Halo^^
Today I’m writing about the names of some fruits in Bahasa Indonesia.
It’s going to be a kinda short post, though, as I really don’t know how to lengthen this kind of kindergarten-level but quite crucial content.
Fruit itself translates as buah, whilst fruits (as in a variety of fruits) is called buah-buahan.
Anyway, I’ll start with a list of fruits which I think are common everywhere:
Apple = Apel
Avocado = Alpukat
Banana = Pisang
Cherry = Ceri
Coconut = Kelapa
Dates = Kurma
Fig = Ara
Grape = Anggur
Guava = Jambu (biji)
Jackfruit = Nangka
Lime = Jeruk nipis
Longan = Kelengkeng / lengkeng
Lychee = Leci
Mango = Mangga
Mangosteen = Manggis
Olive = Zaitun
Orange = Jeruk
Papaya = Pepaya
Passion fruit = Markisa
Peach = Persik
Pear = Pir
Persimmon = Kesemek
Pineapple = Nanas
Plum = Prem
Pomegranate = Delima
Soursop = Sirsak
Star fruit = Belimbing
Strawberry = Stroberi
Tamarillo = Terong Belanda
Watermelon = Semangka
As you can see, some has very similar pronunciation as in English. This is mostly because those are loaned words from either English or Dutch (or Indonesian words adapted into English? I don’t really know each one’s history).
We also have some with the same names as in English, most notably:
Durian (though some read them as duren)
Kiwi
Lemon
Melon
Rambutan (this one originated from Bahasa Indonesia, and it’s literally named so because the outer skin has hair-like texture (hair = rambut))
Srikaya
For these, we can add the word ‘buah’ at the beginning to signify that it is the fruit we are talking about.
On that note, we have fruits which names are direct translations between English and Bahasa Indonesia, such as Dragon fruit = Buah naga (dragon translates as naga in Bahasa Indonesia)
Nowadays though, we often don’t translate fruits which are quite foreign to Indonesia, such as the berries (blackberry, mulberry, etc.)
Lastly, we have fruits which are common in Indonesia, or at least in some parts of Indonesia, but may not be so elsewhere, such as:
Blewah (Google said it’s cantaloupe, but it’s different as I think cantaloupe is more of a rock melon)
Buah salju (Inga edulis)
Cempedak (Artocarpus integer)
Jambu air (Syzygium aqueum)
Jeruk bali (Pomelo)
Matoa (Pometia pinnata)
Mengkudu (Morinda citrifolia)
Salak (Snakefruit)
Sawo (Sapodilla)
Sukun (Breadfruit)
A bit off-topic, but we also use the word buah to refer to something precious, such as ‘buah hati’ which refers to ones’ child(ren), ‘buah tangan’ which means souvenir for someone else, and ‘buah pengetahuan’ which literally translates as ‘fruit of knowledge’ but means the result of a research which increases our knowledge. One not so positive usage is ‘buah bibir’, which means becoming a topic of conversation AKA went viral.
Right, that’s all for today’s post. Tomato will be featured specially on my post about vegetable.
A bit of trivia: the color orange isn’t jeruk in Bahasa Indonesia, but jingga. Admittedly, many Indonesians nowadays say ‘orange’ or ‘oranye’ rather than ‘jingga’ when referring to the color.
See you next time~
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