The Malay Alphabet and Letter Names | Malay Grammar

Standard Malaysian Malay is written in Rumi, an alphabet of the same twenty-six basic Latin letters used by English. The inventory is familiar, but the names of several letters and their usual distribution are not identical to English. This page is about identifying and ordering written letters; for the sounds they represent, begin with the pronunciation map.

Nama saya dieja N-U-R, iaitu en-yu-ar.

My name is spelled N-U-R: en-yu-ar.

In normal running text, Malay needs no accent marks. The pedagogical é sometimes used to distinguish e taling from e pepet is a pronunciation aid, not a mandatory letter of the alphabet.

The twenty-six letters and their Malay names

The table gives the standard reference names used when a letter is mentioned by itself. Capital and small forms are two forms of one letter, not separate alphabet entries.

Letter	Malay name	Letter	Malay name	Letter	Malay name
A a	e	J j	je	S s	es
B b	bi	K k	ke	T t	ti
C c	si	L l	el	U u	yu
D d	di	M m	em	V v	vi
E e	i	N n	en	W w	dabliu
F f	ef	O o	o	X x	eks
G g	ji	P p	pi	Y y	wai
H h	ec	Q q	kiu	Z z	zet
I i	ai	R r	ar

These conventional names are labels for the written symbols. They do not tell you how a letter sounds inside every word. The name of c is si, for example, but c in an ordinary Malay word represents /tʃ/, as in cari. Likewise, j is named je and represents /dʒ/, not the English glide written y in yes.

Cikgu meminta kami menyebut huruf c sebagai si.

The teacher asked us to call the letter c si.

Perkataan cari bermula dengan huruf c, bukan huruf k.

The word cari begins with c, not k.

English speakers must pay special attention to a = e, e = i, i = ai, r = ar, and z = zet. The system resembles English letter naming historically, but it is its own established Malay list. An English clarification such as A as in apple may work in a bilingual office, but it is not a substitute for knowing the Malay names.

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Separate three facts in your mind: the symbol c, its Malay name si, and its sound /tʃ/ in cari. Letter name and speech sound serve different jobs.

Alphabetical order

Malay dictionary order runs a, b, c ... z. Digraphs such as ng, ny, sy, kh, and gh represent important sound combinations, but each still occupies the positions of its component letters in ordinary alphabetical sorting. There is no separate ng or sy section after n or s.

Dalam senarai itu, nama Halim muncul sebelum Hamid.

In that list, the name Halim appears before Hamid.

Kamus menyusun nyala di bawah huruf n, bukan sebagai huruf baharu.

The dictionary files nyala under n, not as a new letter.

When words share an initial letter, compare the next letter, and continue until they differ. Thus baca precedes badan, because c comes before d at the third position. Spaces and punctuation may be handled differently by a particular database, catalogue, or software sorter; that is a data-management convention, not a change to the alphabet.

Susun nama Amin, Anita dan Arif mengikut abjad.

Arrange the names Amin, Anita, and Arif alphabetically.

Core letters and restricted distributions

Most Malay vocabulary uses letters with stable and frequent distributions. V and z occur especially often in loans such as vitamin, universiti, zaman, and zon. They are fully ordinary Malay letters even though much inherited vocabulary does not contain them.

Q and x are official members of the alphabet but have much narrower roles. Q is retained in certain personal names, proper names, transliterations, symbols, and specialized forms; many general loanwords with source-language q are adapted with k, as in kuota and akuarium. X occurs initially in specialized terms such as xenon and in names or symbols, while the sound sequence elsewhere is commonly written ks, as in teksi, kompleks, and ekstra. The exact spelling of an established word must be learned or checked; the alphabet alone does not license freely replacing k with q or ks with x.

Ahli kimia itu menerangkan sifat gas xenon kepada pelajar.

The chemist explained the properties of xenon gas to the students.

Nama Tariq dikekalkan mengikut ejaan pemiliknya.

The name Tariq is kept in the spelling used by its owner.

Proper names deserve special care. Do not “correct” a person's q, x, or another unusual letter merely because it is rare in ordinary Malay vocabulary. Ask the person to spell the name.

Spelling aloud in real situations

Use letter names when the written form matters: giving a name over the telephone, correcting a booking, reading a vehicle registration, or distinguishing an initialism. In a noisy setting, group the letters and add a familiar keyword if necessary.

Nama keluarga saya Lim: el-ai-em.

My family name is Lim: el-ai-em.

Nombor pendaftarannya VBA 3261, dibaca vi-bi-e, tiga dua enam satu.

The registration number is VBA 3261, read vi-bi-e, three two six one.

Kod itu berakhir dengan X-Z, iaitu eks-zet.

The code ends in X-Z: eks-zet.

An email address mixes words, letters, punctuation, and often English-derived digital vocabulary. In contemporary conversation, speakers may say titik for a dot and at for @ (informal/technical); institutional scripts may prescribe their own reading. The essential point is to pronounce the letters consistently and then confirm the complete written address.

Alamat e-mel saya ialah lina23@contoh.my: el-ai-en-e, dua tiga, at, si-o-en-ti-o-ec, titik em-wai.

My email address is lina23@contoh.my: el-ai-en-e, two three, at, si-o-en-ti-o-ec, dot em-wai.

Initialisms are also spelled with letter names. ATM, for example, is read letter by letter as e-ti-em. A pronounceable acronym may instead be read as a word; abbreviations and acronyms explains that orthographic distinction.

Mesin ATM itu rosak, jadi saya pergi ke cawangan bank.

The ATM is out of order, so I went to the bank branch.

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When clarification matters, say the whole item once, spell the uncertain part, and repeat the whole item. That is more useful than racing through a long chain of isolated letters.

Common Mistakes

Using an English name for a Malay letter

❌ Nama saya bermula dengan A, disebut ei.

Incorrect in a Malay letter-naming exercise — A is conventionally called e.

✅ Nama saya bermula dengan A, disebut e.

My name begins with A, pronounced e as a letter name.

Confusing a letter name with its sound in a word

❌ Huruf c dalam cari berbunyi /s/.

Incorrect — the name si does not make c represent /s/ in Malay cari.

✅ Huruf c dalam cari berbunyi /tʃ/.

The letter c in cari represents /tʃ/.

Treating a digraph as a twenty-seventh letter

❌ Ny ialah satu lagi huruf selepas n dalam abjad Melayu.

Incorrect — ny is a two-letter spelling, not a separate alphabet entry.

✅ Ny terdiri daripada huruf n dan y.

Ny consists of the letters n and y.

Replacing an established spelling with q or x

❌ Kami menunggu teksi di luar komplex itu.

Incorrect — these established Malay spellings do not use x here.

✅ Kami menunggu teksi di luar kompleks itu.

We waited for a taxi outside that complex.

Key Takeaways

Malay Rumi has twenty-six letters in the familiar international order, but use the standard Malay names when spelling aloud. Remember that a letter name is not its pronunciation inside a word, that digraphs do not add new alphabet entries, and that rare q and x remain official letters whose use is governed by established spellings and proper names.

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