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Yam Side

二打六

二 Two; 打 Hit; 六 Six = Two hit Six. There are a few origin stories of this phrase: 1) 打 could mean "add" in some context. 2 plus 6 is 8 Tael which is half of Catty (16Tael), hinting one doesn't have enough "weight" e.g. not significant 2) 打 has a similar pronunciation of 搭, meaning "and" or "together". A minimum of 2 main actors and 6 supporting actors could form a small scale Cantonese Opera team. But such a team is of a really small scaled. Thus indicating "not significant"

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Small fry

核心嘅外圍係核心嘅內圍

核心 Core, nucleus; 嘅 's; 外圍 Periphery, outer shell; 係 is; 內圍 inside, innershell. This is a famous quote of Leon Lai , Cantopop singer, one of the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Hong Kong. But the meaning of this quote remains unclear

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The periphery of a core is the inner shell of another core

O嘴

嘴 Mouth = O mouth = the mouth opened like an O shape

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Surprised 😮

娿哿

娿 Indecisive; 哿 A type of hair accessories of wealthy women. The literal meaning of 娿哿is couldn't pick between 2 or more accessories. Thus it means indecisive, being of two minds

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Indecisive,

冇得頂

冇 Don't; 得 Get, have; 頂 Top = don't have things on top

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Can't top that

眨下眼

眨 Blink; 下 Once; 眼 Eye = blink once

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In the blink of an eye

埋堆

埋 Gather; 堆 Pile = Gather and pile up.

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Forming a coterie

仲等咩呀

仲 Still; 等 Wait; 咩 What; 呀 Ar (annotation)

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What are you waiting for

二仔底

Kit Hau Jyu 歇後語 (an idiomatic two-part double pun) of 死跟. 二仔 Little Two; 底 Under, beneath; 死跟 Follow at all cost. When playing Showhand (a type of 5 cards stud), 2 is considered as the smallest card. Someone with a 2 as the down card but continue to bet and hope others will bail out is what we called 二仔底—死跟. Means bluffing.

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Bluffing

Add Oil

(Chinglish) 加油 translated literally; "Oil" here refers to "gasoline", so "add oil" means "Put more gasoline / Push the pedal" = Put more effort

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Express encouragement and support

食鹽多過你食米

食 Eat; 鹽 Salf; 多過 More than; 你 You; 食 Eat; 米 Rice= The amount of salt I ate is more than the rice you ate. As salt is tiny and only a little bit is added to each dish. Whereas rice is the main food source of Chinese cuisine. If one eat more salt than the other eat rice, it means the former person should have eaten many more meals, thus older, than the latter. This phrase is for someone to brag about their experience in life (or anything)

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I am more experienced than you

動L

動 Move. It is originated from a shampoo commercial by Jackie Chan. He promoted the product in an exaggerated way, including using "動L" to describe hair. This word became popular in 2008.

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Elastic movement

各位觀眾 四條煙

各位 Everyone; 觀眾 Audience; 四 Four; 條 Classifier of things that are long and thin; 煙 Cigarette. This is a famous line from movie "賭聖 All for the Winner". "Cigarette" here refers to "Ace". In a game of Five-card stud, 4 aces is one of the highest ranking hand. So it is a phrase to mean that one is using ones trump card in a flashy manner.

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Ladies and gentlemen, 4 aces!

圍威喂

圍 Circled around; 威 Smug, pride; 喂 Hey (impolite way to address people) = Forming a circle to smug among themselves. Pronounced as wai4 wai1 wai3.

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(Pejorative) Forming an "inner circle" and smuggling among the group (sometimes involve transferring of benefits)

半斤八兩 做到隻積咁嘅樣

半 Half; 斤 Catty; 八 Eight; 兩 Tael; 做 Do; 到 As; 隻 A; 積 Stagnation; 咁嘅樣 Looks like = Half catty and 8 tael, work so hard and looks like stagnation. Lyrics from the song "The Private Eyes 半斤八兩" (1976) by Sam Hui, lyrics by Sam Hui and Peter Lai. This song is a classic Cantopop that reflects the life of the working class

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Work like a slave for the salary

流馬尿

流 Shed; 馬 Horse; 尿 Urine = Shedding horse's urine.

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Burst into tears

搞掂

搞 Do, handle; 掂 Complete, successful= Finish handling

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Done!

霸位

霸 Seize; 位 Seat. To occupy a seat before somebody else does, usually by putting something on a public seat to indicate somebody is sitting there, or have an actual person sitting there and waiting for the others

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To chope; Occupying space/seat

宜加

Should be written as 而家 or 依家. 家 is the shitfly pronouced 今 (meaning now, present)

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Now

熱烈地彈琴熱烈地唱

熱烈地 Passionately; 彈琴 Play piano; 唱 Sing. Lyrics from the song "喜氣洋洋" (1979) by Paula Tsui, lyrics by Cheng Kwok Kong. The lyrics originally means celebrations but is then used to gloat over another's misfortune.

