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:

zho pai lang zo phai lang zho phai lang cho pai lang cho phai lang zho pai nang tzo pai nang tzo pai lang zo pai nang

* The diacritic ◌̃ represents a nasalized vowel.

[ SSS:

zo paĩ lang ]

zo pai lang

Hokkien:

做歹侬

poj:

chò pháiⁿ-lâng

expand for details Detailed etymology

definitions

verb

  1. to have to be the bad guy or villain, e.g. when one has to delegate people to do an undesirable task
  2. Vik usually tries to ar with his troopers and be on their side, but sometimes he bo pian have to zo pai lang and arrow them for saikang.


usage notes

* 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.

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