The 1,000 Most Common Indonesian Words

Ranked by real-world frequency. Study all of them free with spaced repetition.

More Indonesian lists: Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs About learning Indonesian

The 1,000 Most Common Indonesian Words: the list

Tips for learning Indonesian words

• Both tidak and tak mean 'not', with tak being the shorter form, so learn to recognise both but default to tidak when you produce an answer.
• Treat near-synonyms as pairs rather than unrelated entries: lihat and melihat both mean 'to see' (melihat is lihat with the me- prefix), and mau and ingin both mean 'to want'.
• Small, frequent words like saja, hanya, sangat, lagi, and lebih appear constantly, so drilling them early unlocks more sentences than memorising rarer nouns.
• Practise high-frequency words inside short phrases rather than alone — pair sudah or jadi with a verb you already know, so you learn how they attach in a real sentence.
• Group everyday verbs such as tahu (to know), lihat / melihat (to see), and katakan (to say) and review them together, since they recur constantly and are easy to mix up when learned separately.
• Watch for words with more than one job: besides 'to become', jadi is also a very common discourse marker meaning 'so', so note each new use as you meet it in context.