Interesting Teochew Phrases I

 We, Teochew, have a number of interesting phrases and we can call these phrases cu3bhi7 Teochew Uê7 趣味潮州話 and Mogher writes this as hiaoⁿ5 姣 but uses the wrong character for hiaoⁿ5 and the correct character is 嬲。

If you were to watch historical Teochew dramas and when some actors encountered odd or strange or interesting events, they would describe it as hiaoⁿ5 嬲. My Teochew dictionaries have not nasal hiaoⁿ5 嬲。

One of the phrases my father used to use was hiaoⁿ5 gao3 bho5nai6ho5 嬲到無奈何 which meant strange until could not be helped. However, you would never hear people in our homeland using this phrase “hiaoⁿ5 gao3 bho5nai6ho5”.

My father was born and raised in Swatow and when he went to school, he was taught in Teochew, and they used to call school oh8deng5 學堂。

Schools are called hag8hao6 學校 nowadays. This is why a school principal [Head Teacher] is called hao6ziang2 校長。  Another word for school is ze1zê1 書齋。

Let us begin our series of cu3bhi7 Teochew Uê7 趣味潮州話 with bhoi6 𠁞。

If you know of any interesting Teochew words which has bhoi6 in it, please share using the comments section.

bhoi6mo2 𠁞孬｜𠀾孬	not bad, tolerable, passable	hai2hao3 還好｜还好  不壞｜不坏
huan1ho2 還好｜还好	not bad, tolerable, passable	hai2hao3 還好｜还好  不壞｜不坏
bhoi6sai2 𠁞使｜𠀾使	should not, must not, cannot	shi3bu5de5 使不得
bhoi6dig4 𠁞得｜𠀾得	cannot, must not, may not, not allowed	bu4de2 不得 bu4neng2 不能
bhoi6sai2 and bhoi6dig4 are now said as mo2 孬
bhoi6hiao2 𠁞曉｜𠀾晓	unable to do something	bu4hui4 不會｜不会
m6hiao2 唔曉｜唔晓	unable to do something	bu4hui4 不會｜不会
m6hiao2 唔曉｜唔晓	do not understand	bu4dong3 不懂
bhoi6giam2 𠁞減｜𠀾减	a lot, many, quite a few	bu4shao3 不少
bhoi6 zo3ni5 𠁞咋呢｜𠀾咋呢	no problem	mei2shi4 沒事｜没事
bhoi6dan7 𠁞賺 ｜𠀾赚	That is right!	mei2cuo4 沒錯｜没错