Plural Form of Pronouns in Penang Hokkien

We have previously learned the singular forms of personal pronouns: wah4, lu4, ie1, ee1 and i1. Now let's learn the plural form. To create the plural, we simply suffix the morpheme lang2 to them. The morpheme lang2 also serves as the word meaning "people". So, wah1lang2 can be translated roughly as "we people".

Here are the forms:

We: wah1lang2
You (pl.): lu1lang2
They (masc.): ie1lang2
They (fem.): ee1lang2
They (neu.): i1lang2

All five above do not sandhi whether they appear as subject or object in a sentence. Therefore, you can write:

Wah1lang2 kio33 ie1lang2.
We call them.

Ie1lang2 kio33 wah1lang2.
They call us.

It's the same form in both positions.

Use ie1lang2 for the general third person plural, if it includes both male and female humans. Use ee1lang2 if it is entirely female humans. Use i1lang2 only for non-humans such as objects and animals, even if they are entirely male or female.

Wah1lang2 hien33tiok3 gu2. I1lang2 ciak3 chau4.
We saw cows. They are eating grass.

Ie1lang2 hien33tiok3 mi3si1. Ee1lang2 ciak3 pnui3.
They saw nurses. They are having lunch (literally, eating rice).

In the above sentence, there is not mistake that the antecedent for the pronoun ee1lang2 is mi3si1 (nurses).

In addition to the plural formed by adding lang2, Penang Hokkien also uses plural said to have been borrowed from Teochew.

They include:

wang1 : we all (does not include you all)
luang1 : you all (does not include we all)
lan4 : we all (includes you all)
lan1lang2 : all of us, with the emphatic form lan4lang2
iyang1 : they all (does not include we all and you all)

Previous Lesson | Next Lesson

Language Learning Tools

Use the following language learning tools to learn Penang Hokkien!

Return to Penang Hokkien Resources

About this website

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.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.

To get to know me better, do follow me on Facebook!