Penang Hokkien has liberally borrowed many words from English. Some of these words continue to retain their original meaning while a few have evolved to a new meaning. There are also a few derivative words that are of English origin, but exists only in Penang Hokkien. View also the list of English Loanwords via Malay. Direct loans
The following are commonly used words in Penang Hokkien that retain their meaning in English. Such words are spelled as in English, without the inclusion of any tone marks. They appear regularly in every day conversations.
  1. apartment
  2. badminton
  3. bike
  4. burger
  5. bus stand
  6. bye
  7. CD
  8. computer
  9. condo
  10. condominium
  11. Daddy
  12. DVD
  13. email
  14. excuse
  15. ferry
  16. flat
  17. goal
  18. good morning
  19. goodbye
  20. Hokkien
  21. hospital
  22. Internet
  23. lift
  24. Mummy
  25. noted
  26. Penang
  27. please
  28. sir
  29. sorry
  30. taxi
  31. thanks
  32. thank you
  33. tomato
  34. website
  35. wifi
Indirect loans
These words are derived from English by way of Malay. Those that may appear as a direct loan are also spelled in their English form in brackets
  1. bas1: bus

  2. le1sen1 [lɛ-sɛn] : license

  3. tek1si4: taxi

English derivative
These are words derived from English. They may retain their original English meaning or may have evolved somewhat.
  1. action [ɛk-ʃən]: (verb) to show off

  2. go1stan4 [go-stan] : (verb) to reverse

  3. moto [mo-to]: (noun) motorcycle

View full list of Penang Hokkien Vocabulary

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Disclaimer

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.

Timothy Tye
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