The Plural in Indonesian: It’s More Complicated than You Think

Indonesian language textbooks often suggest that forming the plural in Indonesian is very simple. All you need to do is reduplicating the noun.

This is a gross over-simplification. Following this advice, the sentence “When I was a child, there were no computers” should then be rendered as follows:

Waktu saya anak, belum ada komputer-komputer

Unfortunately, this sentence sounds awkward, and no Indonesian would ever utter a sentence like that.

Now, let’s rephrase the sentence sounding more natural:

Waktu saya anak-anak, belum ada komputer

Now, the sentence is correct. Notice that while the singular form (child) is reduplicated, the plural form (computers) is not! So, if someone tells you that forming the plural in Indonesian is straightforward, don’t believe them. Forming the Indonesian plural is far more complex and requires a good teacher or textbook to master.

In Indonesian, all nouns are inherently singular and plural, with the context indicating the intended meaning.

Mobil Jepang sangat digemari oleh orang Indonesia.
Japanese cars are very popular among Indonesians.

As this is a sentences implying a general statement about Indonesians and Japanese cars, there is no need to reduplicate either “mobil Jepang” or “orang Indonesia”.

Reduplication is typically only used when the context does not make it clear whether a noun is singular or plural, or to indicate variety (like “all kinds of Japanese cars”).

Reduplication is also not used when group words are present. For example, you wouldn’t say banyak mobil-mobil (many cars), or dua mobil-mobil (two cars).

If you want to emphasise that the noun is singular (a car), then you can use one of the many classifiers, such as sebuah (a).

Noun Reduplication Indicating Plurality

The primary function of noun reduplication is to indicate plurality: rumah means ‘a house’, while rumah-rumah means ‘houses’. However, reduplication is used only when explicitly necessary. For example, rumah can mean both ‘house’ and ‘houses’, and when plurality is evident from the context, reduplication isn’t needed:

Saya membeli pisang.
I bought bananas.

Instead of redupicating the noun, Indonesians often reduplicate the adjective belonging to the noun instead:

Rumah di jalan ini bagus-bagus.
The houses in this street are all nice.

Some words even undergo a complete change in meaning when reduplicated:

Mata means ‘eye’, but mata-mata translates to ‘spy’. Similarly, langit means ‘sky’, whereas langit-langit refers to the ‘ceiling’, and laba is ‘profit’, but laba-laba is a ‘spider’.

Some words exist only in their reduplicated form, such as baling-baling (‘propeller’), kupu-kupu (‘butterfly’), or cumi-cumi (‘squid’).

As demonstrated, noun reduplication is not straightforward but rather quite intricate. Therefore, learning Indonesian through a quality textbook is essential for a deeper understanding.

Indonesian Online offers a state-of-the-art interactive e-learning textbook for all proficiency levels, ranging from beginner to advanced.

For further details on Indonesian plurals, we recommend James Neil Sneddon’s Indonesian Reference Grammar, published by Allen & Unwin in 1996. The US edition is available from Routledge (2010) under the title Indonesian: A Comprehensive Grammar.

You might also find it helpful to read the article Expressing plural and singular forms in bahasa Indonesia.