Hokkien, on the tongues of Tsinoys, has grown and evolved, taking on a life of its own. Sometimes words simply fail us. With some creativity, Tsinoys have strung together words to form colorful phrases that simply hit the bull’s eye. Here are some expressions unique to Hokkien as favored by Tsinoys.
| 死皮龜 | si p’e ku | like a dead turtle | describing a lazy person |
| 南臭屁 | lam tsao p’ui | smelly fart | object of fragile, easy to break. Also pertaining to clumsy and weak persons |
| 毋沙八 | um sna pat | not acquainted | not acquainted |
| 三日討魚二日曬網 | neng dit t’o hee sna dit p’ak bang | three days fishing but drying net only two days | laziness |
| 雜撈到 | tsap lao tao | everything mixed together | assemble of many different things or people |