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Cantonese profanity
The five most common Cantonese profanities, vulgar words in the Cantonese language are diu (屌/𨳒), gau (㞗/
鳩), lan (𨶙𡳞/撚), tsat (杘/柒) and hai (屄/閪), where the first literally means fuck, while the rest are sexual organs of
either gender.[1] They are sometimes collectively known as the "outstanding five in Cantonese" (廣東話一門五傑).[2]
These five words are generally offensive and give rise to a variety of euphemisms and minced oaths. Similar to the
seven dirty words in the United States, these five words are forbidden to say and are bleep-censored on Hong Kong
broadcast television. Other curse phrases, such as puk gai (踣街/仆街) and ham gaa caan (咸家鏟/冚家鏟), are also
common.

Contents
Vulgar words
Diu
Gau
Lan
Tsat
Hai
Other curse phrases
Puk gaai
Ham Gaa Caan
Legal issues
See also
Notes and references
Notes
References
External links

Vulgar words

Diu
Diu (traditional Chinese: 屌 or 𨳒 ; Jyutping: diu2), literally meaning fuck, is a
common but grossly vulgar profanity in Cantonese. In a manner similar to the
English word fuck, diu expresses dismay, disgrace, and disapproval. Examples of
expressions include diu nei! (屌你！ or 𨳒你！, fuck you!), and the highly offensive
diu nei lo mo! (屌你老母 or 𨳒你老母, fuck your mother) or diu nei lo mo chau hai!
(𨳒你老母臭閪, fuck your mother's foul cunt).

The word diu was originally a noun meaning the penis and evolved as a verb.[3]
Regarded as a grossly vulgar word in Cantonese, the word has gained a new
meaning in Taiwan to refer to "cool". In this context, the Mandarin pronunciation The written form of diu
may not be censored on TV broadcasts but the original Cantonese pronunciation is commonly seen in Hong
Kong
still taboo.

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Certain euphemisms exist, including siu (小) (small/little), tsiu (超), yiu (妖) [4]

Gau
Gau ( 㞗 or Chinese: 𨳊 ; Jyutping: gau1), sometimes wrongly written as 尻 (haau1) or 鳩 (gou1) despite different
pronunciations,[5] is a vulgar Cantonese word which literally means a cock or cocky.[1]

The phrase 戇𨳊 ngong6 gau1 is an adjective that may be loosely translated as a "dumbass".[6] Minced variants include
戇居 ngong6 geoi1, 戇Q ngong6 kiu1, 硬膠／硬胶 ngaang6 gaau1 (lit. hard plastic) and "on9" (used in internet slang).
The phrase mou4 lei4 tau4 gau1 (無厘頭尻) meaning "makes no sense" was cut to mou4 lei4 tau4 to avoid the sound
gau1.[5] Similar to "fucking" in English, this word is usually used as an adverb. Compare this:

黐線 (crazy)
黐㞗線 (fucking crazy)
Two common euphemisms gau, which only differ in the tone, include 九 gau2 (nine) and 狗 gau2 (dog, but it may
change the original "dumbass" meaning into "cunning" instead).

Lan
Lan (𡳞 or Chinese: 𨶙; Jyutping: lan2), sometimes idiomatically written as 撚 lun, is another vulgar word that means
penis.[1] Similar to gau, this word is also usually used as an adverb.

lan yeung (𡳞樣 or 撚樣) can be loosely translated as "dickface".[7]

Euphemisms includes 懶 laan (lazy) or 能 nang (able to).

Tsat
Tsat (杘 or 𡴶 or Chinese: 𨳍; Jyutping: cat6), sometimes idiomatically written as 柒, is a vulgar word for an erect
penis. Its American English equivalent is "boner". Ban6 cat6 (笨杘) (stupid dick) is a more common phrase among
others. However, it is usually used as a vulgar adjective especially among the youth. It means "ugly" or "shameful".

cat6 tau4 (杘頭 or 𡴶頭 or 柒頭) can be loosely translated as "dickhead".

