Indonesian fruits quiz

Two fruits named after what they feel like

Rambut is hair. Duri is thorn. Add -an to either and you get the fruit that is covered in the stuff:

rambut 'hair' → rambutan, red and soft-spined
duri 'thorn' → durian, armoured and famous

That -an is not a fruit ending. It is one of the most productive suffixes in the language, and it turns things into other things all day long: makan 'to eat' gives makanan 'food', minum 'to drink' gives minuman 'a drink'. Once you start seeing it, half the words on a menu come apart in your hands.

Jeruk is not orange

Jeruk is the whole citrus family, and the second word narrows it down. Ask for jeruk on its own and the seller decides what you meant.

Es jeruk on a drinks board is fresh orange over ice, and it is the default cold drink in half the warungs in the country.

Mangga is not manggis

Mangga is a mango. Manggis is a mangosteen: small, hard purple shell, white segments inside that taste nothing like a mango. Two letters apart, two different fruits, and getting them confused is the standard first-week mistake.

The other pair worth separating: nanas is pineapple and nangka is jackfruit, the heavy one that grows straight out of the trunk of the tree.

Buah naga, and why the words are in that order

Buah is fruit, naga is dragon, and buah naga is dragon fruit. The main noun comes first and the word that describes it comes second, which is the same order as rumah saya 'my house' and air kelapa 'coconut water'. English does it the other way around and never warns you.

So kelapa muda is young coconut, the soft one you drink through a straw, and kelapa tua is the old one you grate for milk. That muda is the same word that turns up in colours, where hijau muda is light green.

What the book says, what you'll hear

What the book says: Berapa harga mangga ini per kilogram?
What you'll hear: Mangga sekilo berapa?

The price question ends on berapa and everything else falls away. Sekilo is satu kilo run together, the same se- that gives you seribu for a thousand. If the answer sounds too high, that is what bargaining is for, and fruit stalls are one of the places it is still normal.

Two more words the seller will use before you do. Matang is ripe, mentah is unripe, and belum matang is not a refusal: it means give it two days. Manis is sweet and asam is sour, and green mango with salt and chilli is sold as a snack because asam is the point of it.

The durian signs are real

Hotels, buses and airport terminals put up a sign with a durian in a red circle and the words dilarang membawa durian, which is 'bringing durian is forbidden'. The smell gets into fabric and stays there for days. Nobody is joking, and the fruit is worth trying anyway.

Where this goes next

Fruit is the easiest vocabulary you will ever pick up, because you can point at every word on this page. The lesson on buying at the market adds the weights and the words for freshness, and reading a menu does the same for everything cooked.