Learn Basic Indonesian (Part 2)

About counting items in Indonesian

In Indonesian  language, like many other Asian languages, objects are counted  based on the category they fall into; namely according to their characteristics,  rather than just by number.

For people, they are counted  as 'orang'. Then, you can say 'dua orang murid' (two students) and 'dua orang guru' (two teachers).

For animals, they are counted  in tails (ekor) - whether  they really have one or not; such as 'dua ekor anjing' (literaly means two tails of dogs, which just means two dogs).

For flat objects, such as paper (kertas), they are counted  by using 'lembar'... Tiga (3) lembar kertas, three sheets of paper.


About vocabulary in Indonesian

If compared with English, Indonesian  vocabulary is very literal, which can help your learning considerably,  if you have internalized with the raw vocabulary. For example: pencil in Indonesian is 'pensil'. There is no plural for the word 'gigi' (can be either tooth or teeth).
In English, you have to differentiate between young animals to mention dog/puppy, cat/kitten and so on. While in Indonesian, you simply add the word 'anak' for young animals so just say anjing/anak anjing, kucing/anak kucing, etc.