Whilst most Malaysians by far are well-versed in English, nothing breaks the ice quicker for a tourist than using a few Malay words here and there.

In fact, Bahasa Melayu, as the local colloquial language is called here, is especially rewarding, because it's not that hard to learn.

Just for fun we've peppered our site with a few Malay words and phrases. And they may well come in useful too.

Jom cakap Melayu :)

Jom! = "Let's go!"
Cakap = "To speak"
Boleh = "Can" / "Sure"
Makan = "To eat" / "food"
Minum = "To drink"
Terimah kasih = "Thank you"

Incidentally, Malay pronunciation is mostly phonetic. The only real exception being the letter "c", as it's pronounced as "ch". So don't worry too much about not getting the sounds exactly right.

Oh, the other thing not to fret over is the plural, because nouns are the same in singular and plural.

See the bottom of this page for an overview of all words and phrases included in our site.