A COMPENDIUM OF SINGLISH TERMS
 
Singlish Term Meaning  Sample Usage
blur like sotong dense person who has slow reaction to things happening around him/her.  
bo chap don’t care I bo chap already, today is my rest day.
bo liao nothing better to do You very bo liao, something like that also want to do.
bo pian a situation where someone who has no choice I really bo pian, I have to do this weekend assignment.
cao keng a person who likes to pretend, or a situation where a person pretends to be sick to escape being assigned work You don’t cao keng, I know you are not really sick.
don’t play play don't fool around with authority Don’t Play Play OK? Can get punished for playing truant one.
dua to play someone out Don’t dua me leh, are you coming to the concert or not?
dui to feel played out / taken for a ride / embarrassed I bought this phone initially for $300, now it has gone down to $100, damn dui man!
diam keep quiet Diam lah, I need to concentrate on my work
dong tolerate I need to dong until next morning before I can finish my work.
eng a lot of time on one’s hands I very eng today, want to go for a show?
eskew me distorted version of ‘excuse me’ Eskew me, can I pass?
ga na to have something be done to you. similar to the "be v-ed" passive construction in english I ga na scolded by Mr X just now.
heaven in this case, it is not the heaven that we know of. it is actually a mutated form of the word ‘haven’t’ but pronounced as ‘heaven’  
heng very lucky I very heng man, I just passed my paper by half a mark.
hao lian extremely arrogant and proud He is the most hao lian guy I have seen around, always showing off his Rolexes and Merc 
hiao vain She is so hiao, always putting on those thick make-up and mini-dresses.
kiasu scared to lose out in any situation He is very kiasu, sure always the first to queue up for any freebies.
kiasee scared to die Mr B is damn kiasee, always afraid the plane will crash when he is on board a flight.
koon sleep Don’t disturb me, I very tired, I want to koon.
kiam siap stingy He is the most kiam siap person I have ever seen, five cents also want to make so much noise!
lay long to parade or display something, as if they were on sale at a bazaar You want to lay long your pajamas ah? Hanging them all over the place!
loogi to lose out You bought your bike at a thousand dollars but now you selling at eight hundred, you loogi you know.
sian bored I’m feeling very sian, shall we go for a swim?
sway having bad luck Today he damn sway man, got scolding twice from two different people
sekali suddenly Sekali John don’t turn up then you know!
yan dao handsome Wah, he so yan-dao, can you introduce him to me?
zou-bou nothing to do You so zou-bou, why don’t you help me do some housework?


NOTES (just hit the back button on your browser to return to where you were in the document)
  1. The spelling of the terms is mostly in hanyu pinyin, reflecting the pronunciation.
  2. Squid. It is unclear why the quality of "blurness" is assigned to squids. A possible explanation is that a squid or octopus squirts a black fluid which renders the waters around it unclear, protecting itself against predators as well as allowing it.to zoom in on prey.
  3. Bo is Hokkien for "not" or the negative in English.
  4. Made famous by Gurmit Singh in Phua Chu Kang, a Singaporean television comedy in which the actors converse in Singlish.
  5. Not to be confused with the Malay Dua which means "two"
  6. Originated from the Malay "kena" which is a passive marker in colloqial passive constructions. The syntax appears to originate from Chinese syntax but the lexical item itself is Malay - a prime example of language contact at work.
  7. Pronounced "Mers", this is the Singaporean way of saying Mercedes, just as Americans call BMWs "Beamers".
  8. Also present in Malay as lelong, meaning the act of selling at a bazaar.
  9. From the Malay word rugi, which means to incur/suffer a loss.
  10. This is a unique Singlish phrase, and the use of "sekali is itself a Singlish version of a SInglish construction, i.e. Suddenly John don't turn up then you know!" the English equivalent being either "What if John doesn't turn up?" or "Serves you right it John doesn't turn up!".



 
lor, lah, leh, hah, hor, ah, meh, wah, etc… List of entrees one can use after or within sentences, or as affixes to words. Each affix bears a different nuance and marking for the phrase, at times depending on intonation, and are abbreviated versions of longer phrases
Phrase Translation
Can-lor,  I guess I can do that.
Can-lah
  1.  I'm sure I can do that
  2.  I'm sure that can be done
  3.  Please do it for me
Can-leh, You see, it can be done! 
Can-Hor, 
  1.  You can do it for me right? 
  2.  You'll do it for me, right?
Can-Hah?,
  1. Can it really be done?
  2. You can do it, right?
  3. You'll do it, right?
Can-Ah? Are you sure it can be done?
Can-meh? Are you really sure it can be done?
Wah! WOW!

Note that this particular explanation is totally the authors' own common-sense creation, and is without the benefit of some socio-historical etymological analysis.
 
 

prepared by Audrey Tan
with a little help from Mohamed Asri