answer to mau ke mana? and it means, roughly, nowhere in particular.

Pelan-pelan ‘slowly’ doubles an adjective to soften it.

Kadang-kadang ‘sometimes’.

How to tell them apart

Doubled nouns are usually plural. Doubled verbs are usually casual or repeated action. Doubled adjectives are usually softened.

You do not need to classify them consciously. Learn the common ones as vocabulary and the pattern will settle on its own.

Words from this lesson

buku-bukubooksDoubled. But buku alone is usually enough.
anak-anakchildren
jalan-jalanto go for a wanderDoubling with no plural meaning at all.
pelan-pelanslowly

Check yourself

Four questions on what's above. Pick one and the answer explains itself. No score, no streak, nothing to sign up for.

  1. 1.'I bought three books.' Saya beli tiga ___.

  2. 2.You want to say 'books' with nothing else in the sentence to signal plurality. ___

  3. 3.Banyak orang. 'Many people'. Why is orang not doubled?