Numbers and Time in Indonesian

In Brief

Indonesian numbers are built from a few regular pieces: dua belas is 12, dua puluh is 20, and dua puluh satu is 21. Ask Jam berapa sekarang? for the time and Berapa harganya? for a price. Use pukul before a specific clock time, and add pagi, siang, sore, or malam when the part of the day matters.

Overview

Numbers and time belong to the practical core of A1 Indonesian. You use them to give an age or phone number, arrange a meeting, read opening hours, ask a price, and pay in rupiah. The number system is especially learner-friendly: number words do not change for gender, and the same form works before different kinds of nouns (words for people, things, places, or ideas): dua buku “two books,” dua orang “two people,” and dua jam “two hours.”

The basic pattern is more regular than English spelling. Once you know 0–10 and the building blocks belas for 11–19, puluh for tens, and ratus for hundreds, you can form every number through 100. Indonesian does not insert an equivalent of English “and” inside a number: 42 is empat puluh dua.

Clock time requires one useful distinction. Pukul introduces the time at which something happens, while jam means “clock,” “o’clock,” or a duration measured in hours. In everyday conversation, however, jam is also very common when asking or giving the time. Prices introduce larger-looking numbers early because the rupiah has relatively large denominations: even a simple snack may cost several ribu, or thousands, of rupiah.

How It Works

The basic numbers: 0–10

Number	Indonesian	Note
0	nol	kosong means “empty” and is also used for a zero when reading a sequence
1	satu	becomes se- in a few compounds
2	dua
3	tiga
4	empat
5	lima
6	enam
7	tujuh
8	delapan
9	sembilan
10	sepuluh	the regular special form with se-

Learn sepuluh as one word, not as satu puluh. The prefix se-, which carries the idea of “one” in these forms, also appears in sebelas (11), seratus (100), and seribu (1,000).

Forming 11–19 with belas

Eleven has the special form sebelas. From 12 through 19, place the unit first and belas second:

Number	Indonesian	Pattern
11	sebelas	special form
12	dua belas	two + belas
13	tiga belas	three + belas
14	empat belas	four + belas
15	lima belas	five + belas
16	enam belas	six + belas
17	tujuh belas	seven + belas
18	delapan belas	eight + belas
19	sembilan belas	nine + belas

The order deserves attention. Sixteen is enam belas, literally “six teen,” not belas enam. Do not form 11 as satu belas.

Forming 20–100 with puluh and ratus

Puluh marks tens. Put a number from two to nine before it, then add the final unit if there is one.

Number	Indonesian	Structure
20	dua puluh	two tens
21	dua puluh satu	two tens + one
35	tiga puluh lima	three tens + five
48	empat puluh delapan	four tens + eight
70	tujuh puluh	seven tens
99	sembilan puluh sembilan	nine tens + nine
100	seratus	one hundred

For later use, hundreds follow the same logic: dua ratus is 200 and dua ratus lima puluh is 250. Thousands use ribu: seribu is 1,000 and dua ribu is 2,000. This extension matters immediately when discussing rupiah.

When reading a phone number, room number, or code, speakers may read the digits one by one rather than treating the sequence as a single quantity. Thus 205 can be dua ratus lima as a quantity but dua nol lima as a code. Kosong may replace nol in digit strings.

Numbers with nouns and people

A number normally comes before the noun:

• tiga buku — three books
• lima menit — five minutes
• dua hari — two days

Indonesian has classifiers (counting words placed between a number and some nouns), but beginners can communicate many quantities without mastering the whole system. One very common form is orang with people: dua orang siswa means “two students,” literally “two person student.” When orang is itself the noun, as in dua orang “two people,” the phrase looks the same.

Asking with berapa

Berapa asks for an unknown number or amount. Its English translation depends on context:

• Berapa? — How many? / How much? / What number?
• Berapa harganya? — How much is it?
• Jam berapa? — What time?
• Umur Anda berapa? — How old are you? (polite)
• Nomor teleponnya berapa? — What is the phone number?

English separates “how many,” “how much,” and “what time.” Indonesian often lets berapa do all three jobs, with the surrounding noun showing what is being asked.

Clock time: jam and pukul

Use pukul + number for a specific point on the clock, especially in schedules, announcements, and careful speech:

• pukul tujuh — at seven o’clock
• Rapat mulai pukul sembilan. — The meeting starts at nine.

