Here are some common mistakes in deciphering roots, and some ways to keep from making them

	RIGHT	WRONG
menghafal	hafal	nghafal, khafal, tghafal
mencari	cari	ncari, tcari
mengganggu	ganggu	ngganggu, kganggu, anggu
mengenal	kenal, enal, ngenal	genal, tgenal
memukul	pukul, mukul	ukul
menyiapkan	siap(kan),nyiap(kan)	yiap(kan), iap(kan), tyiap(kan)

Rule #1:	Remember: ng and ny function as SINGLE NASALS and in the phonetic alphabet); DON'T BREAK THEM DOWN into n plus g or n plus y. This is how you get the incorrect roots tgenal, tghafal, yiapkan, etc.
Rule #2:	Indonesian roots DO NOT begin with nasal plus consonant (such as nghafal, ncari, etc.).
Rule #3:	Roots that start with a, e, i, o, u are preceded by the prefix meng-, never by any other nasal (so ukul could not be a root for memukul, or iap(kan) for menyiapkan).

The General Rule
(definitions: NASAL = m, n, ng, ny; VOWEL = a, e, i, o, u; CONSONANT = all others)

A. If you have the sequence me[NASAL] plus CONSONANT, the root starts with that consonant; there will be no other possible roots.
membaca > baca; menggunakan > guna
Also, if you have the sequence me[r,l,y, or w], the root starts with r, l, y, or w. There will be no other possible roots.
melihat > lihat

B. If you have the sequence me[NASAL] plus VOWEL, you have more than one possibility for the root:

1. The root starts with the nasal itself:
melihat > lihat

2. The root starts with a voiceless consonant that disappears; you can tell which consonant has disappeared by looking at the nasal: m > p; n > t; ng > k; ny > s
memukul > pukul; mengenal > kenal

3. IF AND ONLY IF THE NASAL IS ng, there is ALSO the possibility that the root starts with the VOWEL which comes after the ng.
mengambil > ambil

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