Let's use your new dictionary skills. You walk into a kopitiam in George Town. The uncle shouts, "Lu ai chiak hami?" (What do you want to eat?).
Step 1: Look up "Coffee" (Black). You find Ko-pi (Malay origin, but Hokkienized). Step 2: Look up "Sit in" vs "Take away". For sit in: chiu chia (eat here). For takeaway: tah-pau (pack). Step 3: Look up "Less sugar". You find siu-teng (less sweet).
The sentence: "Ko-pi, siu-teng, chiak chia." (Coffee, less sweet, eat here). penang hokkien dictionary
The uncle will nod. You have just passed the Penang Hokkien proficiency test.
You cannot walk into Popular Bookstore in Gurney Plaza and find a physical Penang Hokkien Dictionary on the shelf. They simply don't exist in mass printing. Here is where to get the real thing: Let's use your new dictionary skills
Look for a small ⁿ attached to a vowel. This is the "nose sound." Siaⁿ (voice/sound). Seⁿ (life). Without the nasal, se means "west." With the nasal, it means "life." A good dictionary will mark this religiously.
Search for "Logan Penang Hokkien Dictionary PDF" or visit the Learn Penang Hokkien website. It is usually free (donation). It contains 6,000+ entries with clear romanization. Step 1: Look up "Coffee" (Black)
Most new users download a PDF or open a web dictionary and panic. They see words like "Phah-sn̄g" (to plan) or "Bô-ia" (boring) and have no idea how to move their mouths. Here is your cheat sheet.