When they say the Cantonese language is not for the faint of heart, they mean it. I mean... We don't have a word for 'yes', nor do we have one for 'no'. But don't crawl into bed and have existential crisis yet,
Let's use this sentence as an example: 香港好靚 (hoeng1 gong2 hou2 leng3) - Hong Kong is beautiful. 香港 (hoeng1 gong2) - Hong Kong 靚 (leng3) - beautiful A common mistake that Cantonese learners make is to translate the sentence word-for-word, which becomes 香港係靚 (hoeng1 gong2 hai6 leng3) for
If you are around Cantonese-speaking people a lot, you might have come across the phrase 你食咗飯未呀 (nei5 sik6 zo2 faan6 mei6 aa3?) - Have you eaten yet, in day to day conversations. This phrase plays a huge role in Cantonese culture. It's basically our version of 'How
In Cantonese, there are a lot of words that mean the same thing but used in different context. the most prevalent one is probably the two types of 'Thank you', 唔該 (m4 goi1) and 多謝 (do1 ze6). We went over this pair in this post. Today, let'
I believe learning a language isn’t only about knowing what the word for 🍎 is. It’s more about building a whole identity in your target language. Instead of thinking different languages as different ways of expressing the same thing, think of it as an entirely different system of expression
This week's word of the week is 轉頭 (zyun3 tau4). 轉頭 (zyun3 tau4) has two meanings. Literally: 轉 (zyun3) means to turn, and 頭 (taau4) means head. So the word literally means turning the head. Figuratively: 轉頭 (zyun3 tau4) means later/shortly after. In a sentence, it is
A common mistake my students make when putting verbs in a sentence is thinking that the components of two-word verbs have to stick together. How two-character verbs are formed: To understand this, first we need to know that a lot of Cantonese verbs consist of two components. 1. the actual
In this post, let's learn how to ask and answer frequency questions. Question 💡The phrase for 'how often' in Cantonese is 幾耐 _一次 (gei2 noi6 _ jat1 ci3). 幾耐 (gei2 noi6) - how long(time) 一次 (jat1 ci3) - once/one time 💡We put the verb in
In today's post, let's learn how to say 'This, that, these and those' in Cantonese. This That These Those 呢(個) 嗰(個) 呢啲 嗰啲 ne1 (go3) go2 (go3) ne1 di1 go2 di1 This Singular First word: 呢 (ni1) Second word: Theres is no
In this post, you will learn how to make comparative statements and questions using a few simple sentence structures. Don't forget to complete the exercises at the end of the post to consolidate your knowledge! Let’s take 大 (daai2) big as an example. big bigger bigger than
💡The verb 睇 (taai2) means to see/watch. It can also be used in the context of "to depend on" something. 睇吓 (taai2 haa5) means to take a look. And like English, the 'depends on' statement usually comes with a question word. Below are some examples.
When we learn a language, one of the first things we look into (second to swear words, of course) would probably be ways to express gratitude. In Cantonese, we have two main ways to express gratitude, namely 唔該 （m4 goi1） vs 多謝 （do1 ze6). And no, they are not tomato