Welcome~
This next post is going to explain about dates and times used in Indonesia and how to read them in Bahasa Indonesia.
This knowledge if very useful to have. You can better introduce yourself, answer more questions, and prevent food-poisoning by correctly read the expiration date^^ (seriously, I have difficulties reading the expiration dates of products from other countries more than a few times….)
The way to read the clock is quite similar to English. On the other hand, the order of which date is written and read differs, I think (truthfully, I, myself, am still confused on what order is the English date written on…).
Let us start with time.
Orally, we use 12-hour system to read the clock. To differentiate between AM and PM, we use the time of the day, for example pagi if it’s in the morning, siang if it’s in the afternoon, and malam if it’s in the evening. When the time is known without the need of clarification, we can also omit the time sign and directly say the hour.
When writing the number, however, we tend to use 24-hour system, as we don’t have anything like AM and PM. Nowadays, some digital clocks use a 12-hour system plus AM or PM sign, as people already understand that AM stand for morning and PM stand for afternoon (though not everyone knows what the two are abbreviations of).
The way to read the clock itself is simple, as it uses the numbers as itself without any affixes. Formally, the way to read the clock is: Jam + the hour. To express the clock when the minutes pass the hour, it is: Jam + the hour + lebih/lewat + the minute + menit. To express the clock when the minutes were before the hour, it is: Jam + the hour it’s heading to + kurang + the minutes left + menit.
If you want to be specific and add the seconds that have passed, you can say: Jam + the hour + lebih + the minute + menit + dan + the second + detik. Almost no one says the seconds though. And if it’s casual, both jam, which means ‘hour’, and menit, which means ‘minute’, may be omitted. FYI, detik means ‘second’, lebih means ‘more’ but in this case it means ‘past’, lewat means ‘pass’, and kurang means ‘less’ or in this case means something like ‘towards’.
To express the 15-minute mark, we can use the term seperempat to replace the minute + menit. To express the 30-minute before the hour mark, we can say setengah + the hour it’s heading to.
For example:
(note: the words in bracket may be omitted if the situation is not formal)
09:00 is read as jam sembilan (pagi).
13:00 is read as jam satu (siang).
21:00 is read as jam sembilan (malam).
07:15 is read as (jam) tujuh lebih lima belas (menit) or (jam) tujuh (lebih) seperempat.
14:15 is read as (jam) dua lebih lima belas (menit) or (jam) dua (lebih) seperempat.
14.30 is read as (jam) dua (lebih) tiga puluh (menit) or (jam) setengah tiga (siang) or (jam) tiga kurang tiga puluh (menit).
14.45 is read as (jam) dua (lebih) empat (puluh) lima (menit) or (jam) tiga kurang lima belas (menit) or (jam) tiga kurang seperempat or even the very casual empat belas empat lima.
16:25 is read as (jam) empat (lebih) dua (puluh) lima (menit).
20:58 is read as (jam) delapan (lebih) lima (puluh) delapan (menit) or (jam) sembilan kurang dua (menit).
00:00 is read as (jam) dua belas malam or tengah malam (‘middle of the night’).
11:17:15 is read as (jam) sebelas lebih tujuh belas menit dan lima belas detik.
That’s the gist of it for clock.
Next, we’ll move on to dates. More specifically, we will discuss about the name of days, how to read the dates, and the name of months. We will also see the common order of writing dates in Indonesia.
For starter, we will look at the name of days:
Monday = Senin (Se-nin)
Tuesday = Selasa (Se-la-sa)
Wednesday = Rabu (Ra-bu)
Thursday = Kamis (Ka-mis)
Friday = Jumat (Jum-at)
Saturday = Sabtu (Sab-tu)
Sunday = Minggu (Ming-gu)
Formally, in front of each days’ names we should add the word hari which means ‘day’. For example, Monday is supposed to be read as hari Senin. However, we usually omit it as the words are unique and have no other meaning. The only exception is the word minggu which can also mean ‘week’. The sentence or conversation context is usually clear enough without needing to add hari, though.
