How to say I love you in Shanghainese
I love you in Shanghainese is 我爱侬 ngu e non ‘I love you’. It is written almost exactly like Mandarin’s 我爱你 wǒ ài nǐ, with one character changed, and it sounds quite different. Below it is set beside Mandarin and Cantonese, followed by the softer ways all three languages say the same thing, which are the ones you are more likely to hear.
Tap 🔊 to hear an example. Shanghainese examples play the recordings from Verbavia’s course, made with a Shanghainese voice; Mandarin examples play a Mandarin voice.
I love you, in three Chinese languages
| Shanghainese | Mandarin | Cantonese | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I love you | 我爱侬 ngu e non | 我爱你 wǒ ài nǐ | 我愛你 ngo5 oi3 nei5 |
| I | 我 ngu | 我 wǒ | 我 ngo5 |
| love | 爱 e | 爱 ài | 愛 oi3 |
| you | 侬 non | 你 nǐ | 你 nei5 |
Two things give the Shanghainese away. The first is the last character. Shanghainese does not use 你 nǐ for you at all; it says 侬 non ‘you’, and a sentence with 你 in it is Mandarin, however it is read. The whole set of Shanghainese pronouns, which differ from Mandarin’s almost one for one, is on the pronouns page.
The second is the sound. 我 ngu ‘I’ begins with the ng of English sing, and 爱 e ‘to love’ is a single flat vowel where Mandarin has ai. Said as one phrase, 我爱侬 ngu e non runs together in one pitch shape rather than three separate tones.
Cantonese keeps the ng too, in 我 ngo5, and its you, 你 nei5, is written with the same character as Mandarin’s. In writing, Mandarin and Cantonese I love you are identical apart from the traditional form of 愛; only Shanghainese changes a word.
What people actually say: I like you
In all three languages, the word for like carries much of the weight that English gives to love. It is gentler, it is said far more often, and in the right tone of voice it means the same thing.
| Shanghainese | Mandarin | Cantonese | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I like you | 我欢喜侬 ngu huoe shi non | 我喜欢你 wǒ xǐhuan nǐ | 我鍾意你 ngo5 zung1 ji3 nei5 |
| I like you a lot | 我老欢喜侬个 ngu lau huoe shi non gheh | 我很喜欢你 wǒ hěn xǐhuan nǐ | 我好鍾意你 ngo5 hou2 zung1 ji3 nei5 |
Look at the Shanghainese and Mandarin words for like: they are the same two characters in the opposite order. Mandarin says 喜欢 xǐhuan; Shanghainese says 欢喜 huoe shi ‘to like’. Mandarin speakers recognise 欢喜 as an old or literary word for happy, but in Shanghainese it is the everyday verb, and it is one of the clearest single signs that a sentence is Shanghainese.
The longer Shanghainese line is the example Wiktionary gives for the word: 我老欢喜侬个 ngu lau huoe shi non gheh ‘I like you a lot’. 老 lau here is not old but very, as it is before an adjective or a verb of feeling in Shanghainese, and the 个 gheh at the end makes it a statement of how things are. The Cantonese 我好鍾意你 ngo5 hou2 zung1 ji3 nei5 is the closest match, and Wiktionary translates it both ways: I like you very much and I love you.
I miss you
| Shanghainese | Mandarin | Cantonese | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I miss you | 我想侬 ngu sian non | 我想你 wǒ xiǎng nǐ | 我掛住你 ngo5 gwaa3 zyu6 nei5 |
Shanghainese and Mandarin use the same verb, 想 sian ‘to miss; to think’, whose everyday meaning is to think: to miss someone is to keep thinking of them. Cantonese has a word of its own, 掛住 gwaa3 zyu6, literally hung on, someone who stays hanging on your mind.
Why 520 means I love you, and why it doesn’t work in Shanghainese
Online, Mandarin speakers write I love you as the number 520. Said in Mandarin, five two zero is 五二零 wǔ èr líng, close enough to 我爱你 wǒ ài nǐ to stand for it.
The pun only works in Mandarin. In Shanghainese the same number is 五二零 ng nyi lin, and I love you is 我爱侬 ngu e non: nothing matches. Cantonese fares no better, with 五二零 ng5 ji6 ling4 against 我愛你 ngo5 oi3 nei5. A Shanghainese couple who send each other 520 are making a Mandarin joke, which is a small picture of how Mandarin now runs through everyday life in Shanghai.
The words around it
| Meaning | Shanghainese | Mandarin | Cantonese |
|---|---|---|---|
| husband | 老公 lau kon | 老公 lǎogōng | 老公 lou5 gung1 |
| wife | 老婆 lau bu | 老婆 lǎopo | 老婆 lou5 po4 |
| to go out with someone | 谈恋爱 dae lie e | 谈恋爱 tán liàn’ài | 拍拖 paak3 to1 |
| to get married | 结婚 cih huen | 结婚 jiéhūn | 結婚 git3 fan1 |
| charming, sweet | 嗲 tia | — | — |
The last row is the one only Shanghainese has. 嗲 tia is charming, lovely or cutesy, the word for a voice, a manner or a person that is sweet in a slightly theatrical way, and it is one of the Shanghainese words other Chinese speakers know. More of them are on the slang page, and the family you will be introduced to once it gets serious is on the family words page.
Which one to say
- To say it plainly: 我爱侬 ngu e non. It is correct and will be understood, and it has the weight it has in English.
- To say it the way it is usually said: 我老欢喜侬个 ngu lau huoe shi non gheh, I like you a lot.
- When you are apart: 我想侬 ngu sian non.
For birthdays, toasts and congratulations, the phrases are on the celebration phrases page. Every Shanghainese word on this page is taught in the free Shanghainese course, with a recording in a Shanghainese voice.
Sources
- Wiktionary: 我愛你 — Mandarin wǒ ài nǐ, Cantonese ngo5 oi3 nei5.
- Wiktionary: 歡喜 — Wu ‘to like, to be fond of’, with the Shanghainese example 我老歡喜儂個 “I like you a lot”.
- Wiktionary: 鍾意 — Cantonese ‘to like; to love’, with 我好鍾意你 “I love you; I like you very much”.
- Wiktionary: 掛住 — Cantonese ‘to miss’.
- Wikipedia: Chinese Internet slang — 520 (wǔ’èrlíng) for 我爱你.