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pai se

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:

pai seh phai se pai se

* The diacritic ◌̃ represents a nasalized vowel.

[ SSS:

paĩseh ]

paiseh

Hokkien:

歹势

poj:

pháiⁿ-sè

expand for details Detailed etymology

definitions

interjection

  1. sorry
  2. Pai seh! Did I knock you? Pai seh pai seh.

  3. 'excuse me'; 'I beg your pardon'
  4. Paiseh hor, I come through. Skius.

    synonyms:


adjective

  1. embarrassed; shy; ashamed; sorry
  2. Aiyo… I damn paĩseh to ask his name again.


usage notes

'Pai' is pronounced with a nasal sound and aspirated p (/pʰ/), which is difficult to represent clearly in English orthography.
Often abbreviated to ps or PS in written form.


* 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.


entries starting with

'pai se'