Just in case, when it is written, remember that the name of days, as well as that of months’, start with a capital letter. In the case of minggu, when it is written with a capital first letter (Minggu) it means ‘Sunday’. However, when it is written in all lowercase (minggu), it means ‘week’.
Next one, the dates.
Dates in Bahasa Indonesia are simple, because they are read as the number they are without any changes nor addition. So, 1st is read as satu, or more completely as tanggal satu. Another example, 10th, is read as sepuluh, or tanggal sepuluh. Even 31st is read as tiga puluh satu, or tanggal tiga puluh satu, or very casually simple as tiga satu.
Very simple right? Just by remembering how the numbers are read in Bahasa Indonesia, and you’re done! FYI, tanggal as a noun means ‘date’, though as a verb it means to take off (a piece of clothing).
Alright, moving on!
Weeks doesn’t have a special name in Bahasa Indonesia, so we usually just read it followed by the ordinal number; for example, the first week is minggu pertama and the fourth week is minggu keempat.
As such, now we are going to look at the names of months:
January = Januari (Ja-nu-a-ri)
February = Februari (Fe-bru-a-ri)
March = Maret (Ma-ret)
April = April (A-pril)
May = Mei (Me-i)
June = Juni (Ju-ni)
July = Juli (Ju-li)
August = Agustus (A-gus-tus)
September = September (Sep-tem-ber)
October = Oktober (Ok-to-ber)
November = November (No-vem-ber)
December = Desember (De-sem-ber)
The names of the months are similar with their English names right? Just a few difference in pronunciation, and some of them even have the same spelling. Formally, they have the word bulan, which means ‘moon’ or ‘month’ in this case, attached before the name. So the month of August is bulan Agustus. Same as with names of days, their first letter is a capital one.
Last, we’re looking at years.
Once again, the same as with dates, years are simply read as their number. But, similar with English, you can make it shorter.
For example, 1994 can be read either as one thousand nine hundred and ninety-four or simply as nineteen ninety-four, right? It’s the same in Bahasa Indonesia! You can read 1994 as seribu sembilan ratus sembilan puluh empat or simply as sembilan belas sembilan empat.
However, I think the nuance is a bit different than in English. In English, the first reading (one thousand nine hundred and ninety-four) seem strange, and the second reading (nineteen ninety-four) sounds more natural. In Bahasa Indonesia, though, both are equally good to use, though the first form is more formal.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said to years whose numbers not yet reached their hundreds. For example, the year 2011 can be read as two thousand and eleven or as twenty eleven in English. But, in Bahasa Indonesia, you can only read it as dua ribu sebelas. The other reading, dua puluh sebelas, is not used probably because the amount of syllable is the same.
Again, formally, there is the word tahun, which means ‘year’, in front of the numbers. For example, 1945 is read formally as tahun seribu sembilan ratus empat puluh lima or casually as tahun sembilan belas empat lima.
Right, that’s all about times and dates in general.
Now, for the writing order.
In formal documents, the date is usually written as: the date in number + the name of the month + the year in number.
So, the first day of October this year would be written as: 1 Oktober 2020 (read: sa-tu ok-to-ber du-a ri-bu du-a pu-luh)
In things like diaries and assignments, we usually add the name of the day before them, separated by a coma: Selasa, 1 Oktober 2020 (read: se-la-sa sa-tu ok-to-ber du-a ri-bu du-a pu-luh)
In things like food packaging, the expiry date is written with the format of DD/MM/YY or DD/MM/YYYY. Note that sometimes, when the date or month consists of only one digit (date and month 1-9), they might add the number zero (0) in front so the number of character can be kept into two. For example, if the expiry date is on July 8th, 2022, then the date written on the packaging might be 8/7/22, 08/07/22, or 080722.
Great work learning about times and dates in Bahasa Indonesia^^
They are simple to use, I think, and we don’t have to remember more types of numbers as they use the ordinal and cardinal numbers without changes.
So, this is the conclusion of today’s lesson:
Don’t forget to keep practising!
See you soon~
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