Learning Taiwanese for foreigners

The pronunciation of Taiwanese : literary pronunciation and colloquial pronunciation

一：one, once, alone

A literary  [it] (when ordinal,11, 21,31, name….)

<第一     [de it]      >：the first

<第一日   [de it lit]    >：the first day

<第一課   [de it kho]   >：lesson one

<十一     [zap it]      >：eleven

<三十一   [saⁿ zap it]   >：thirty-one

<一月一日 [it gueh it lit] >：the first of January

<一心路   [it sim lo]   >：a road name of Kaohsiung

B colloquial [zit] (number, count….)

<一、二、三 [zit lng san]>：one two three..

<一日       [zit lit]    >：one day

<一個月     [zit gor ghueh]>：one month

<一點       [zit diam]  >：one o’clock

山：mountain, hill

A literary [san] (name….)

<阿里山  [A li san] >

<玉山    [ghok san]>

<中山路  [doing san lo]

B colloquial [suaⁿ]

<山頂    [suaⁿ ding] >：the top of mountain

<爬山    [be suaⁿ]  >：climb mountain

[sit le]: means "apology", "sorry", "losing manners"

[phain se]: means "sorry" too. Sometimes, it is close to "excuse me".

[lo lah]: means "thank you". Especially someone spent strength on helping you.

If someone pointed direction for you, you just need to say [to sia] not [lo lah]. 

[pai thok] : to request a favor of....

It's a polite wording in Taiwanese. Always using to request someone giving you a hand.

When the candidates of Taiwan request votes, they always say [pai thok] too.

[English]

The cock kukuku , calls us to get up;
The hen kokkokkok, lays chicken eggs;
The baby chickens, want to have meal.
Father goes out, patrolling farm fields;
Mother gets up, cooking breakfast;
Children sleep until, the sun sunning bottoms.