I spotted this word used in three places in the second of the Human Condition (《人間條件》） series of plays, ‘Her and the Men in Her Life’, by Wu Nien-chen.

The first situation is when a man discovers his wife, from a Taiwanese-speaking family) is capable of speaking Mandarin well:

Yuki: 我是議員太太的是我都記得要捲舌……

先生很意外，沈默了一下。

先生：這麼gau哦，若這樣，囝仔[小孩子]的北京語妳順便把伊[他]教乎好，北京話不輪轉的人，後擺免[不用/別]想要在社會跟人站起……

《人間條件2：她與她生命中的男人們》臺北市： 圓神文叢，2007年。

This translates as follows:

Yuki: When I say “I’m the legislator’s wife” I even remember to curve my tongue for the consonants.

Her husband is taken aback and is silent for a moment.

The husband: How capable you are. Since this is the case, you should teach the children Beijing-style Mandarin while you’re at it. Anyone who can’t get by in Beijing-style Mandarin won’t be able to make it in society…

Pronounced gâu, the “gau” above is equivalent to “能幹” in Mandarin and “capable” or “skilled” in English.

The second instance is an exchange between two friends who haven’t seen each other in a while. One of them has gone from selling clothes in a market to heading up a company and is being modest about it:

Yuki： 上遍[次]看到你的時候，你在市場賣衫……越一個頭，尚沒也是一個企業家……總是有一些鹹酸苦ㄐㄧㄚ……

武雄：那是機會好，不是我gau……

《人間條件2：她與她生命中的男人們》臺北市： 圓神文叢，2007年。

This translates as follows:

Yuki: Last time I saw you, you were selling blouses at a market… and now in the blink of an eye, at the very least you’re an entrepreneur… Whatever the case you seem to have gone through a lot…

Wu Hsiung: It was just a good opportunity, it’s not that I’m particularly talented…

The third instance is as follows:

Yuki：你兒子開7-11哦？幾間？三間……哪會麼gau……

《人間條件2：她與她生命中的男人們》臺北市： 圓神文叢，2007年。

Which translates to:

Yuki: Your son opened a 7-11? How many stores? Three… Who knew he was so capable…

The gâu also features in the phrase 假gâu (ké-gâu) for “trying to be clever” which I previously posted on.