Mangled metaphors, scroowy sayings

[curiousgeorge]

.... She would call an "ambulance" a "hospital truck"...

In the same vein, my Chinese friend was helping at the BBQ and asked me to pass the "kitchen tweezers".

Also relevant to this topic, a friend says that users of local dating applications like Tindr might use an expression like "seeking man to fcuk me hardly". Which is kind of the opposite of the poster's intent if you think about it...

[Edroche]

Funny topic.

A really strange one is when people put a T on the end of some words. Like - Can I help you-t.

Who deh: That person over there, I do not know his/her name.
Sheh-sheh-she: Cecil street
An denn: Replaces the full stop in sentences
Sum ting for you: How may I help you?
Fuh-boi-ek: Hard-boiled egg

[ecureilx]

Funny topic.

A really strange one is when people put a T on the end of some words. Like - Can I help you-t.

Who deh: That person over there, I do not know his/her name.
Sheh-sheh-she: Cecil street
An denn: Replaces the full stop in sentences
Sum ting for you: How may I help you?
Fuh-boi-ek: Hard-boiled egg

haven't heard this

though if you been here, in regular talks, last letter gets eaten

so Sars was SAR, .. and on and on until Marlboro Menthol Lights becomes sometimes Malbo Mentho Ligh ..

.... She would call an "ambulance" a "hospital truck"...

[/quote]

And in Malaysia, the few people I know call Tow Trucks as "ON TOW" Truck.. took a while to figure out why ..

[Fortan]

though if you been here, in regular talks, last letter gets eaten

so Sars was SAR, .. and on and on until Marlboro Menthol Lights becomes sometimes Malbo Mentho Ligh ..

When I first arrived here many moons ago I could afford a car and bought one. The first tank of petrol went in it and I went to the shop to pay for it:

Auntie: Got spc-car?
Me: What
Auntie: Got spc-car?
Me: No, it is the black Mazda out there on pump 3......

Still get a giggle out of that today as I've learned she asked for an SPC Card....

[WanWanWan]

When I first arrived here many moons ago I could afford a car and bought one. The first tank of petrol went in it and I went to the shop to pay for it:

Auntie: Got spc-car?
Me: What
Auntie: Got spc-car?
Me: No, it is the black Mazda out there on pump 3......

Still get a giggle out of that today as I've learned she asked for an SPC Card....

This reminds me of something from earlier this year. I was passing through a hawker centre and stopped to buy a drink.

Auntie: Plastic car?
Me: Sorry, what?
Auntie: Plastic car, plastic car?
Me: ...Yes?

Turns out she meant, "Would you like your drink in a plastic bag or a cup?"

I was trying to figure out if she was selling toy cars, or if someone had parked badly nearby and she was trying to identify the car's owner somehow, or was asking if I wanted to pay using a plasticy bank card (despite it being in a hawker centre, but I was clutching at straws trying to work out what she was trying to communicate)

[Brah]

Funny topic.

A really strange one is when people put a T on the end of some words. Like - Can I help you-t.

Who deh: That person over there, I do not know his/her name.
Sheh-sheh-she: Cecil street
An denn: Replaces the full stop in sentences
Sum ting for you: How may I help you?
Fuh-boi-ek: Hard-boiled egg

Though not mixed sayings, one to add to this series:
"Dahwan": That one

This is one of those things that once realized, cannot go unheard - how often sentences here end unnecessarily with " -one".

[the lynx]

Funny topic.

A really strange one is when people put a T on the end of some words. Like - Can I help you-t.

Who deh: That person over there, I do not know his/her name.
Sheh-sheh-she: Cecil street
An denn: Replaces the full stop in sentences
Sum ting for you: How may I help you?
Fuh-boi-ek: Hard-boiled egg

Though not mixed sayings, one to add to this series:
"Dahwan": That one

This is one of those things that once realized, cannot go unheard - how often sentences here end unnecessarily with " -one".

It is from the local Mandarin 'de' çš„. The local Mandarin speakers use this at the end of sentence for emphasis. I don't think other region's Mandarin speakers (Taiwan, China etc) use çš„ that way.

"This thing can work one!"

"Cannot one!"

[Fortan]

Ending sentences with AH....

You want AH?
This good AH?

Must come from the Mandarin MA I reckon.... but I sometimes shake me head at all the ah, ah, ah....

[ecureilx]

Ending sentences with AH....

You want AH?
This good AH?

Must come from the Mandarin MA I reckon.... but I sometimes shake me head at all the ah, ah, ah....

my 2 cents

in Chinese, the tone makes a sentence a question expecting an answer, or an exclamation or a simple note ..

when it switches to English with NO Tones, the Chinese speakers try add ah ? for question or to emphasize the questioning part ..

Like eat rice, in Chinese, or have you eaten rice, or want to eat rice all have the same word construct in Chinese, the difference being hidden in the tone

cannot blame that one lah .. !!!!

[zzm9980]

my 2 cents

in Chinese, the tone makes a sentence a question expecting an answer, or an exclamation or a simple note ..

when it switches to English with NO Tones, the Chinese speakers try add ah ? for question or to emphasize the questioning part ..

Like eat rice, in Chinese, or have you eaten rice, or want to eat rice all have the same word construct in Chinese, the difference being hidden in the tone

cannot blame that one lah .. !!!!

Uhm... No.
You really couldn't be more wrong.

Tones are used to make different words for the same phonemes. They don't change clauses from declarative to inquisitive to exclamations are you claim.

[zzm9980]

Funny topic.

A really strange one is when people put a T on the end of some words. Like - Can I help you-t.

Who deh: That person over there, I do not know his/her name.
Sheh-sheh-she: Cecil street
An denn: Replaces the full stop in sentences
Sum ting for you: How may I help you?
Fuh-boi-ek: Hard-boiled egg

Though not mixed sayings, one to add to this series:
"Dahwan": That one

This is one of those things that once realized, cannot go unheard - how often sentences here end unnecessarily with " -one".

It is from the local Mandarin 'de' çš„. The local Mandarin speakers use this at the end of sentence for emphasis. I don't think other region's Mandarin speakers (Taiwan, China etc) use çš„ that way.

"This thing can work one!"

"Cannot one!"

Shit like this always makes me hate Mandarin in Singapore. I hear stuff like this and get completely confused thinking I know less than Mandarin than I thought I did. Luckily I visit China or Taiwan and that helps me realize that "Ah, the Ang Moh knows better..."

[Fortan]

Walked past a place today offering 'Seasoned Parking'........