French vs Indonesian: 300 Words That Are Nearly Identical

French vs Indonesian: 300 Words That Are Nearly Identical: the list

Tips

• Many pairs are lookalikes because both languages took the word from the same international vocabulary, not because French and Indonesian are related: bar / bar, bus / bus and cool / cool are spelled identically.
• Watch the French -re ending against the Indonesian -er ending: centre / center, ordre / order and monstre / monster all follow it, so you can often predict one form from the other.
• French -eur frequently corresponds to Indonesian -ur: directeur / direktur and inspecteur / inspektur. If you know the French word, you are most of the way to the Indonesian one.
• Don't assume shared spelling means shared pronunciation. Pairs like cours / course, cas / cas and bus / bus look alike on the page, but French silent final consonants and vowel qualities differ from Indonesian's more consistent spelling-to-sound reading, so say each one out loud instead of only recognising it.
• Going from Indonesian to French, expect accents and silent letters that the Indonesian form drops: héros, système, téléphone and planète versus hero, system, telepon and planet.
• Remember that French nouns carry grammatical gender, which these pairs don't show: you still need la maman, la tante and le parti, while Indonesian mama, tante and partai require no gender at all.

Frequently asked questions

Are these words true cognates, or just coincidences?

Most are lookalikes because both languages ended up with the same internationally circulated vocabulary, which is why forms like système / system or appartement / apartemen sit so close together. Very few are chance resemblances, but the shared shape is a memory aid rather than proof that the two languages are related.

Will Vocab Voyage mark my answer wrong if I skip the accent?

No. You type the French word for the English prompt, and accents are forgiven, so writing systeme instead of système or planete instead of planète still counts as correct.

What's the best way to actually learn these pairs instead of just recognising them?

Study them as French flashcards in Vocab Voyage rather than only reading the list: spaced repetition brings each word back around the time you would start to forget it, and typing the French form for an English prompt makes you produce the spelling instead of just recognising a familiar shape.

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