Commonly found variants; note these may range from acceptable alternatives to non-standard forms or incorrect spellings*.
* Singlish is a largely spoken creole, and as such descriptivism (recording forms that reflect actual pronunciation in spoken language, or as appearing in the linguistic corpus) is more pertinent than strict prescriptivism. Nevertheless, the use of more standard forms (or for words originating in languages with Latin script, such as Malay, accurate to the original spelling) is recommended and encouraged.

also can:

phai

* The diacritic ◌̃ represents a nasalized vowel.

[ SSS:

paĩ ]

pai

→

Hokkien:

歹

poj:

pháiⁿ

expand for details Detailed etymology

definitions

adjective

  1. (in compounds) bad; evil; naughty; not good

    2. antonyms:

    goot ho
  2. (in compounds) difficult; hard; tough

usage notes

Usually only used in borrowed compounds in Singlish.


* The nasal vowel is almost always unmarked by speakers, though it is very important to the pronunciation of the term. In a dipthong or tripthong, the recommended convention is to mark the final vowel, unless it is spelled using a repeated letter, in which case the first-occurring repeated letter is marked.

related:

notti

categories:

insults

entries starting with

'pai'