Pronunciation Of Tsim Sha Tsui

The difficulty in pronouncing the name of Tsim Sha Tsui, and also on how best to write it down, is a small but interesting topic. First of all it should be understood that the name in Chinese for the district is 尖沙嘴.  This is clearly three words and it is literally translated as Tip Sand Mouth. 

Originally there was a sandy mouth to a river, and there were two pointed areas on each side, but now of course these have been long covered by land reclamation. Most of the water front, both the buildings and the promenade that can be seen today, is constructed on reclaimed land.

As with much of spoken Cantonese the exact pronunciation is impossible to describe using only Roman or English letters. Of course people keep trying and you will see suggestions like Jim Shar Joy or Chim Sa Choi but none are completely accurate because they do not express the intonation or tonation required for accurate Cantonese.

Basically it is just hard for a non Chinese native to pronounce the words correctly, though with some examples it is possible to get close enough to be clearly understood. 

Normal pronunciation

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Slow pronunciation

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Nevertheless in common usage most people shorten the term to TST, which they say as "tee-ess-tee" which is widely understood by anybody in Hong Kong.

When it comes to writing you will see Tsim Sha Tsui and Tsimshatsui used equally, both are acceptable.  But not Tsimsha Tsui or Tsim Shatsui, those would be incorrect. 

Strangely even the Government can't seem to entire choose which spelling to use and you still see with and without spaces in many official documents. To the majority of people in the district though the spaces make sense because they think of it as being related to the three Chinese words it is based on.