ဟုတ်ကဲ့
hutkai./hoʊʔkɛ̰/
In Burmese, 'yes' can be expressed in several ways. The default form is ဟုတ်ကဲ့ (hutkai.). Wiktionary also lists အင်း (ang:) and အေး (e:).
Meaning: word used to indicate agreement or acceptance (particle)
Ways to say it
| Burmese | Romanization (Wiktionary) | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| ဟုတ်ကဲ့ | hutkai. | /hoʊʔkɛ̰/ |
| အင်း | ang: | /ʔɪ́ɴ/ |
| အေး | e: | /ʔé/ |
These terms are particles used to indicate agreement or acceptance.
Which one should you use?
ဟုတ်ကဲ့ is the standard polite way to agree, while အင်း functions like the English 'yeah' or 'mm-hmm'. အေး is used to say 'yes' or 'okay' in casual settings.
Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?
ဟုတ်ကဲ့ is the formal and polite form used when speaking to elders, superiors or in formal settings. အင်း is an informal and casual way to say yes. အေး is used among close friends or by an older person addressing a younger person.
How do you pronounce it?
hutkai. (/hoʊʔkɛ̰/)
Did you know?
- In Burmese culture, a polite ဟုတ်ကဲ့ is often accompanied by a slight nod or a lowering of the head to show respect to the listener.
- The casual word အင်း is a shared sound used for 'yes' across several mainland Southeast Asian languages including Mon and Thai.
- Because အေး is used by elders to address younger people, using it towards a superior would be a major social error.
Examples in context
- ဟုတ်ကဲ့။Yes.This example shows the use of ဟုတ်ကဲ့.Tatoeba #5049813 by RobKham, translation #477086 by soweli_Elepanto
- ဟုတ်ကဲ့၊ နားလည်ပါပြီ။hote ke, nar lal par pyi.Yes, I understand.
- ဟုတ်ကဲ့၊ အဆင်ပြေပါတယ်။hote ke, a sin pyay par tal.Yes, it is fine.
Example conversation
Aung Aung is asking Su Su for a favor.
- အောင်အောင် Aung Aungစုစု၊ ဒါလေး ကူညီနိုင်မလား။Su Su, da-lay ku-nyi-naing-ma-larSu Su, can you help me with this?
- စုစု Su Suဟုတ်ကဲ့၊ ကူညီနိုင်ပါတယ်။houk-ke, ku-nyi-naing-ba-teYes, I can help.
- အောင်အောင် Aung Aungကျေးဇူးတင်ပါတယ် စုစု။kyay-zoo-tin-ba-te Su SuThank you, Su Su.
- စုစု Su Suရပါတယ်ရှင်။ya-ba-te-shinYou are welcome.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “yes” translations and entries ဟုတ်ကဲ့, အင်း, အေး, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries ဟုတ်ကဲ့, အင်း, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