Use jam for a clock or watch, and for duration:

• jam tangan — wristwatch
• dua jam — two hours

In ordinary conversation, jam also introduces a clock reading: jam tiga sore “three in the afternoon.” This overlap is normal. The practical beginner rule is: choose pukul when stating when an event occurs, and jam when asking Jam berapa? or speaking about a number of hours.

Minutes, half hours, and quarters

After an hour, lewat means “past,” while kurang means “to” or “before.” Setengah means “half,” and seperempat means “a quarter.”

Clock time	Indonesian	How it is viewed
3:05	pukul tiga lewat lima menit	five minutes past three
3:15	pukul tiga lewat seperempat	a quarter past three
3:30	pukul setengah empat	halfway toward four
3:45	pukul empat kurang seperempat	four minus a quarter
3:50	pukul empat kurang sepuluh menit	ten minutes to four

The half-hour pattern is the main trap for English speakers. Setengah empat means 3:30, not 4:30: Indonesian names the coming hour. In digital-style readings, speakers may also say pukul tiga tiga puluh for 3:30.

Parts of the day

Indonesian commonly adds a part of the day rather than relying only on AM and PM:

Expression	General sense	Example
pagi	morning	jam enam pagi — 6 AM
siang	around midday and early afternoon	jam satu siang — 1 PM
sore	later afternoon toward evening	jam lima sore — 5 PM
malam	evening and night	jam delapan malam — 8 PM

These are cultural time bands, not exact mathematical divisions, so their boundaries can vary with context and speaker. Tengah malam is midnight, and tengah hari is midday/noon. Official timetables may use a 24-hour clock: pukul 14.00 is read pukul empat belas and corresponds to 2 PM.

Prices and rupiah

The currency name follows the amount in full phrases:

• lima ribu rupiah — 5,000 rupiah
• dua puluh ribu rupiah — 20,000 rupiah
• seratus ribu rupiah — 100,000 rupiah

In speech, rupiah is often omitted when the currency is obvious: Harganya dua puluh ribu means “It costs twenty thousand [rupiah].” Written prices often use Rp, as in Rp20.000. Indonesian formatting convention commonly uses a period to group thousands, so Rp25.000 is twenty-five thousand rupiah, not twenty-five rupiah with a decimal fraction.

To ask, use Berapa harganya? or the shorter Berapa? when the context is clear. A natural answer is Harganya lima belas ribu rupiah or simply Lima belas ribu.

Examples in Context

Indonesian	English	Note
Saya punya dua buku.	I have two books.	The number comes before the noun.
Ada dua puluh lima orang di sini.	There are twenty-five people here.	Orang counts people.
Nomor kamar saya dua nol tujuh.	My room number is two-zero-seven.	Digits are read separately.
Jam berapa sekarang?	What time is it now?	The standard everyday time question.
Sekarang pukul sembilan pagi.	It is nine in the morning now.	Pukul introduces a precise clock time.
Kelas mulai pukul setengah delapan.	Class starts at 7:30.	Literally “half toward eight.”
Kereta berangkat pukul enam lewat lima belas menit.	The train leaves at 6:15.	A minutes-past construction.
Saya menunggu selama dua jam.	I wait for two hours.	Jam expresses duration; selama means “for/during.”
Kita bertemu jam tiga sore.	Let’s meet at 3 PM.	Conversational jam for an appointment.
Toko buka dari pukul delapan sampai pukul lima.	The shop is open from eight until five.	Dari ... sampai ... gives a time range.
Berapa harganya?	How much is it?	Literally asks what the price is.
Harganya tiga puluh ribu rupiah.	It costs thirty thousand rupiah.	Full price expression.
Yang ini hanya sepuluh ribu.	This one is only ten thousand.	The currency is understood.
Hari ini tanggal dua belas Mei.	Today is May 12.	A simple date uses tanggal + number + month.

Common Mistakes

Reversing the teen numbers

• Wrong: belas lima
• Right: lima belas
• Why: From 12 to 19, the unit comes before belas. Lima belas is 15.

Using satu belas for eleven

• Wrong: satu belas
• Right: sebelas
• Why: Eleven has a fixed form built with se-. The same shortened “one” appears in sepuluh, seratus, and seribu.

