挨生挨死

Cantonese · source Jyutpingngaai4 saang1 ngaai4 sei2

Meanings

  1. Working very hard and living hard lives; to endure hardships
About these definitions

Source definition segments, in their original order. Characters a definition cites are shown without their Mandarin pinyin; classifier lists that CC-Canto copied from CC-CEDICT are marked Mandarin. The community dictionary is not independently verified by zimai.

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Reading & tones

Schematic citation-tone diagrams from the source numbers. These are not recordings or predictions of connected speech.

Reading difference from Unihan

  • 挨 has the reading ngaai4 here; Unihan’s citation reading is aai1. Different syllable across these source readings. CC-Canto also lists 挨 ngaai4 as its own entry.
  • 生 has the reading saang1 here; Unihan’s citation reading is sang1. Different syllable across these source readings. CC-Canto also lists 生 saang1 as its own entry.
  • 挨 has the reading ngaai4 here; Unihan’s citation reading is aai1. Different syllable across these source readings. CC-Canto also lists 挨 ngaai4 as its own entry.

Computed by zimai: each syllable of the CC-Canto word reading is compared with Unihan 17.0.0 kCantonese for its character. The comparison does not say why a reading differs (a changed tone, 變音, a reading tied to one meaning, or a source variant).

Same syllable, six tones

saangsaang1—省saang2to savesaang3—saang4—saang5—saang6—
seisei1—死sei2to die四sei3labourersei4—sei5—sei6—

Characters whose customary Unihan reading (kCantonese) is this syllable in each tone, chosen as in the tone atlas (2013 standard level, then the number of CC-CEDICT words they form), with CC-Canto 2017's meaning for that reading; a dash means no catalogue character has that reading. Checked syllables (-p, -t, -k) normally carry tones 1, 3 and 6. Character readings, not word readings; no frequency implied.

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Written characters

Both source spellings are represented. Written membership is not an etymological or semantic claim.

Cantonese characters and the Mandarin bridge ↗

Mandarin comparison · separate source entries

CC-Canto includes this pinyin reference: ai1 sheng1 ai1 si3. It does not establish a Mandarin word with the same meaning.

Look up this spelling in the Mandarin dictionary ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ngaai4 saang1 ngaai4 sei2

Cantonese word readings for 挨生挨死. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

  1. (Cantonese, Hakka) to drag out an ignoble existence; to endure hardships; to live a hard life and work very hard

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

CC-Canto · Pleco Inc. · edition 2017-02-02
Source line 8,505 · Original publisher · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Edition & transformations
Exact source record & identity挨生挨死 挨生挨死 [ai1 sheng1 ai1 si3] {ngaai4 saang1 ngaai4 sei2} /Working very hard and living hard lives; to endure hardships/

SHA-256: 88030dea2ef21ecc38a13e9596f4a99649ca1b808133ec763b7d7fce2c6e344e