English Loanwords in Penang Hokkien

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. 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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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.

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Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

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