CANTONESE ↔ ENGLISH · CC-CANTO

有奶便是娘

Cantonese · source Jyutpingjau5 naai5 bin6 si6 noeng4

literally: Whoever suckles me is my mother. It describes people who see profit and forget morality

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

jau55 · low risingnaai55 · low risingbin66 · low levelsi66 · low levelnoeng44 · low falling

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

Same syllable, six tones

jau优jau1excellent 糗jau2dry rations 幼jau3young 油jau4oil 有jau5to have 右jau6right

naainaai1—naai2—naai3—naai4—奶naai5breastnaai6—

bin边bin1side 扁bin2flat 变bin3to changebin4—bin5—便bin6ordinary

si斯si1this 史si2history 试si3to test 时si4o'clock 市si5market 事si6matter

noengnoeng1—noeng2—noeng3—娘noeng4mothernoeng5—noeng6—

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

有奶便是娘

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-CEDICT, the Mandarin–English dictionary, lists the same written form:

有奶便是娘 yǒu nǎi biàn shì niáng CC-CEDICT · Mandarinlit. whoever provides milk is your mother (idiom); fig. to follow whoever is feeding you; to put one's loyalties where one's interests lie

A separate source entry, shown for comparison. The same characters can carry different senses in Mandarin and in Cantonese; zimai does not align these senses.

CC-Canto includes this pinyin reference: you3 nai3 bian4 shi4 niang2. 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