similarity Indonesian – Spanish

Now we have learned Spanish for around half a year, I realize there are some advantages I own as an Indonesian-born, compared to hubby Joop (a Dutch guy). Here are some obvious ones:

• It seems like my tongue is able to roll the ‘rrrr’ sound much easier. 🙂
• Indonesian and Spanish have the same grammar rule regarding the noun-adjective combination. So in English (or Dutch) you would say “expensive house (or duur huis)”, while Indonesian and Spanish would say the other way around: “rumah mahal” and “casa cara”.
• Both Indonesian and Spanish are phonetic languages (some even say they are number 1 and 2 of the most phonetic languages in the world!). This means you read a word exactly like how it is written. For example the English word “love” would have been written as “laf” if it is phonetic. I notice how easy I can pronounce Spanish words, even the long and complicated one like “independientemente” (= independently). However, I remember having a trouble with this word at the beginning: “calcetines” (= socks).
• Due to the past history between Indonesia and Spain, there are still some Spanish words that sound like Bahasa Indonesia. Far not as many as the absorbed Dutch words in Indonesian language, but still very interesting. I have collected some I learned along the way: (Spanish – Indonesian – English)

bandera – bendera – flag
bola – bola – ball
ruedas – roda – wheel
zapato – sepatu – shoe
mantequilla – mentega – butter
mesa – meja – table
jabón – sabun – soap
camisa/camisola – kamisol – shirt
chaqueta – jaket – jacket/coat
relojes – arloji – wristwatch
escuela – sekolah – school
gratis – gratis – free
guerrilla – gerilya – guerrilla
caldo – kaldu – broth

Next to these words there are many more predictable words which are similar between English, Spanish and Indonesian. Like ‘standard’, ‘normal’, ‘period’, ‘camera’, ‘panic’, ‘photo’, etc.

But up to now, there are 2 Spanish words which are exactly the same in Indonesian but have different meanings. “Pintar” in Spanish means “to paint”, while “pintar” in Indonesian means “clever”. And the word “pagar” in Spanish means “to pay”. But this same word in Indonesian means “the fence”. However, the Indonesian word for “to pay” is “bayar”. Somehow they sound a little bit similar, or am I now pushing it too far? 😀