AN ESSENTIAL PHRASEBOOK · THE ONLY ONE YOU REALLY NEED

Fart-
Ography: How the World Says Fart

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The Fartographic Method

Fartography is silly.

The research isn’t.

Languages are messy. Words change between countries, cities, generations and families. A textbook translation may be technically correct while sounding completely ridiculous to a native speaker.

So we don’t just ask, “What is the translation of fart?”

We ask:

What do people actually say?

Where possible, Fartography checks words and expressions with native speakers, dictionaries and linguistic sources, records regional differences, and distinguishes between formal language, slang, children’s words and expressions.

If we get something wrong, please tell us.

Fartography is, like language itself, a work in progress.

🇭🇰
放屁
Stop 75
Hong Kong
Cantonese
放屁
/fong pay/
IPA /fɔŋ˧ pʰei˧˥/
🗣️ Everyday
Translation
Same characters as Mandarin (放屁), pronounced completely differently.
In a Sentence
係邊個放屁㗎?
"Who farted?" (Cantonese)
💨 What people actually say
放屁 (fong pei) — but in Cantonese it is used to mean 'nonsense' far more often than the literal act.
👶 The kid word
臭屁 (chau pei) — stinky fart, also 'smug.'
🤬 The rude version
你講嘢放屁 — 'everything you say is a fart.'
🎩 The polite version
排氣 — clinical.
🗺️ Regional variations
Hong Kong Cantonese shares the characters with Mandarin but the tones, and much of the slang, differ entirely.
📖 Literally speaking
放屁 = 'release gas.'
🧐 Fartology
Cantonese profanity is famously creative, and 屁 anchors a whole family of dismissals.
⚠️ Use with caution
Telling someone 放屁 in Cantonese is calling them a liar to their face.
Cultural Note
Cantonese and Mandarin are mutually unintelligible when spoken, despite sharing a written form. Both speakers read 放屁 on a page and know exactly what it means. The written language bridges what the spoken form separates.
Same characters, completely different mouth. The written form unites what the spoken form separates.