Kunming is the capital of Yunnan, in China's far southwest, and its dialect is a kind of Southwestern Mandarin. It goes back to settlers who came from the area around Nanjing in the Ming dynasty. Apart from the 格 question, its grammar mostly matches Standard Mandarin.
How the Kunming Dialect Changes Standard Mandarin
Question words change the most. Kunming has its own words for "what", "how", and "where", and its own way of making a yes-or-no question.
| Standard Mandarin | Kunming dialect | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 你吃饭了吗？ | 你格吃饭了？ | 格 before the verb asks yes or no |
| 什么 | 哪样 | Asks "what" |
| 怎么 | 咋个 | Asks "how" |
| 哪里 | 哪点 | Asks "where" |
| 知道 | 晓得 | Says "know" |
| 便宜 | 相因 | Says "cheap" |
Questions
The 格 question is the one you hear most.
- 你格吃饭了？
- Have you eaten?Standard Mandarin: 你吃饭了吗？格 goes before the verb, and there is no 吗 at the end.
- 格是？
- Right? Is that so?Standard Mandarin: 是不是？Put it after a statement to check it. 他是你同学，格是？ means "He's your classmate, right?"
- 整哪样？
- What are you doing?Standard Mandarin: 做什么？整 means "do" and 哪样 means "what", so 你在整哪样？ asks what someone is up to.
- 咋个整？
- What do we do now?Standard Mandarin: 怎么办？咋个 alone means "how". 咋个了？ means "What happened?"
- 哪点
- WhereStandard Mandarin: 哪里你去哪点？ means "Where are you going?" For "there", say 那点.
Everyday Words
You'll hear 相因 and 苞谷 at the market, and 板扎 when someone likes something.
- 晓得
- To knowStandard Mandarin: 知道你格晓得？ means "Do you know?" Chongqing and Sichuan use 晓得 too.
- 板扎
- Great, excellentStandard Mandarin: 很好、很棒太板扎了！ means "That's awesome!"
- 相因
- CheapStandard Mandarin: 便宜One Kunming teacher's son knows 相因 but still asks for 便宜 at the market.
- 今儿日
- TodayStandard Mandarin: 今天Tomorrow is 明儿日.
- 买买三三
- Oh my!Standard Mandarin: 天哪It shows surprise. The World of Chinese spells it 么么三三.
- 苞谷
- CornStandard Mandarin: 玉米烤苞谷 is grilled corn on the cob.
- 造孽
- Poor thing, pitifulStandard Mandarin: 可怜你看他造孽得很 means "Look at him, poor thing." Don't confuse it with Standard Mandarin 造孽, "to do wrong".
How the Kunming Dialect Sounds
Some Kunming words move to another tone: 一, 六, 七, and 八 are all said with the second tone. 鱼 and 姨 sound alike in Kunming, and 去 often comes out as 克.
You can hear people from Kunming in Kunming Dialect from ILoveLanguages! or 云南老昆明话大汇总 from Yunnan Radio and Television's 封面 program.
Read Kunming Speech in Lessons
Poppy, your AI tutor in the Bubblegum language app, writes your Kunming lessons at your level. A shopkeeper asks 你格要冰咖啡？, and a mother asks her kid 你整哪样？
Bubblegum
For serious learners, Bubblegum is the best app to learn Kunming dialect. You learn from Kunming dialect you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
Want a story about buying flowers at the Dounan market or a trip to Dianchi Lake? Poppy writes one in Kunming speech. Keep 板扎 in your saved words, and you'll see it in her next stories too.
- Kunming lessons use Simplified characters, the way people in Kunming write.
- 格 and 晓不得 are two of the eleven Kunming forms with a grammar card.
- Elders in the stories are called 你家, the polite "you", so you learn how to speak to them.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- You can't talk out loud with Poppy on the Kunming journey, so book a tutor from Kunming when you want to practice speaking.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
- Teaches Kunming speech
- Teaches Pinyin
- Traditional characters
- Zhuyin
Mobile
Start with the best way to learn the Kunming dialect. When you're ready to choose an app, see best apps to learn the Kunming dialect.
Common Questions
Are fewer children in Kunming learning the dialect?
Yes. A survey of more than 3,000 children in the public kindergartens of Kunming's Wuhua District found that about six in ten spoke only Standard Mandarin at home. In September 2017, all 13 of those kindergartens started teaching Kunming rhymes and games for at least 15 minutes a day.
Why do people write 格 questions in so many ways?
People write this word with whatever character sounds close. You will see 给, 咯, and 格, and 都市时报, a Kunming newspaper, wrote 格是 as 给是. Bubblegum's Kunming lessons write 格.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Chinese Wikipedia: 昆明话 (Kunming dialect)
- The World of Chinese: The hybrid Ming court dialect of Kunming (2021)
- 昆明信息港:《昆明城脉》连载之昆明方言里的外来词 (2025)
- 都市时报: 昆明娃不会说方言！这13所幼儿园试验方言教学 (2017, via Sina)
- Wiktionary: dialect words for 什麼 (what), with a Kunming row
- Wiktionary: dialect words for 哪裡 (where), with a Kunming row
- Wiktionary: dialect words for 那裡 (there), with a Kunming row
- Wiktionary: dialect words for 明天 (tomorrow), with a Kunming row
- Wiktionary: dialect words for 今天 (today), with a Kunming row
- Wiktionary: dialect words for 玉米 (corn), with a Kunming row
- Wiktionary: 咋個 (Southwestern Mandarin, how)
- Wiktionary: 相因 (Southwestern Mandarin, cheap)
- Wiktionary: 造孽 (Southwestern Mandarin, pitiful)
- Wiktionary: 曉得 (to know)
- 汉典: 苞谷
- ILoveLanguages!: Kunming Dialect (YouTube)
- 云南广播电视台《封面》: 云南老昆明话大汇总 (YouTube)
- Bubblegum
Checked on October 5, 2026 against each app's own pages.
