The five most common Cantonese profanities, vulgar words in the Cantonese language are diu, gau, lan, tsat and hai, where the first literally means fuck, "Diu" is literally the word for penis while the rest are sexual organs of either gender. They are sometimes collectively known as the "outstanding five in Cantonese". 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 Kongbroadcast television. Other curse phrases, such as puk gai and ham gaa caan, are also common.
Vulgar words
''Diu''
Diu, literally meaning fuck, is a common but grossly vulgar profanity in Cantonese. In a manner similar to the English wordfuck, diu expresses dismay, disgrace and disapproval. Examples of expressions include diu lei! and the highly offensive diu lei lou mo! or diu lei lo mo chau hai!. The word diu was originally a noun meaning the penis and evolved as a verb. 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 may not be censored on TV broadcasts but the original Cantonese pronunciation is still taboo. Certain euphemisms exist, including siu , tsiu, yiu.
''Gau''
Gau, sometimes wrongly written as Wikt:尻 or Wikt:鳩 despite different pronunciations, is a vulgar Cantonese word which literally means erected cock or cocky. The phrase Wikt:戇 ngong6 gau1 is an adjective that may be loosely translated as a "dumbass". Minced variants include 戇居 ngong6 geoi1, 戇Q ngong6 kiu1, 硬膠／硬胶 ngaang6 gaau1 and "on9". The phrase mou4 lei4 tau4 gau1 meaning "makes no sense" was cut to mou4 lei4 tau4 to avoid the sound gau1. Similar to "fucking" in English, this word is usually used as an adverb. Compare this:
黐線
黐㞗線
Two common euphemisms gau, which only differ in the tone, include 九 gau2 and 狗 gau2.
''Lan''
Lan, sometimes idiomatically written as Wikt:撚 lun, is another vulgar word that means penis. Similar to gau, this word is also usually used as an adverb. lan yeung can be loosely translated as "dickface". Euphemisms includes 懶 laan or 能 nang.
''Tsat''
Tsat, sometimes idiomatically written as Wikt:柒, is a vulgar word for an impotent penis. Ban6 cat6 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 can be loosely translated as "dickhead". A common euphemism is 七 cat1, which only differs in the tone. Other euphemisms include 刷 caat3 and 賊 caak6. As a result, thieves that are easily caught by the police are often intentionally described as 笨賊 ban6 caak6 in the newspaper to achieve the humorous effects from the phrase ban6 cat6.
''Hai''
Hai 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 , 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 ". Since the penis and vagina are both exposed to the sun, the second part is hai1 gau1 saai3'' —a pun for total failure. 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 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. Since the phrase does not involve any sexual organs or reference to sex, some argue that it should not be considered as profanity. Nevertheless, "PK" is often used as a euphemism for the phrase. The written form can be seen on graffiti in Hong Kong and in Guangdong. In Southeast Asia, the meaning of the phrase has evolved so that it is no longer a profanity, and is usually taken to mean "broke/bankrupt" or "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 is another common curse phrase in Cantonese that literally means "may your whole family be bulldozed". 鏟 caan2 means to be bulldozed, 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, since the phrase targets the listener's whole family instead of just himself. 咸家伶 or 冚家拎 Ham6 gaa1 ling1, 咸家富貴 or 冚家富貴 ham6 gaa1 fu3 gwai3, 咸家祥 or 冚家祥 ham gaa ceong are common variant but 拎 ling has little logical relations with the original phrase. Adding the wordsham gaa 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", while in the MTR, it was prohibited to "use any threatening, abusive, obscene or offensive language...." until 2017. However, despite the explicit prohibition by various laws, the exact definition of "obscene language" is not given in the ordinance.
