IELTS Writing Mistakes Indonesian and Malay Speakers Make: Understanding L1 Interference

How Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu patterns create systematic English errors—and how to fix them

Indonesia and Malaysia send large numbers of IELTS test-takers annually. Both countries use languages (Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu) that share many features and create similar interference patterns when speakers write in English.

Many Indonesian and Malay speakers get stuck at Band 5-6 despite years of English study. The issue isn't English knowledge—it's specific structural differences between your native language and English that create errors you can't consciously detect.

Understanding these patterns is the first step to breaking through.

The Verb Tense Challenge

Indonesian and Malay don't conjugate verbs for tense. Tense is indicated through context, time markers (kemarin, besok, sekarang), or auxiliary words—not by changing the verb form itself.

In English, verb forms must change to indicate time.

Common Errors

Missing past tense markers:

• "Yesterday I go to school" → "Yesterday I went to school"
• "Last year the government announce new policy" → "Last year the government announced new policy"
• "When I was young, I play outside every day" → "When I was young, I played outside every day"

Missing third person -s:

• "She go to work every day" → "She goes to work every day"
• "The government want to improve education" → "The government wants to improve education"
• "Technology change our lives" → "Technology changes our lives"

The Fix

Every sentence needs a time frame. Once you establish it (past, present, future), make sure every verb in that section matches.

Time markers to watch for:

• Past: yesterday, last week/month/year, ago, in 2010, when I was young
• Present: now, today, currently, these days, every day
• Future: tomorrow, next week, will, going to

Article Errors

Indonesian and Malay don't have articles equivalent to "the," "a," or "an." Definiteness can be indicated by word order, demonstratives (ini, itu), or context.

This makes articles a major error category for Indonesian/Malay speakers.

Common Patterns

Missing articles:

• "I have car" → "I have a car"
• "Education is key to success of nation" → "Education is the key to the success of a nation"
• "Student should study hard" → "A student should study hard" or "Students should study hard"

Incorrect article use:

• "The technology has changed everything" → "Technology has changed everything" (general concept)
• "I want to become the doctor" → "I want to become a doctor" (one of many)

Article Rules Summary

"The" = specific, both writer and reader know which one
"A/An" = singular countable, not specific, one of many
No article = general statements about categories, uncountable nouns in general sense

The Be-Verb Problem

Indonesian/Malay often doesn't require a copula (be-verb) where English does. Sentences like "Dia guru" (literally "She teacher") are grammatically complete in Indonesian/Malay.

English requires be-verbs in these constructions.

Common Errors

Missing "is/are/was/were":

• "The weather very hot today" → "The weather is very hot today"
• "He a teacher" → "He is a teacher"
• "The students happy" → "The students are happy"
• "The city very crowded yesterday" → "The city was very crowded yesterday"

Missing be-verb in continuous tenses:

• "I studying right now" → "I am studying right now"
• "They working on a project" → "They are working on a project"

Missing be-verb in passive constructions:

• "The work completed yesterday" → "The work was completed yesterday"
• "New policies introduced" → "New policies were introduced"

The Fix

Check every descriptive sentence: do you have a be-verb connecting the subject to its description?

Structure: Subject + BE + adjective/noun/verb-ing/past participle

Preposition Confusion

Indonesian/Malay prepositions don't map directly onto English prepositions. Translations can be misleading.

Common Errors

Other Preposition Issues

"Discuss about"

• Incorrect: "We need to discuss about this problem"
• Correct: "We need to discuss this problem" (no preposition)

"Explain about"

• Incorrect: "Let me explain about the situation"
• Correct: "Let me explain the situation" (no preposition)

Time prepositions:

• At: specific times (at 5pm, at noon, at night)
• On: days and dates (on Monday, on January 1st)
• In: months, years, seasons, longer periods (in January, in 2024, in summer)

Plural Markers

Indonesian/Malay can indicate plurality through reduplication (buku-buku = books) or context, but it's not required the way it is in English.

Common Errors

Missing plural -s:

• "Many student agree" → "Many students agree"
• "Several country participated" → "Several countries participated"
• "Three year ago" → "Three years ago"

Irregular plurals:

• "Many peoples" → "Many people" (people is already plural)
• "Childrens" → "Children" (children is already plural)

The Fix

After quantifiers (many, several, few, some, all, most) or numbers, the noun must be plural.

Subject-Verb Agreement

Indonesian/Malay verbs don't change based on subject. This creates agreement errors in English.

Common Errors

• "The government want to improve" → "The government wants to improve"
• "Technology have changed" → "Technology has changed"
• "There is many problems" → "There are many problems"
• "The number of students are increasing" → "The number of students is increasing"

The Fix

Find the true subject. Is it singular or plural? Make the verb match.

Special cases:

• "The government" is singular (→ wants, has)
• "People" is plural (→ want, have)
• "The number of X" → singular (the number is...)
• "A number of X" → plural (a number of students are...)

Word Order with Adjectives

In Indonesian/Malay, adjectives typically come after nouns (rumah besar = house big).
In English, adjectives typically come before nouns (big house).

Common Errors

• "A situation difficult" → "A difficult situation"
• "Students Indonesian" → "Indonesian students"
• "Technology modern" → "Modern technology"

The Fix

In English: adjective + noun (beautiful garden, important decision, economic growth)

Redundancy Issues

Some phrases common in Indonesian English aren't standard in international English.

Common Redundancies

• "Return back" → "return" (return already means go back)
• "Repeat again" → "repeat" (repeat already means do again)
• "Revert back" → "revert" or "respond"
• "Reply back" → "reply"

False Friends and Direct Translations

"Borrow" vs. "Lend"

• Incorrect: "Can you borrow me your pen?"
• Correct: "Can you lend me your pen?" or "Can I borrow your pen?"

(Indonesian "pinjam" covers both directions)

"Join with"

• Incorrect: "Come join with us"
• Correct: "Come join us" (no "with")

Sentence Fragments

Indonesian/Malay sentence structure is more flexible, sometimes leading to fragments in English.

Common Errors

Missing main clause:

• "Because the economy is important." (fragment)
• Correct: "This matters because the economy is important."

Missing subject:

• "Is very important for students." (fragment)
• Correct: "This/It is very important for students."

The Fix

Every English sentence needs a subject and a main verb. Check that you have both.

Building Your Error Awareness

Priority Checklist for Indonesian/Malay Speakers

1. Verb tense — Check every verb matches the time frame
2. Be-verbs — Are they present where needed?
3. Articles — Does every singular countable noun have a/an/the?
4. Subject-verb agreement — Does the verb match the subject?
5. Plurals — Are nouns after quantifiers/numbers plural?
6. Word order — Adjective before noun

Practice Strategy

Focus on one error type per week:

Week 1-2: Tense consistency
Week 3-4: Be-verbs and articles
Week 5-6: Subject-verb agreement and plurals

Tracking Progress

Count specific error types in each practice essay. Track the numbers. Your goal is reduction over time.

Example:

• Essay 1: 8 article errors, 5 tense errors
• Essay 3: 5 article errors, 3 tense errors
• Essay 5: 3 article errors, 2 tense errors

Seeing concrete improvement builds motivation.

The Broader Picture

Indonesian and Malay are structured, logical languages. The interference patterns above aren't signs of weakness—they're predictable results of being fluent in a language that works differently from English.

You're not learning English from scratch. You're adjusting specific features where the languages differ. This is achievable with targeted awareness and practice.

Want to identify exactly which Indonesian/Malay interference patterns affect your writing? Our AI analyzes your essays to find your specific error types and creates a personalized improvement plan.