Penang Hokkien For Beginners Lesson 1: Greetings
Lesson 1: Greetings
The purpose of this course is to help you speak Penang Hokkien naturally with native speakers in Penang, Malaysia. Penang Hokkien is a variety of the Hokkien language, used in everyday conversation. Over time, it has absorbed many words from surrounding languages — mainly Malay and English, and more recently, Mandarin.
In this first lesson, you will learn how to greet people in Penang Hokkien. You’ll quickly notice that there are no direct equivalents to “Good Morning,” “Good Afternoon,” “Good Evening,” “Good Night,” or “Goodbye.” Instead, Penang Hokkien speakers use local expressions that reflect their culture and history.
Lesson 1: Greetings (AI generated on 25 October 2025)
If you meet someone in the morning, you can say “Gau3 ca4” 
. It literally means “how early of you,” and it is used in place of “Good Morning.” The person you greet will usually respond with “Gau3 ca4” as well.
As you may notice, every syllable in Taiji Romanisation is followed by a number — this is the tone number. It shows the tone you should use when pronouncing the word.
Penang Hokkien is a tonal language, meaning that the tone you use can change a word’s meaning. Mastering tones is essential to speaking accurately. For now, just focus on learning the words as they appear with their tone numbers. Later in the course, we’ll explore tones and tone changes in more detail.
We’ve just learned that gau3 ca4 roughly corresponds to “Good Morning.” However, there are no specific greetings for “Good Afternoon,” “Good Evening,” or “Good Night.” In those cases, Penang Hokkien speakers usually just use the English phrases directly — “Good Afternoon,” “Good Evening,” and “Good Night.”
It’s worth noting that English has been present in Penang since its founding by Captain Francis Light in 1786. As a result, it’s common for Penang Hokkien speakers to code-switch — that is, mix English words when there isn’t a natural Hokkien equivalent.
Another common way to greet someone is “Ciak3 pa4 boey3?” which means “Have you eaten?” This expression shows friendliness and concern — a reflection of earlier times when food was scarce. Similar greetings can be found in many Chinese dialects.
The usual reply to “Ciak3 pa4 boey3?” is “Ciak3 pa4 liau4.” meaning “Eaten already.”
So far, you’ve learned three key phrases: gau3 ca4, ciak3 pa4 boey3?, and ciak3 pa4 liau4. Each syllable in these phrases is a word by itself, though tones may change when words are used in combination. Here are the words that make up those phrases:
- gau2 – clever
- ca4 – early
- ciak1 – to eat
- pa4 – full
- boey3 – yet / not yet
- liau4 – already
Gau2 and ca4 together form gau3 ca4 — a morning greeting. Don’t interpret it word-for-word (“clever early”) but rather learn it as a set phrase. Similarly, you’ll notice that gau2 changes its tone to gau3 when used in the phrase, just as ciak1 (to eat) becomes ciak3 in ciak3 pa4 boey3?. Tone changes will be explained in later lessons.
To say “How are you?” in Penang Hokkien, you say “Ho4 boh2?” The typical reply is “Ho4!” meaning “Good,” or “Boh3 ho4.” meaning “Not good.”
Here are the new words introduced in this section:
- ho4 – good
- boh2 – not
You’ll notice that boh2 becomes boh3 in boh3 ho4. Again, tone changes will be discussed in a later lesson.
Exercise
Repeat to yourself all the phrases we’ve learned so far:
- Gau3 ca4
- Ciak3 pa4 boey3?
- Ciak3 pa4 liau4
- Ho4 boh2?
- Ho4
- Boh3 ho4
Now, try using them in context:
- You meet someone in the morning — what do you say? Click for answer
- You want to greet someone by asking if they’ve eaten — what do you say? Click for answer
- Someone asks you “Ciak3 pa4 boey3?” — how do you reply? Click for answer
- You want to ask someone how they are — what do you say?
- Someone asks you “Ho4 boh2?” and you want to say “Fine.” Click for answer
Penang Hokkien for Beginners Lessons
- Lesson 1: Greetings
- Lesson 2: What is your name?
- Lesson 3: Intonation
- Lesson 4: What is your job?
- Lesson 5: Where do you live?
- Lesson 6: Tone Sandhi
- Lesson 7: How do you come here?
- Lesson 8: Counting from 1 to 100
- Lesson 9: Counting money
- Lesson 10: How much is this?
- Lesson 11: What time is it?
- Lesson 12: How long does it take?
- Lesson 13: How far is it?
Have a question?
If you have a question about Penang Hokkien or this lesson, pose the question in the Learn Penang Hokkien Facebook Group and I will answer you there.