With a Chinese oral exam incorporated into the HKCEE this year, Form Five student Samuel Lau is worried that his habitual mispronunciation of some Cantonese words could put him at a disadvantage.
Samuel's concern is shared by many local students who have long been criticised for their 'lazy Cantonese'.
Some common mispronunciations include the omission of the nasal sound 'n' in such words as 'ngau' (cow) and 'ngoh' (I) and the mixing of consonants: replacing the 'n' sound in 'nei' (you) with 'l' and the 'k' sound in 'keoy' (he/she) with 'h'.
With Canto-pop stars such as Twins and Sammi Cheng Sau-man using lyrics laden with 'lazy Cantonese', many young people regard mumbled speech as cool.
'With many artists speaking 'lazy Cantonese', the media is having a bad influence on students. Some of the primary students I've met can't even get the pronunciation of their names right,' said Chi Man-yu, a speech therapist with Joyful Mill, a speech therapy centre.
With Cantonese being their mother tongue, many students do not realise that their pronunciation of everyday words is wrong.