Is it Kung Fu? or Gung Fu?

Question

Someone was trying to tell me that Kung Fu is actually pronounced Gung Fu. I, being well versed on Sunday morning Kung Fu flicks, was very alarmed at my lapse of knowledge.

Could this be true?

Answer 1

Several dialects of Chinese bring forth several styles of Romanization of their words. So its very possible it could be both.

Like the word Chi can be pronounced like: Chi, Qi, Ki

All are correct just different.

Answer 2

both actually in china i believe kung fu translates to hard work

Answer 3

its kung fu

Answer 4

it depends, some of them say shifu instead of sifu, just like some say wing chun or weng chun or wing tsun

kung fu is just a general term for martial arts coming from china, it actually means hard work or great skill through great effort. meaning you could have good kung fu in cooking.

there are however many styles of kung fu, like shaolin, wing chun, hung gar, tai chi, ba gua, choi lei fut, and the list goes on

Answer 5

same thing in cantonese u say gong fu in chinese u say kung fu

Answer 6

The way I understand it is Gung Fu is a combination of martial arts such as wing-chun, jeet kun do, kung fu...etc.

But if you look gung fu up on wiki, it will redirect you to kung fu.

Answer 7

Kung Fu is Kung Fu is Kung Fu.

Answer 8

It is actually pronounced Gung Fu in Cantonese...