mun4 min6 waa2門面話门面话
Jyutpingmun4 min6 waa2
Yalemùhn mihn wá
Definition
Lip service; polite, formal, and insincere words used to maintain appearances.
colloquialcommunicationpeople
How it's used
Refers specifically to words spoken to maintain social harmony or professional decorum without any genuine intention to act on them. It carries a cynical undertone, suggesting that the speaker is being performative rather than authentic. It is frequently used in workplace contexts to describe corporate jargon or empty promises made by management.
Examples
Everything he said was just lip service.
Related words
Common mistake
Do not confuse this with 客套話, which is often used for genuine social politeness or ice-breaking. 門面話 implies a level of deception or insincerity that 客套話 does not necessarily carry.
Grammar color guide
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Grammar guides
- In 30 secondsThe whole language at a glance. No tenses, no plurals, six tones, sentence particles. Read this before you dive into any specific topic.
- ParticlesSentence particles add tone, emotion, and nuance. Learn the most common particles in Cantonese and how to use them.
- Possession (嘅)How to say my, your, and his, and how to link a describing word to a noun, all with the little word 嘅 (ge3).