Misreading setengah empat

• Wrong interpretation: pukul setengah empat = 4:30
• Right interpretation: pukul setengah empat = 3:30
• Why: The named hour is the hour being approached: “halfway to four.” For 4:30, say pukul setengah lima.

Treating jam and pukul as fully interchangeable

• Wrong: Saya belajar pukul dua. when you mean “I study for two hours.”
• Right: Saya belajar selama dua jam.
• Why: Pukul dua identifies a point in time, 2:00. Dua jam is a duration of two hours.

Reading Indonesian price punctuation as an English decimal

• Wrong interpretation: Rp50.000 = fifty rupiah
• Right interpretation: Rp50.000 = fifty thousand rupiah
• Why: A period commonly separates groups of thousands in Indonesian writing.

Adding English “and” inside a number

• Wrong: empat puluh dan dua for 42
• Right: empat puluh dua
• Why: Indonesian joins tens and units directly. Dan means “and,” but it is not part of the normal number structure.

Usage Notes

In relaxed speech, complete phrases are often shortened. A seller may answer Dua puluh ribu instead of Harganya dua puluh ribu rupiah, and friends may say Jam tiga, ya when confirming an appointment. These are not incomplete in context; Indonesian readily leaves out information that everyone already understands.

Pukul sounds precise and is frequent in written schedules, news, formal announcements, and careful answers. Jam is extremely common in conversation. You may therefore hear both Acara mulai pukul tujuh malam and Acaranya mulai jam tujuh malam for “The event starts at seven in the evening.”

Speakers also use international-looking digital times, especially when reading screens and timetables. The separator is often written as a period in Indonesian contexts: 08.30. In speech, this can be read digit-style as delapan tiga puluh, while setengah sembilan is a natural traditional phrasing for 8:30.

For dates, cardinal numbers (ordinary counting numbers such as dua belas) are used rather than special equivalents of English ordinal forms like “twelfth”: tanggal dua belas Mei. A fuller treatment of day and month names belongs with dates, but the same number-building rules apply.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master these points at A1, but they explain forms you will meet later.

Ke- forms ordinal numbers (numbers showing position in an order): kedua “second,” ketiga “third,” and kesepuluh “tenth.” “First” is usually pertama, not kesatu in ordinary sequencing. Keep ordinals separate from dates, where Indonesian generally uses the plain number after tanggal.

The word se- extends beyond the forms taught here. It can express “one” or “a whole” in words such as sehari “one day/a day” and seminggu “one week/a week.” Meanwhile, repetition can create a distributive meaning (allocation one group at a time): satu-satu may mean “one by one.” These are productive patterns, not alternative ways to form an ordinary number.

Colloquial Indonesian has shortcuts for large amounts. Seribu may be pronounced or written informally as se-rebu in representations of casual speech, and ribu may be shortened in certain slang price expressions. Such forms vary by setting and region. As a learner, use the full standard forms—lima ribu, dua puluh ribu rupiah—and learn colloquial variants mainly for recognition.

For arithmetic and decimals, koma is the decimal marker: dua koma lima is 2.5. This matches Indonesian written convention, where a comma marks decimals and a period often groups thousands—the reverse of common US English formatting. Scientific, financial, or internationally formatted material may follow another house style, so always check the context.

Practice Tips

1. Build numbers in both directions. Write ten random figures from 0 to 100, say them in Indonesian, then have someone read Indonesian numbers for you to write as digits. Include easily confused pairs such as dua belas (12) and dua puluh (20).
2. Move a clock by five-minute steps. Say each time first with digits, then with lewat, kurang, or setengah. Give extra practice to setengah delapan = 7:30.
3. Make a rupiah shopping list. Label five everyday items with realistic prices using Rp, then ask and answer Berapa harganya? aloud. This makes ribu automatic rather than leaving it as an abstract “advanced” number.

Related Concepts

• Next step: Basic Time Words — add hari ini, kemarin, besok, and the parts of the day to your time expressions.
• Next step: Days, Months, and Dates — use numbers in complete calendar dates and learn day and month names.
• Next step: Quantity Expressions — move beyond exact numbers with banyak, sedikit, beberapa, and semua.