Whilst most Malaysians you'll meet are quite well-versed in English, nothing breaks the ice quicker than using a few Malay words here and there.

In fact, Bahasa Melayu, as the lingua franca is called in Malaysia, is especially rewarding, at least the colloquial every-day version, because it's not that hard to master.

Just for fun we've peppered our site with a few useful Malay words and phrases, so you've at least seen some of the local lingo.

Some examples:

Jom! = "Let's go!".
Boleh = "Sure" or "Can".
Makan = "To eat" or "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. The other thing not to worry about is plural, as 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.