Tulang saya sakit.

Tulang means bone. In Indonesian, many nouns do not change form for singular vs. plural, so tulang can mean bone or bones depending on context.

So Tulang saya sakit can be understood as:

• My bone hurts
• My bones hurt

Context tells you which one is meant.

Because Indonesian usually shows possession with this pattern:

noun + possessor

So:

• tulang saya = my bone / my bones
• literally, this is like bone my

This is normal Indonesian word order. English says my bone, but Indonesian says bone my.

It can be both, depending on position.

• Saya before a verb often means I
• Saya after a noun often means my

In this sentence:

• tulang saya = my bone / my bones

So here saya is functioning as a possessive word.

Indonesian often leaves out the verb to be when English would use is, are, am, and so on.

So instead of saying something like Tulang saya adalah sakit, Indonesian simply says:

Tulang saya sakit

This is completely normal. The meaning My bone is painful / My bones are painful is understood without a separate word for is/are.

Sakit can mean sick, ill, hurt, or painful, depending on context.

With a body part, it usually means:

• hurts
• is painful

So in Tulang saya sakit, sakit does not mean the bone is “sick” in the English sense. It means the bone hurts or is painful.

Yes, it is understandable and natural enough.

It means that your bone or bones hurt. In real conversation, though, speakers often get more specific if they can, for example:

• Tulang kaki saya sakit = My leg bone hurts
• Punggung saya sakit = My back hurts
• Sendi saya sakit = My joints hurt

So Tulang saya sakit works, but in everyday speech people may often mention the exact area.

Not for the same meaning.

• Tulang saya sakit = My bone/bones hurt
• Saya sakit = I am sick / I feel ill

If you say Saya sakit tulang, it does not sound like the normal way to express My bones hurt.

For pain in a body part, Indonesian often uses:

• [body part] + saya + sakit or
• Saya sakit + certain fixed expressions, such as saya sakit gigi for I have a toothache

But with tulang, Tulang saya sakit is the clearer choice.

Yes. Aku is a more informal way to say I / me / my.

So you could say:

• Tulang aku sakit

That is understandable, but many speakers would more naturally say:

• Tulangku sakit

In general:

• saya = more neutral or polite
• aku = more casual and personal

Yes. Tulangku sakit is a very natural alternative.

The ending -ku means my, so:

• tulangku = my bone / my bones

This gives you two common ways to express possession:

• tulang saya
• tulangku

Both are correct. Tulangku sakit sounds a bit more compact and often more natural in casual speech.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

too-lahng sah-yah sah-keet

More roughly:

• tulang → too-lahng
• saya → sah-yah
• sakit → sah-keet

A few helpful notes:

• u is like oo in food
• a is usually like a in father
• i is like ee in see
• the final ng in tulang is like the ng in song

Stress in Indonesian is usually not as strong or dramatic as in English.

Not necessarily.

Indonesian often leaves nouns unmarked for number, so tulang can already mean bone or bones. You only use reduplication like tulang-tulang when you specifically want to emphasize plurality or make it very clear from context.

In this sentence, plain tulang is enough.

No, not normally.

Although tulang is related to bones, Tulang saya sakit is understood as talking about bone pain, not about your whole skeleton being diseased.

The natural interpretation is:

• My bone hurts or
• My bones hurt

So sakit here is about pain, not about a strange idea like a “sick skeleton.”