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Congratulations (gloating over)

該煨

The "answer" part of a Kit Hau Jyu 歇後語 (an idiomatic two-part double pun) of 番薯跌落灶. 番薯 Yam; 跌落 Fall down, fall into; 灶 Stove; 該 Should 煨 Simmer, roast = A yam fell into a stove. The yam will be cooked in a manner called 煨 (cooking among a pile of hot coal) as it fell. If a yam fall into a stove, it "deserved" to be roast. It could be used as an exclaimation of "how terrible / too bad" and "serves you right" at the same time.

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This is so sad. Alexa, play despacito

盲頭烏蠅

盲 Blind; 頭 Head; 烏蠅 Fly (insect) = A blind fly. Flies are pest. Blind flies are worse as they cannot see where they are going. This phrase is a pejorative, referring to a person that is barging about.

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A bull in a china shop

掃街

掃 Sweep; 街 Street = Sweeping Street. It means buying food (usually snacks) along the street, "sweeping" every types of food.

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To try out every roadside food stall;

掠水

掠 Steal, grab; 水 Water = Grab water. "Water" has many meaning in Cantonese, one of them is "Money". Grabbing water simiply means "stealing/grabbing money"

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Overcharging

塞豆窿

塞 Stuff, fill in; 豆 Bean; 窿 Hole = Stuff inside a bean hole. It means little kids since they are small and could be stuffed inside a hole of the size of a bean

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Kid

賣大包

賣 Sell; 大 Big; 包 Bun = Selling big bun. A big bun is big in size and has lots of fillings. It is typically not expensive hence a big bun usually is a good bargain.

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Great bargain

雞腸

雞 Chicken; 腸 Intestine. When writing in cursive, characters are joined together in a flowing manner, which looks like a long string of intestine. Chicken intestine can mean any latin based languages but it is often used to describe English.

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English

今晚打老虎

今晚 Tonight; 打 Hit, hunt; 老虎 Tiger= Let's hunt a tiger tonight = transliteration of "Comment allez-vous" in Cantonese (From the movie "God of Gamblers Part III: Back to Shanghai" (1991)

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Comment allez-vous

Siu4

(Chinglish) Phonetical: Siu 笑 Laugh ;4死 Die = Laugh die = Laughing so had that one's gonna die

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LOL

日光日白

日 Sun; 光 Bright; 白 White = Sun's bright, sun's white

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In broad daylight

朱義盛

朱義盛 was a famous jeweler, who made costume jewelry that poorer people could afford. His skill was so good that his name is now used to connote fake products, especially of valuables

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Costume jewelry

一葉輕舟去

一 One; 葉 Leaf; 輕舟 Small boat; 去Go = Go away with a small boat. This is from the lyrics of Canton opera "鳳閣恩仇未了情 (Romance of the Phoenix Chamber)". The next line is 人隔萬重山 (We are thousands of mountains apart). This songs tells the story of separation and is popular among immigrants.

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Gone with a light boat made of leaf

同學愛新鮮 戀愛大過天

同學 Classmate; 愛 Love; 新鮮 Fresh, new; 戀愛 Falling in love; 大 Bigger; 過 Than; 天 Sky. This is the lyrics from the song "Love Bigger Than Sky 戀愛大過天" by Twins, lyrics by Albert Leung. The song is famous in the early 2000s

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Classmates like it fresh, Love is everything

如果太多牛奶味

如果 If; 太多 Too much; 牛奶 Milk; 味 Flavour. From the famous commercial of a chocolate milk.

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If there are too much milk

番薯跌落灶

Kit Hau Jyu 歇後語 (an idiomatic two-part double pun) of 該煨. 番薯 Yam; 跌落 Fall down, fall into; 灶 Stove; 該 Should 煨 Simmer, roast = A yam fell into a stove. The yam will be cooked in a manner called 煨 (cooking among a pile of hot coal) as it fell. If a yam fall into a stove, it "deserved" to be roast. It could be used as an exclaimation of "how terrible / too bad" and "serves you right" at the same time.

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How terrible but serves you right!

捩咁棄

捩 Turn, twist; 咁 Like; 棄 Sloppy = Twisting sloppily. It means that a person being sloppy and carelessly getting the job done. But it could also mean that things are unorganized, so the person is agitated. Sometimes written as "呢咁hea"

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Sloppy / In a spin

昆水

昆 should be written as "𧥺", meaning "to deceive"; 水 Water, here means Money = Deceive money

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Swindle

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