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.
|
一年嫁十八處 |
tsit ni ke tsap pue tia | got married 18 times in a year | someone who keeps on changing jobs, not stable |
| 一字毋寫，
寫萬字 |
it di mm sia,
sia ban di |
instead of writing just one word, he writes thousands | doing things the complicated way, when there are simpler ways |
| 放屁相連累 | pang p’ui sna lian lui | farting affects others | doing things that will affect others |
| 三千年一次海漲 | sna tsnui ni tsit pai hai tiong | three thousand years, one high tide | once in a blue moon |
| 十次吃屎，
一次掉入坑 |
tsap pai tsia sai, tsit pai tiao dip k’ang | eat dung ten times, fall into the hole once |
you can’t do bad things all the time and get away with it |