A common euphemism is 七 cat1 (seven), which only differs in the tone. Other euphemisms include 刷 caat3 (to
brush) and 賊 caak6 (thieves). As a result, thieves that are easily caught by the police are often intentionally described
as 笨賊 ban6 caak6 (stupid thieves) in the newspaper to achieve the humorous effects from the phrase ban6 cat6.

Hai
Hai (traditional Chinese: 屄 or 閪 ; Jyutping: hai1) is a common vulgar word that literally means vagina. The English
equivalent is "cunt". 屄 is more common on the mainland of China, with 閪 being used in Hong Kong and Macao. The
Chinese character 屄 consists of two parts: the upper part is 尸 that means "body" while the bottom part 穴 means "a
hole". The Chinese character thus literally means a "hole at the bottom of the body".[1] Two common phrases include
傻閪 so4 hai1 (silly cunt) and 臭閪 cau3 hai1 (stinking cunt). Also another phrase is 𨳒閪 diu2 hai1 (fuck a pussy).

A common euphemism is 西 sai1 (west). The phrase 西口西面 sai1 hau2 sai1 min6 (west mouths and west faces) is
often used to describe women who have an impolite look. Some words that are associated with western culture such as
西 人 sai1 yan4 (Westerners) may become Cantonese jokes that base on the ambiguity of these vocabularies. Other
euphemisms include 鞋 haai4 (shoes) and 蟹 haai5 (crabs). As a result, crabs are sometimes intentionally linked with
other words such as stinking and water to achieve some vagina-related humorous effects.

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The word hai can also mean total failure as in the phrase hai1 saai3 (閪曬). The Chinese character 曬 means "to expose
to the sun", but in Cantonese it has been borrowed to represent the verbal particle to stress an action.[8] To further
stress the failure, sometimes the phrase hai1 gau1 saai3 is used (the word gau that means penis is put in between the
original phrase). Since this phrase is highly offensive (it consists two of the five vulgar words), a euphemism or
xiehouyu, a kind of Chinese "proverb", is sometimes used. As in a normal xiehouyu, it consists of two elements: the
former segment presents a scenario while the latter provides the rationale thereof. One would often only state the first
part, expecting the listener to know the second. The first part is "a man and a woman having a sunbath (naked)" (男女
日光浴). Since the penis and vagina are both exposed to the sun, the second part is hai1 gau1 saai3 (閪𨳊曬) — a pun
for total failure.[8] Therefore, if one wants to say that something is a total failure, he only has to say 男女日光浴, and
the listener will understand the intended meaning.

Other curse phrases

Puk gaai
Puk gai (踣 街, usually idiomatically written as Chinese: 仆 街 ; Cantonese
Yale: puk1 gaai1) literally means "falling onto street", which is a common
curse phrase in Cantonese that may be translated into English as "drop
dead". It is sometimes used as a noun to refer to an annoying person that
roughly means a "prick". The phrase can also be used in daily life under a
variety of situations to express annoyance, disgrace or other emotions.[9]
The written form of puk gai
Since the phrase does not involve any sexual organs or reference to sex,
commonly seen in Hong Kong.
some argue that it should not be considered as profanity.[10] Nevertheless,
"PK" is often used as a euphemism for the phrase.[11] The written form can
be seen on graffiti in Hong Kong and in Guangdong, China.

In Southeast Asia, the meaning of the phrase has evolved so that it is no longer a profanity, and is usually taken to
mean "epic fail". In Taiwan, it is commonly used to refer to planking. The term is even used in a colloquial sense by
Malaysian Malays, in which case it is usually rendered as "pokai".

