Malay may be enshrined in the Constitution as the ‘national’ language, but in practice the most common language is English, spoken by almost every Singaporean under the age of 40 with varying degrees of fluency. In addition, all official signs (including road signs) are written in English. However, the distinctive local patois Singlish may be hard to understand at times, as it incorporates slang words and phrases from other languages, including various Chinese dialects, Malay and Tamil. It also incorporates slang from British and American English, and has an odd way of structuring sentences, due to the original speakers being mostly Chinese. Complex consonant clusters are simplified, plurals disappear, verb tenses are replaced by adverbs, questions are altered to fit the Chinese syntax and semirandom particles (especially the infamous “lah”) appear:

Singlish: You wan beer or not? — No lah, drink five botol oreddi.

English: Do you want a beer? — No, thanks; I’ve already had five bottles.

Thanks to nationwide language education campaigns, most younger Singaporeans are, however, capable of speaking so-called “Good English” when necessary. To avoid unintentional offense, it’s best to start off with standard English and only shift to simplified pidgin if it becomes evident that the other person cannot follow you. Try to resist the temptation to sprinkle your speech with unnecessary Singlishisms: you’ll get a laugh if you do it right, but it sounds grating and patronizing if you do it wrong. The Coxford Singlish Dictionary (ISBN 9813056509), also available online, is a great resource for decoding Singlish.

Singapore’s other official languages are Mandarin Chinese and Tamil. Mandarin is spoken by most of the educated Singaporean Chinese while Tamil is spoken by most of the Indians. Various Chinese dialects (mostly Hokkien, though significant numbers also speak Teochew and Cantonese) are also spoken between ethnic Chinese of the same dialect group, though their use has been declining in the younger generation since the 1980’s due to government policies discouraging the use of dialects in favour of Mandarin. Other Indian languages, such as Punjabi among the Sikhs, are also spoken.

The official Chinese script used in Singapore is the simplified script used in mainland China. As such, all official publications (including local newspapers) and signs are in simplified Chinese and all ethnic Chinese are taught to write the simplified script in school. However, many shop signs and restaurant menus are still in traditional Chinese. This, in addition to the popularity of Hong Kong and Taiwanese pop culture and television serials, means that most Singaporean Chinese are also able to read traditional Chinese even if they cannot write it.