Taiwanese Hokkien Vocabulary
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for learning Taiwanese Hokkien here: Learning Taiwanese Resources
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Current featured Taiwanese vocabulary
Category: christmas
total 21 words
Christmas
聖誕
sìng-tàn
釋義：（臺華共同詞 ，無義項）
festival
節日
tseh-ji̍t/tsueh-li̍t
釋義：值得慶祝或紀念的日子。如國慶日、中秋節等。
decoration
妝娗
tsng-thānn
釋義：化妝、打扮。 裝飾、裝飾品。
dinner
食飯會
tsia̍h-pn̄g-huē
釋義：聚餐、飯局。
gift
禮物
lé-bu̍t
釋義：贈送的物品。
give gifts
送禮
sàng-lé
釋義：以財物禮品餽贈他人。
card
卡片
khah-phìnn
釋義：畫有欄位，可供電腦或一般登錄、處理資料使用的硬紙片。 內含文字、圖片，用以贈人的硬紙片。如賀年卡、生日卡等。
chimney
煙筒
ian-tâng
釋義：煙囪。爐灶或工廠鍋爐用以排煙的長管。
pie
餡餅
ānn-piánn
釋義：包有綠豆沙、紅豆沙等餡料的油酥餅，可以當作禮餅。
celebrate
慶祝
khìng-tsiok
釋義：對可喜或值得紀念的事舉行活動，表示慶賀祝福。
candle
蠟條
la̍h-tiâu
釋義：條形的蠟燭。
end of year
年尾
nî-bué/nî-bé
釋義：年終、歲未。
snow
雪
seh
釋義：水汽在零度以下所凝結成的六角形的白色晶體。
arctic
北極
pak-ki̍k
釋義：地球沿南北向的地軸旋轉，而此地軸的北端，稱為「北極」。
angel
天使
thinn-sài
釋義：（臺華共同詞 ，無義項）
bell
鈃
giang
釋義：小搖鈴。 鈴聲響起來。
cake
雞卵糕
ke-nn̄g-ko/kue-nn̄g-ko
釋義：蛋糕。用雞蛋、麵粉、糖、香料等和勻製成的糕點。
wreath
花箍
hue-khoo
釋義：花圈。以鮮花或紙花紮成圓圈，用於誌慶或喪禮的弔唁。
sweater
膨紗衫
phòng-se-sann
釋義：毛線衣。用毛線所織成的衣服。
candy
金含
kim-kâm
釋義：一種糖果，硬如鐵石，形如彈珠，大小像桔子或酸李，顏色有綠白或紅白等相間，如果不咬破，輕輕的含在嘴裡，可以含上很長一段時間。
What is Taiwanese Hokkien?
Taiwanese or Taiwanese Hokkien is a language commonly spoken in Taiwan and other Chinese/Taiwanese communities around the world. Hokkien is often referred to by a number of different names which can be confusing for those not familiar with Chinese languages. Some of these include Hoklo, Southern Min, Fujianese, Minnan, Minnanhua and of course Taigi, the commonly used name for the language in Hokkien itself.
Written Taiwanese
How Taiwanese should be written is often a debate amongst Taiwanese speakers and learners. While Taiwan's Ministry of Education has more recently released a list of recommended Chinese characters for use with Taiwanese, most people are still unsure which characters to use. This means the same word is often written with different characters depending on who is writing. This confusion has always been a challenge with promoting and teaching Taiwanese and is one reason some people prefer to write Taiwanese with the Latin alphabet.
Taiwanese romanization
The most popular ways of written Taiwanese with letters (known as romanization or Lomaji) are POJ (Pe̍h-ōe-jī) and Tâi-lô. The former was created by missionaries in the 19th century and Tâi-lô was created by the Taiwanese government, based off POJ. There are other ways of writing Taiwanese, but these are the two most common. Since this site uses data from the MOE, Tâi-lô and the recommended characters from the government are used here.
Taiwanese Hokkien vs Taiwanese Mandarin
Although Taiwanese Hokkien is often referred to as simply a dialect, it is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese Mandarin. A Taiwanese person who has not grown up speaking Taiwanese or not learnt Taiwanese will not be able to understand Taiwanese Hokkien just from Mandarin. Therefore it is often seen as more correct to refer to them as separate languages. While we have also included the Taiwanese Mandarin characters on this website, the focus here is for learning Taiwanese Hokkien. Luckily there are plenty of other resources for learning Mandarin online, whereas Taiwanese has much fewer resources.
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