Kena can be used as an auxiliary to mark the passive voice in some varieties of Singlish.
It is derived from a Malay word that means "to encounter or to come into physical contact", and is only used with objects that have a negative effect or connotation. Verbs after kena may appear in the infinitive form (i.e. without tense) or as a past participle. It is similar in meaning to passive markers in Chinese, such as Hokkien tio or Mandarin 被 bèi:
- He was scolded. = He got scolded. = He kena scold/scolded.
- If you don't listen to me, you will get punished, after which you will know that you were wrong = If u dun listen, later you get punished, and then you know = dun listen, later you kena punish/punished then you know.
Kena is not used with positive things:
- *He kena praised.
- *He kena lottery.
- *He kena jackpot. (huge winnings from playing the slot machine)
Use of kena as in the above examples will not be understood, and may even be greeted with a confused reply: But strike lottery good wat! (But it's a good thing to win the lottery!).
It may be used in vulgar, obscene and offensive contexts, such as:
- He kena fucked in the Singtel share buyout. (lost large amounts of money)
- He kena defamation imprisonment. (Imprisoned as a result of defamation proceedings)
However, when used in sarcasm, kena can be used in apparently positive circumstances, though this is considered grammatically incorrect by the true natives of Singapore. It is mostly incorrectly used by European expatriates or Hong Kong and Mainlanders trying to integrate and assimilate into Singapore society, though with an ironic modicum of success, for example:
- He kena jackpot, come back to school after so long den got so much homework! (He received a lot of homework upon returning to school after a long absence.)
When the context is given, Kena may be used without a verb, similar to the colloquial-English construction "I am/you're/he is going to get it."
- Better clean the room, otherwise you kena. (You will be punished if you don't tidy the room.)
- Dun listen to me, later you kena.
Using another auxiliary verb with kena is perfectly acceptable as well:
- Better clean the room, otherwise you will kena.
- Dun listen to me, later you will kena.
Some examples of Singlish phrases with Kena:
- kena arrow: be assigned an undesirable task. (derives from National Service/military practice of placing arrows on a name list to denote those responsible for a task)
- kena bully: get bullied
- kena fine: get 'fined', or charged by the police
- kena hantam: be hit by something, such as a ball, or to be beaten up (hantam is another Malay word)
- kena sabo: become a victim of sabotage or a practical joke
- kena sai: literally "hit by shit"; be harmed by an unpleasant event or object
- kena tekan: tekan means "press", as in "pressure", in Malay; the phrase means to be physically tortured or punished. Often used in the army, which all male citizens must serve in.
- kena whack: be beaten badly, in games or in physical fights
- kena ban/silence: one of the newer uses of kena, it means to be banned/silenced in a computer game. The "silence" is only used when silenced from talking in chat by GMs (Game Masters), not having the "silence" effect that stops you from doing spells.
- kena zero: getting a zero mark for that paper that he/she was cheating
The word is many a times phonetically mispronounced "kana" by most non-Malays, especially those of the Chinese tongue. Informal Malay will socio-linguistically dictate it be pronounced as kene (as in kernel without the r and l), while the word itself in reality has two different meanings; "to have (to) encounter(ed) something" as how it is explained above or "to have to (do something)":
"Kau kena angkat ni." – You have to carry this.
"Joe kena marah tadi." – Joe just got scolded.
Singlish, however, is only influenced by the latter application of the word.
Read more about this topic: Singlish, Grammar, Singlish Phrases