The Indonesian Alphabet and Letter Names

Contemporary Indonesian uses the same twenty-six basic Latin letters found in English, but it gives many of them different names. If you use English names while spelling a reservation, username, or document number, a listener may write the wrong letter even though your Indonesian sentence is otherwise perfect.

This page follows EYD V for the alphabet, letter names, and order. It covers orthographic identification rather than the pronunciation of letters inside words, derivational meaning, or stylistic editing; those topics have their own pages.

For the sound each spelling represents inside real words, begin with the practical pronunciation map.

The complete alphabet

The official EYD V table distinguishes the written name of a letter from its prescribed utterance where necessary. Most are identical. The surprises are q, whose name is qi and whose utterance is ki, and v, whose name is ve and whose utterance is fe.

Read the sequence as a, be, ce, de, e, ef, ge, ha, i, je, ka, el, em, en, o, pe, ki, er, es, te, u, fe, we, eks, ye, zet. English bee, see, gee, jay, cue, double-u, and why do not belong in an Indonesian clarification sequence.

Letter names are not word pronunciations

The name ce identifies the character c; inside a word, c normally represents /tʃ/. The name ge identifies g; inside a word, g represents /ɡ/. Letter naming and reading a word are different tasks.

This distinction explains why spelling helps when two names sound similar. You say each letter’s Indonesian name; you do not repeat the sound it happens to have in the word.

Spelling personal names aloud

A useful clarification frame is Nama saya …, ejaannya … (“My name is …; it is spelled …”). Separate letter names with a steady rhythm and repeat only the uncertain section.

In the last sentence, qi is the official written name of q, but the oral sequence begins ki. If a clerk asks Pakai ka atau qi? (“Is that with k or q?”), the contrast concerns the character, even though the official utterance of qi is ki. Saying huruf q can remove any residual ambiguity.

Spelling an email address

Indonesian speakers commonly say titik for a period and often use at for @. Numbers are read individually when they are part of an address. Consider nina.putri7@contoh.id:

In careful service interactions, spell the address once, let the listener repeat it, and correct the smallest segment necessary. Pronouncing the whole alphabet faster does not improve accuracy.

Initialisms and acronyms

An initialism is read letter by letter with Indonesian names: KTP is ka-te-pe, DPR is de-pe-er, and WC is we-ce. A pronounceable acronym may function as a word: SIM (“driver’s license”) is normally read sim, not es-i-em. The detailed formation and punctuation of abbreviations belongs on the abbreviations page.

Do not assume that an uppercase sequence must be read one letter at a time. Established usage determines whether speakers say a word or a sequence of names.

Q and x are official but restricted

The alphabet is not a reduced twenty-four-letter system. Q and x are official letters, yet EYD V largely reserves them for personal and place names or specialized fields. Official examples include qariah, iqra, and Benuaq for q, and xenon, marxisme, and Max for x. Initial x in a technical word such as xenon is pronounced [s], while medial or final x commonly represents [ks].

Letters f, v, and z entered much vocabulary through borrowing, including Arabic, Dutch, and international technical terms. They are now ordinary in established words such as fakir, variasi, and zaman. Loan origin does not make those spellings optional.

Alphabetical order and letter combinations

Indonesian alphabetical order is A through Z in the table above. The combinations kh, ng, ny, and sy represent important sounds, but they are not additional alphabet letters. Sort them one character at a time: a word beginning ng- belongs under n, after na- and ne- but before ni- because its second letter is g.

Capital and lowercase shapes do not change sorting identity. Andi and andi begin with the same alphabet letter even though only the personal name is correctly capitalized.

No mandatory accent marks in ordinary Indonesian

Standard Indonesian uses no mandatory acute, grave, circumflex, or other accent marks on ordinary words. The two common sounds written e are normally left unmarked. A teaching resource may write é temporarily to distinguish /e/ from schwa, but ordinary prose writes enak, meja, and emas without accents.

Foreign names may preserve characters required by their own naming conventions, but that does not expand the twenty-six-letter Indonesian alphabet. Orthographic details of loanwords and names deserve their dedicated treatment.

Common Mistakes

Using English names for B, I, M, and A

Calling q “cue”

Calling w “double-u”

Treating ng as a separate alphabet letter

Key Takeaways

Indonesian has twenty-six official letters in A–Z order. Use Indonesian letter names when spelling aloud, especially ce, ge, je, ki, fe, we, and ye. Read some uppercase sequences letter by letter and established acronyms as words. Q and x are genuine alphabet members but occur chiefly in names and specialized terms, and ordinary Indonesian words require no accent marks.