English Loan Words in the Chinese Language

Foreign words and concepts are adopted into the Chinese language in either of two ways. One way is to create a new compound word that actually translate the concept behind the word. For example, a computer is known as a diannao (電腦) or electronic brain, while a telephone is dianhua (電話), or electric voice. Another way is for the foreign word to be transliterated into Chinese. Unfortunately, this approach has a number of drawbacks. One is that since the Chinese characters were not designed to represent sound, the result is usually just a rough approximation of the original sound. Moreover, since the characters may be pronounced very differently under various dialects, what is a close approximation under one dialect may not be under another. Hence, it is not unusual for the same foreign word to have multiple Chinese transliterations based on the dialect. Another disadvantage of transliterated words is that since every Chinese character has a meaning, a transliterated word is nonsensical unless one immediately recognizes that one should read just the sound and ignore the meaning of the underlying characters. This can be very confusing for beginning Chinese readers.



Increasing globalization means that foreign loan words are likely to increase the Chinese language. In Hong Kong, where residents freely insert English words into their Cantonese dialect, they tend to have more transliterated English words than other Chinese speakers.


English Source Chinese Transliteration Alternate Chinese Variant


Baby 啤啤 (Cantonese) 嬰兒


Bar 酒吧


Bowling 保齡球 滾木球


Brandy 白蘭地酒


Buffet 蒲飛 (Cantonese) 自助餐


Bus 巴士 公共汔車


Bye Bye 拜拜 再見


Calorie 卡路里 熱量單位


Cartoon 卡通 漫畫, 動畫


Cheese 芝士 奶酪


Cherry 車厘子(Cantonese) 櫻桃


Cocoa 可可 谷咕 (Cantonese)


Coffee 咖啡


Chocolate 巧克力 朱古力


Curry 咖喱


Cyanide 山埃 (Cantonese) 化物


Disco 迪斯可 的士高 (Cantonese)


Fashion 花樣 花臣(Cantonese)


Film 菲林 (Cantonese) 膠卷


Gallon 加侖


Golf 高爾夫球


Guitar 吉他 結他 (Cantonese)


Hamburger 漢堡


Jelly 者喱 果子凍


Mile 米 英里


Morphine 嗎啡


Motor 摩托 電動機


Ounce 盎斯 安士


Pudding 布丁 布甸


Salad 沙拉


Sandwich 三明治 三文治


Sardines 沙丁魚 沙甸魚 (Cantonese)


Salmon 三文魚 (Cantonese) 鮭魚


Sauna 桑拿 (Cantonese) 蒸氣浴


Sofa 沙發 梳化


Strawberry 士多啤梨 (Cantonese) 草莓


Sundae 新地 水果奶油冰淇淋


Taxi 的士 出租車, 計程車


Tips 貼士 (Cantonese) 小費, 提示


Toast 多士 吐司, 烤麵包


Toffee 太妃糖 拖肥 (Cantonese)


Vitamin 維他命 維生素


Vodka 伏特加酒


Whisky 威士忌酒