看覓

Chinese

		to see; to look at; to look after to see; to look at; to look after; to take care of; to watch; to guard; it depends; think	seek
trad. (看覓)		看	覓
simp. (看觅)		看	觅
alternative forms		看𥌚 看嘪／看𪡃 看看

Pronunciation

• Southern Min (Hokkien, POJ): khòaⁿ-bāi / khòaⁿ-māi

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• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen, Quanzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: khòaⁿ-bāi
    • Tâi-lô: khuànn-bāi
    • Phofsit Daibuun: qvoarbai
    • IPA (Xiamen): /kʰuã²¹⁻⁵³ bai²²/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /kʰuã⁴¹⁻⁵⁵⁴ bai⁴¹/
  • (Hokkien: Zhangzhou, General Taiwanese, Singapore, Philippines)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: khòaⁿ-māi
    • Tâi-lô: khuànn-māi
    • Phofsit Daibuun: qvoarmai
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /kʰuã²¹⁻⁵³ mãi²²/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /kʰuã²¹⁻⁴¹ mãi³³/
    • IPA (Taipei): /kʰuã¹¹⁻⁵³ mãi³³/
    • IPA (Philippines): /kʰuã⁴¹⁻⁵⁵⁴ mai⁴¹/
    • IPA (Singapore): /kʰuã²¹⁻⁴² mai²²/

Verb

看覓

1. (Hokkien) to take a look
   • 1995, 陳民轅 (lyrics and music), “無法度按捺”, in 陳建良 (music), 無法度按捺, performed by WHY NOT:

     只有阮一人的愛　你感覺不如預備幾個看看 [Taiwanese Hokkien, trad.]
     只有阮一人的爱　你感觉不如预备几个看看 [Taiwanese Hokkien, simp.]

     chí-ū goán chi̍t-lâng ê ài, lí kám-kak put-jû iú-bih kúi-ê khòaⁿ-māi [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   • 1996, 吳念真 [Wu Nien-jen] (lyrics and music), “去香港看看”, in 去香港看看, performed by 張雨生 [Chang Yu-sheng]:

     去香港看嘪 [Taiwanese Hokkien, trad.]
     去香港看𪡃 [Taiwanese Hokkien, simp.]

     khì Hiang-káng khòaⁿ-māi [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]

     Let's go see Hong Kong

2. (Hokkien) to try (used after a verb)

   食看覓／食看觅 [Taiwanese Hokkien]  ―  chia̍h khòaⁿ-māi [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  to give it a taste

   試看覓／试看觅 [Taiwanese Hokkien]  ―  chhì khòaⁿ-māi [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  to give it a try

Synonyms

Dialectal synonyms of 一下 (“give something a go; give something a try”) [map]

Variety	Location	Words edit
Formal (Written Standard Chinese)		一下
Northeastern Mandarin	Taiwan	一下, 看看
	Malaysia	一下
	Singapore	一下
Cantonese	Guangzhou	下
	Hong Kong	下
	Macau	下
	Kuala Lumpur (Guangfu)	下
	Singapore (Guangfu)	下
Southern Min	Xiamen	看覓
	Quanzhou	看覓
	Zhangzhou	看覓
	Taipei	看覓
	Kaohsiung	看覓
	Penang (Hokkien)	看覓
	Singapore (Hokkien)	看覓, 一下
	Manila (Hokkien)	覓, 看覓, 一下
	Chaozhou	睇, 下睇
	Shantou	一下
	Singapore (Teochew)	睇
Wu	Shanghai	看, 一記, 一下 often with non-monosyllabic verbs
	Suzhou	看, 一下
	Ningbo	看

Further reading

• “看覓”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.