Counting from 1,000 to the Billions in Indonesian

Featured article photo: Tumpaksewu Waterfall in Malang, Indonesia by IqbalStock (Pixabay License)

This is the third post of the three-part series on how to count in Indonesian. Be sure to check out how to count from 0 to the hundreds before going through the post below! :)

1. Let's Count from 0 to 10 in Indonesian
2. How to Count from 11 to the Hundreds in Indonesian

If you've now gotten the hang of counting from 0 to the hundreds in Indonesian, the next challenge for you will be to count from the thousands.

Counting Thousands → ... + Ribu + (...)

In Indonesian, to count in the thousands, you need to know how to count from zero to the hundreds first, say the number, and then add the word Ribu.

e.g. 5,000 = Lima ribu
e.g. 12,000 = Dua belas ribu
e.g. 512,000 = Lima ratus dua belas ribu

An exception for this is the word for 1,000, which is read as Seribu instead of Satu Ribu. Although if you do happen to say satu ribu, no one is going to misunderstand you, so it's not that big of a deal but it's technically incorrect.

e.g. 1,001 = Seribu satu
e.g. 1,011 = Seribu sebelas
e.g. 1,111 = Seribu seratus sebelas

Here are other examples of numbers in the thousands in Indonesian:

e.g. 234,000 = Dua ratus tiga puluh empat ribu
e.g. 567,890 = Lima ratus enam puluh tujuh ribu delapan ratus sembilan puluh

Counting Millions → ... + Juta + (...)

The word for "million" in Indonesian is juta and its usage is similar to how you'd use the word ribu. Let's explore a few examples below.

e.g. 1,000,000 = Satu juta
e.g. 3,000,000 = Tiga juta
e.g. 10,000,000 = Sepuluh juta
e.g. 50,700,900 = Lima puluh juta tujuh ratus ribu sembilan ratus
e.g. 864,200,000 = Delapan ratus enam puluh empat juta dua ratus ribu

When would you need to count in the millions, you ask?

Well, for context, 1 million Indonesian Rupiah is equivalent to around 66 US Dollars.

So if you are travelling to Indonesia, you will most likely have to count in the millions pretty often.

Counting Billions → ... + Milyar + (...)

Next after the millions is milyar, which means "billion".

e.g. 1,000,000,000 = Satu milyar
e.g. 14,000,000,000 = Empat belas milyar
e.g. 82,000,600,000 = Delapan puluh dua milyar enam ratus ribu

Final Review

There we have it! If you have gone through all three of my blog posts on how to count in Indonesian, you should now know how to count from 0 to the billions. Here's a summary of the words and numbers you should remember:

0 = Nol / Kosong
1 = Satu
2 = Dua
3 = Tiga
4 = Empat
5 = Lima
6 = Enam
7 = Tujuh
8 = Delapan
9 = Sembilan
10 = Sepuluh

11 = Sebelas
12–19 = ... + Belas
20–99: = ... + Puluh + (...)

... Hundred = ... Ratus
... Thousand = ... Ribu
... Million = ... Juta
... Billion = ... Milyar

Lessons on Indonesian Numbers

1. Let's Count from 0 to 10 in Indonesian
2. How to Count from 11 to the Hundreds in Indonesian
3. Counting from 1,000 to the Billions in Indonesian

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