Whether you’re studying Indonesian or just dropping by for a visit to Jakarta, you’ll probably find yourself at an impasse pretty quickly if you don’t know how to orient yourself in time. With a few vocabulary terms, a decent grasp on Indonesian numbers, and an understanding of how the Indonesian date format works, you’ll be well-equipped to make plans for the future or talk about things that happened in the past.
Below, you’ll find a simple vocabulary and pronunciation guide for Indonesian weekdays and months, as well as a quick primer on how to talk about the date in Indonesian.
Days Of The Week In Indonesian
Quick grammatical note: to say that something happens “on Monday,” you would simply say “pada hari Senin.”
Monday — hari Senin
Tuesday — hari Selasa
Wednesday — hari Rabu
Thursday — hari Kamis
Friday — hari Jumat
Saturday — hari Sabtu
Sunday — hari Minggu
Months Of The Year In Indonesian
Recognize a few of these? The names of the months in Indonesian come from Latin, so they won’t be too hard for an English speaker to figure out.
January — Januari
February — Februari
March — Maret
April — April
May — Mei
June — Juni
July — Juli
August — Agustus
September — September
October — Oktober
November — November
December — Desember
The Indonesian Date Format
When you want to properly express the date in Indonesian, you use the following formula: tanggal + number + bulan + name of the month.
So for example, if you wanted to say “today is March 15th,” this would translate to Hari ini tanggal lima belas bulan Maret.
To add the year, you would tack on “tahun” and the year. So “I was born on August 4th, 1996” would become “Saya lahir pada tanggal 4 bulan Agustus tahun 1996.”
However, take note: this is a very formal way to express the Indonesian date format. In everyday speech, “pada,” “tanggal,” “bulan,” and “tahun” are all left out.