Singlish basically means Singaporean English. In Wikipedia, it is actually quoted as the “First language” for Singapore!! Almost every born Singaporean uses some form of Singlish; that is what makes us unique and different. A quick Google on Singlish returns more than 150,000 results.
We bring Singlish everywhere we go. Unknowingly, we uses it even when we talk with our friends of other nationalities. I still remember once when I was on a business trip to the the States, we were having some off-topic discussions over the dinner table on some techie stuff when I said “oh, this one don’t have lah.”. Everyone just stared at me. Knowing that no one really understood what I was trying to express, I quickly added “Oh this is Singlish”.
Here is another example which happens very frequently to me. Whenever I am overseas, friends who like to greet me with “Hey, How are you doing today?” usually will get a reply “ok lah. You leh? ”
For your reading pleasure, listed below are 10 Singlish terms which I feel are used quite frequently in our everyday lives. What do you think ?
Kiasu – One who is afraid to lose out to someone else, often to the point of selfishness; an over-cautious person.
You damn kiasu, the sales start at 10am, you start queueing at 7am.
Kaki - A friend
I usually eat with my lunch kakis
Jaga – Guard, oversee, watch over, keep an eye on.
Hey , Can you help me jaga my bag . I need to go toilet. Will be right back.
Idle King- A soldier who is extremely idle or lazy
Everyone call him Idle king, he does nothing but sleep in the camp.
Cheepo – A cheapskate, a miser.
This guy damn cheepo, I saw him packing buffet food into a container from the buffet spread.
Ho Miah – A comfortable existence, a good life.
This boy sibei ho miah. Parents bought him a condo to collect rent and he don’t have to work everyday still got money to collect.
Bo Hua – Not worth the trouble.
If you buy this phone now bo hua la, might as well wait till next week they have their mid year sale.
Basket – An exclamation expressing anger, frustration, etc.
Basket! I told you he is a con man!
Wa Lau – A mild exclamation expressing annoyance, disbelief, exasperation, frustration, surprise
Wa lao, tomorrow still need to go work.
Lah – a particle suffixed to the emphatic word in a sentence
I seldom speak Singlish lah
There are a lot of interesting comics on Singlish in this link :
http://pr0nparadise.free.fr/pockethouse/?epi=1
We find the one below particular funny.
FYI, lobo is a better singlish word than Idle King.
Yep.. in fact chao geng also means the same i feel. All 3 terms ( Chao Geng, Lobo , Idle King ) used very frequently in army
Hahaha… Cheepo is actually is an English word, and it’s spelled cheapo!
Haha.. thanks for pointing that … but i always use ” damn cheepo” then my friends from overseas dont understand.. so i conclude it is singlish “lor” =)