Ham Gaa Caan

Ham6 gaa1 caan2 (Chinese: 咸 家 鏟 or Chinese: 冚 家 鏟 ; Jyutping: ham6 gaa1 chaan2) is another common curse
phrase in Cantonese that literally means "may your whole family be dead".[9] Interestingly, 鏟 chaan2 means a shovel
or to shovel, which possibly relates to a funeral and ultimately to the meaning of death. Like puk6 gaai1, the phrase
can both be used to mean "prick" or to express annoyance, but many find ham gaa caan much more offensive than
puk gaai.[9]

咸家伶 or 冚家拎 Ham6 gaa1 ling1, 咸家富貴 or 冚家富貴 ham6 gaa1 fu3 gwai3 (may the whole family be rich), 咸家
祥 or 冚 家 祥 ham gaa ceong (may the whole family be fortunate) are common variant but 拎 ling (to take/carry
something) has little logical relations with the original phrase. Adding the words ham gaa (whole family) in front of a
bless can actually reverse the meaning. The appropriate word for "the whole family" is 全 家 cyun gaa to avoid any
negative meanings.

Legal issues
In Hong Kong, there are specific by-laws that forbid the usage of profanity in public. For instance, it is not permitted
to "use obscene language … in Ocean Park", for which "an offence is liable on conviction to a fine at level 1 and to
imprisonment for 1 month",[12] while in the MTR, it was prohibited to "use any threatening, abusive, obscene or

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offensive language …." until 2017. [13] However, despite the explicit prohibition by various laws, the exact definition of
"obscene language" is not given in the ordinance.[14]

See also
Cantonese slang
Hong Kong Cantonese
Mandarin Chinese profanity

Notes and references

Notes
1. Pang, 3.
2. Pang, preface.
3. Pang, 7.
4. Pang, 116-117.
5. Pang, 29.
6. Pang, 108.
7. Pang, 102.
8. Pang, 109.
9. "Curse phrase dictionary" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080217135735/http://www.comti.com.cn/xcantonese/ch
05.html) (in Chinese). Cantonese Profanity Research Site. Archived from the original (http://www.comti.com.cn/xc
antonese/ch05.html) on 2008-02-17. Retrieved 2008-02-08.
10. Pang, 55.
11. Pang, 56.
12. Ocean Park Bylaw (Cap. 388B) § 5 (http://www.hklii.hk/hk/legis/en/reg/388B/s5.html), "Conduct of public".
13. Mass Transit Railway By-laws (Cap. 556B) § 28H (http://www.hklii.hk/hk/legis/en/reg/556B/s28h.html), "Abusive
language".
14. "Legal issues of using obscene language" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080111142704/http://www.comti.com.c
n/xcantonese/ch12.html) (in Chinese). Cantonese Profanity Research Site. Archived from the original (http://www.
comti.com.cn/xcantonese/ch12.html) on 2008-01-11. Retrieved 2008-02-07.

References
1. Robert S. Bauer and Paul K. Benedict (1997). Modern Cantonese Phonology. Berlin and New York: Mouton de
Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-014893-5. Part of the chapter 3 concerns Cantonese profanity.
2. Kingsley Bolton and Christopher Hutton, "Bad boys and bad language: chou hau and the sociolinguistics of
swearwords in Hong Kong Cantonese", in Grant Evans and Maria Tam ed. (1997). Hong Kong: the Anthropology
of a Chinese Metropolis. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon. ISBN 0-7007-0601-1.
3. Pang, Chi Ming (2007). Little Dogs are too Lazy to Polish Shoes (⼩狗懶擦鞋): a Study of Hong Kong Profanity
Culture (in Chinese). Hong Kong Subculture Publishing. ISBN 978-962-992-161-3.

External links
(in Japanese) "広東語の粗口" (https://web.archive.org/web/20131213183044/http://hongkong.sakura.ne.jp/c-1.ht
ml) (in Japanese). Archived from the original (http://hongkong.sakura.ne.jp/c-1.html) on 2013-12-13. Retrieved
27 January 2017.

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