IndoLingua B1 Indonesian Course Book — French Edition (Digital eBook + Audio)
About this B1 book for French speakers
This is the CEFR B1 (intermediate) level of the IndoLingua method, written for French speakers. At B1 the goal is to become independent for travel, work and social life in Indonesia. Every explanation, translation and example is given in French, so you never have to learn Indonesian through a third language.
What you will learn at B1
The B1 book focuses on opinions and feelings, the full prefix/suffix system (me-kan, di-, ter-, -an), narration and connected discourse. By the end you will be able to explain and justify opinions, tell stories and deal with most situations while travelling or working.
- CEFR B1 syllabus with clear, level-specific learning outcomes
- Vocabulary lists with French translations and pronunciation
- Grammar for the B1 level explained in French with example sentences
- Dialogues set in real Indonesian contexts (Bali, Jakarta, Yogyakarta)
- End-of-chapter exercises with answer keys
- Native audio recordings for every dialogue and vocabulary item
Learning Indonesian as a French speaker
What you already have for free
French and Indonesian both place the adjective after the noun, so rumah besar is built exactly like voiture rouge — the word order you already use transfers on day one. French speakers also have an unusually short route into the written language: Indonesian spelling is fully regular, so unlike French there is no silent ending, no -ent, no accord to remember.
What you have to unlearn
What has to be unlearned is conjugation and gender. An Indonesian verb never changes form: makan alone covers je mange, il mangeait and nous avons mangé. There is no le / la, and no plural -s — quantity comes from a number word or from reduplication (buku-buku). Time is carried by separate words — sudah, belum, akan — never by an ending.
The mistakes French speakers actually make
The interference error French speakers make most is inserting a copula. Il est professeur is simply Dia guru: no verb at all, and adalah is not a general-purpose être. Age works the same way — umur saya 30 tahun, literally mon âge 30 ans, never saya adalah 30 tahun. Watch mata (eye), which is not a match for anything in French, and pantai (beach), easily confused with pantat.
Pronunciation: what to drill first
Three habits to drop: the silent h (Indonesian pronounces it, and tahu and tau are two different words), the French nasal vowels (there are none — bon in kebon is bo-n), and the stress on the last syllable, since Indonesian is almost flat. The final -ng of uang is a single sound, not n + g.
Words you already know
A large Latin-rooted vocabulary reached Indonesian through Dutch and is recognisable on sight: administrasi, universitas, politik, republik, stasiun, apotek, polisi.
This is why the French edition exists as its own book rather than a translated appendix: the B1 explanations are written against French habits, and the vocabulary lists give French equivalents rather than English ones.
The grammar taught at B1
B1 is the level where Indonesian stops being easy and becomes interesting. You work through the derivational system in full — me-kan and me-i for causatives and applicatives, di- for the passive that Indonesian uses far more than English does, ter- for accidental or resultant states, and -an for nominalisation. You also meet yang, the relative marker that makes long sentences possible.
A sentence you can build at B1: Buku yang saya beli kemarin ternyata lebih menarik daripada yang direkomendasikan teman saya. — "The book I bought yesterday turned out to be more interesting than the one my friend recommended."
What CEFR B1 certifies
CEFR B1 means you can handle most situations likely to arise while travelling, produce connected text on familiar topics, describe experiences and events, and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.
Where B1 fits in the A1–C2 path
IndoLingua's French collection runs from A1 (absolute beginner) to C2 (mastery). B1 is the intermediate stage, reached once you can explain and justify opinions, tell stories and deal with most situations while travelling or working. At B2 the question stops being what you can say and becomes which register you say it in.
Why learn Indonesian?
Indonesian is spoken by 270 million people and is the official language of Indonesia. FSI ranks it as Category II (around 900 hours to professional fluency for English speakers) — no verb conjugations, no noun genders, no tones, Latin alphabet.