The standard is the register of Mandarin used in more formal occasions in Singapore and can be heard on television and radio.

Singaporean Mandarin has many unique loanwords from other Chinese dialects (such as Hokkien) as well as Singapore's other official languages of English, Malay and Tamil.

[3] Following the economic rise of China in the 21st century, Mandarin proficiency has been viewed with greater importance and has risen in terms of prominence in Singapore.

In addition, during its initial development, Singaporean Mandarin was also influenced by the other Chinese varieties of Singapore such as Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese etc.

From 1949 to 1979, due to lack of contact between Singapore and People's Republic of China, Putonghua did not exert any form of influence on Singaporean Mandarin.

They brought their own different native Chinese varieties to Singapore, including Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka and Hainanese.

Singapore's first Mandarin-medium classes appeared around 1898, but Chinese dialect schools continued to exist up to 1909.

It wasn't until 1932 that a dictionary called the Vocabulary of National Pronunciation for Everyday Use, which was based truly on the Beijing dialect, was published.

Major differences between Singaporean Mandarin Huayu (華語) and Putonghua lie in the vocabulary used.

There is quite a number of specific words used in Singaporean Mandarin that originate from other Chinese varieties such as Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese etc.

For instance: The use of zì (字) originates from Hokkien (jī or lī), Cantonese or Classical Chinese.

For instance: Both 拜 (bài) and 禮拜 (lǐbài) originate from Hokkien pài and lé-pài respectively.

While 而已 (éryǐ) is also used in colloquial Mandarin within Mainland China, but perhaps to a lesser extent as compared to Singapore or Taiwan.

"大只" refers to people who appear to be tall, masculine or with a large body build.

Putonghua tends to use "是(的)/對啊/對呀" (shì (de)/duì a/duì ya)， "哦" (ó), "噢" (ō), "嗯" (en/ng) to mean "yes, it is".

For example: Singaporean Colloquial Mandarin tends to use 被 (bèi) more often than Putonghua, due to influence from English and/or Malay.

The colloquial Hokkien-style Singaporean Mandarin is commonly heard in Singapore, and can differ from Putonghua in terms of vocabulary, phonology and grammar.

Besides Singaporean Hokkien, Mandarin is also subjected to influence coming from other Chinese dialects such as Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka, and Hainanese, as well as English and Malay.

Most karaoke discs, being imported from Hong Kong or Taiwan, have song lyrics in Traditional characters as well.

From 1969 to 1976, the Ministry of education launched its own version of Simplified characters, which differed from that of mainland China.

In 1925, the presence of literary supplements such as Southern Wind (南風), Light of Singapore (星光) brought a new dimension to Singaporean Chinese literature.

In January 1927, the Deserted Island (荒島) published in the New National Press (新國民日報) clearly reflected the features of Nanyang in its literary work.

The "localization" literary works mostly described the lifestyle in Nanyang, the people and their feelings in Nayang.

This brought a halt to the localization movement and in turn re-enacted a sense of Chinese nationalism amongst the migrants in Singapore.

After the war, people in Singapore began to have a sense of belonging to this piece of land, and they also had a desire for freedom and democracy.

The results from these debated led to a conclusion that the Singaporean Chinese literature was going to develop on its own independently.

[15] The 1980s saw the development of xinyao—a genre of contemporary Mandarin ballads with themes such as romance and life in Singapore, and popularized by singer-songwriters such as Liang Wern Fook.

The first language of Singapore was English, while Mandarin was chosen as the "mother tongue" of Chinese Singaporean.

[20] Under the bilingual policy of Singapore, Chinese Singaporeans had a greater chance to speak and use English especially in school and at work.

Entertainment also run Mandarin radio stations, while SPH owns the country's only Mandarin-language daily newspaper, the Lianhe Zaobao.