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Malay Numbers: Counting, Belas, Puluh and Prices in Ringgit

Malay numbers from kosong to juta: how belas makes the teens, puluh the tens, se- for one, the decimal perpuluhan, and reading ringgit and sen prices.

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Key takeaways

  • Malay one to ten are satu, dua, tiga, empat, lima, enam, tujuh, lapan, sembilan and sepuluh.
  • Belas forms 11 to 19 (dua belas is 12) and puluh forms the tens (dua puluh is 20).
  • The prefix se- means one before a place-value word: sebelas 11, sepuluh 10, seribu 1,000.
  • Malaysian Malay uses a decimal point read perpuluhan; Indonesian uses a decimal comma read koma.
  • The ringgit (RM) is divided into 100 sen, and bills have been rounded to the nearest 5 sen since 2008.

Malay numbers are built from ten words and four place-value words, and they fit together the way the arithmetic does. There are no special forms to memorise beyond one small prefix. This reference covers the digits, the teens and tens, big numbers and decimals, and how to read a price in ringgit. Malay is written in the Latin alphabet, so the spellings below are the standard ones; the Malay pronunciation guide covers how they sound.

Zero to ten

Number Malay
0 kosong (informal), sifar (formal)
1 satu
2 dua
3 tiga
4 empat
5 lima
6 enam
7 tujuh
8 lapan
9 sembilan
10 sepuluh

Wiktionary marks kosong as the informal zero, a word that otherwise means "empty", and sifar, borrowed from Arabic, as the formal one. It also notes that Indonesian uses nol. Eight is another quick marker of the two standards: Malaysian lapan, against the Indonesian delapan you will see in Wikipedia's comparison of the two.

Belas for the teens, puluh for the tens

Two words do almost all the work:

  • belas is "-teen". Wiktionary describes it as a combining word for eleven to nineteen: dua belas 12, tiga belas 13, through sembilan belas 19. Its example sentence, Abang saya berumur lapan belas tahun, means "My older brother is eighteen years old."
  • puluh is "ten" as a multiplier: dua puluh 20, tiga puluh 30, sembilan puluh 90. Units follow, so 21 is dua puluh satu and 45 is empat puluh lima.

Wiktionary records that puluh is first attested in the Kedukan Bukit inscription of 683 CE, in the form that is now spelled sepuluh.

Se-: the prefix that means one

Before a place-value word, "one" can be the prefix se- instead of satu. Wiktionary analyses sebelas (11) as se- plus belas, gives sepuluh as 10, and gives seribu as the current spelling of "one thousand". It also lists satu belas as an alternative form of eleven, so you may hear both. The same pattern produces seratus, one hundred.

Ratus, ribu, juta: hundreds to millions

Number Malay
100 seratus
200 dua ratus
1,000 seribu
5,000 lima ribu
1,000,000 satu juta

Wiktionary lists ratus as "hundred" and ribu as "thousand", both inherited words. As the worked example below shows, Malay groups large numbers in thousands, as English does: 234,000 is dua ratus tiga puluh empat ribu, "two hundred thirty-four thousand". Thai, by contrast, has single words for 10,000 and 100,000; compare the grouping in Thai numbers.

A worked example: reading 1,234,567.89

Wikipedia's comparison of Indonesian and Standard Malay gives one long number in both standards. In Malaysia and Singapore it is written 1,234,567.89 and read:

Satu juta dua ratus tiga puluh empat ribu lima ratus enam puluh tujuh perpuluhan lapan sembilan.

Broken down: satu juta (1,000,000), dua ratus tiga puluh empat ribu (234 thousand), lima ratus enam puluh tujuh (567), then perpuluhan, "decimal point", and the digits lapan sembilan read one at a time. In Indonesia the same number is written 1.234.567,89, with koma for the decimal and delapan for eight.

Ringgit, sen and rounding to five sen

Malaysia's currency is the ringgit, symbol RM, divided into 100 sen. Wikipedia lists banknotes of RM1, RM5, RM10, RM20, RM50 and RM100 in frequent use and coins of 5, 10, 20 and 50 sen; the 1 sen coin is discontinued but still legal tender. Since 1 April 2008, Wikipedia notes, the total bill has been rounded to the nearest 5 sen, so:

  1. A total of RM12.43 is paid as RM12.45: dua belas ringgit empat puluh lima sen.
  2. A total of RM12.42 is paid as RM12.40: dua belas ringgit empat puluh sen.

Wikipedia also records regional words: in the northern states of Peninsular Malaysia, 10 sen is called kupang, so 50 sen is lima kupang.

Asking how many and how much

The question word is berapa, which Wiktionary glosses as "how many, how much", used to ask about amount, value, time and measurement. Its examples include Sekarang pukul berapa?, "What time is it?", and Adam umur berapa?, "How old is Adam?". For the full set of question words, see Malay question words, and for shopping phrases, Malay phrases for travel.

Practising numbers in the app

Learn Malay - Bahasa Melayu covers numbers in its early lessons, alongside greetings, family, food and shopping, and its phrase lessons include money and payments. It is free with ads and optional in-app purchases, and it is one of our language-learning apps.

Good to know

Frequently asked questions

How do you count from one to ten in Malay?
Satu, dua, tiga, empat, lima, enam, tujuh, lapan, sembilan, sepuluh. Zero is kosong informally and sifar formally, according to Wiktionary. Malay is written in the Latin alphabet, so the spellings are also the standard written forms.
Why is eleven sebelas in Malay?
Because belas is the combining word for the teens and se- stands for 'one'. Wiktionary lists sebelas as se- plus belas, alongside dua belas (12) to sembilan belas (19). It also records satu belas as an alternative form.
How do you say a decimal point in Malay?
Perpuluhan. Wikipedia's comparison of Indonesian and Standard Malay notes that Malaysia and Singapore write 1,234,567.89 with a decimal point read perpuluhan, while Indonesia writes a decimal comma read koma.
How are ringgit prices rounded in Malaysia?
Wikipedia notes that since 1 April 2008 a rounding mechanism to the nearest 5 sen has applied to the total bill only, introduced by the Central Bank of Malaysia to make the 1 sen coin irrelevant. A total of RM12.43 would therefore be paid as RM12.45.

Sources

  1. belas (opens in a new tab)Wiktionary — accessed
  2. Comparison of Indonesian and Standard Malay (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
  3. Malaysian ringgit (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
  4. berapa (opens in a new tab)Wiktionary — accessed

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