Bahasa Indonesia · English

Learn Indonesian with short stories

Read Indonesian books with English alongside, or English books with Indonesian alongside: the original and the translation side by side, paragraph by paragraph.

Free Indonesian–English stories and ebooks

Stories to read in Indonesian, with the English beside each paragraph. They open in the browser, with no account needed, and each one is also a free Indonesian–English ebook for Kindle, Kobo or any e-reader: downloading needs a free account, no payment (which file to pick).

Open the Indonesian–English library, where you can search the stories and filter them by level.

By level:

Free graded readers in Indonesian

Every story here carries its level on the Common European Framework, from A1 for beginners to C1 and beyond, so the library works as a set of free Indonesian graded readers: start at the level where you understand most of a page, and move up when the English beside it is something you check only now and then.

Want a book that isn’t here? Make your own Indonesian–English parallel text from any EPUB or PDF: free preview, and 50 free pages when you sign up.

Reading Indonesian with English alongside

Indonesian is one of the most approachable languages to read. It uses the Latin alphabet, is spelled almost exactly as it sounds, and its grammar is gentle: verbs do not change for person or tense, nouns have no gender, and there are no articles.

What slows readers down is the way one root grows into many words: baca (read) becomes membaca, pembaca, bacaan, each with its own job. With the English beside each paragraph, you can see what each form means in the sentence.

Reading English books with Indonesian alongside

For Indonesian speakers, a parallel text is a way into books in English without reaching for a dictionary every few lines. Read the English and look across to the Indonesian when an idiom, a phrasal verb or a tense doesn’t land.

It works for bilingual families too: one book, two languages on the same page, so a parent and a child can each follow in the language they read best.

English stories with Indonesian alongside are in the library too.

Where a parallel text helps most in Indonesian

Prefixes and suffixes

Prefixes like me-, ber- and pe- and suffixes like -kan and -an turn one root into many words. Seeing each form beside its English meaning makes the pattern familiar.

Time without tenses

Indonesian marks time with small words such as sudah, sedang and akan, or leaves it to context, so one verb form can stand for past, present or future. The English beside it shows which one the story means.

Formal and everyday language

Books move between the formal written language and the everyday spoken one (tidak and nggak, saya and aku). With the English beside the paragraph, you learn to hear the difference.

Indonesian classics to read in parallel

Long out of copyright and easy to find as EPUBs. Any of them makes a good first Indonesian–English parallel text:

Hikayat Hang Tuah, Anonymous
Sejarah Melayu, Anonymous
Hikayat Si Miskin, Anonymous
Gurindam Dua Belas, Raja Ali Haji

Or use a book you already own: the method works best with something you actually want to read. See how to read a parallel text to get the most from it.

Questions about Indonesian–English stories

Where can I read Indonesian stories with English side by side for free?

Right here: 44 Indonesian–English stories open in the browser with no account, the English beside every paragraph, from A1 to B2.

What is a Indonesian–English parallel text?

A Indonesian text placed beside its English translation, paragraph by paragraph, so you can read in one language and glance across to the other whenever you need to.

Which Indonesian story should I start with?

Pick the level where you understand most of a page: the beginner stories use short sentences and common words, and the levels above them add longer sentences and richer vocabulary. Each story shows its level on the Common European Framework.

Can I read Indonesian–English stories on a Kindle or Kobo?

Yes. Every story is also a bilingual ebook; downloading needs a free account, no payment.