From Wikitravel Shared

Cantonese (Gwong dung wa) is a widely spoken Chinese dialect. It is the local dialect in current use within the province of Guangdong, China, in the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, the Special Administrative Region of Macau, and in many overseas Chinese communities in South-East Asia and elsewhere, with Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) being two places where Cantonese is the dominant language in a Chinese community that is in turn huge and influential.

The word "dialect" means something different when applied to Chinese than it does for most other languages. Chinese "dialects" have not only widely diverging pronunciations of the same words, but also use different words for expressing the same thing, and different grammar such as different word order. As a result, different Chinese dialects can be mutually unintelligible. The difference between one dialect and another can be as small as that between, say, Spanish and Portuguese, or as large as that between German and English. Meanwhile, there are different variations of the Cantonese dialect that differ greatly from one another. For example, the Cantonese spoken in the far west of Guangdong province is hardly or not at all intelligible to a native of Guangzhou city.

Speakers of all Chinese dialects do, in general, use the same characters in reading and writing. Written language is more formal and closer to standard Chinese Putonghua (Mandarin), even when used by Cantonese speakers. Oral Cantonese contains many words for which there has traditionally not existed a written form. In recent decades, however, characters for many of these words have been created, chiefly by the Hong Kong popular printed media such as newspapers and magazines. It should be noted that the different Cantonese-speaking communities use one of two different forms of writing: in Hong Kong and Macau, traditional Chinese characters are in use, whereas the Cantonese-speaking communities in mainland China's Guangdong province as well as Malaysia, Singapore and most other overseas Chinese communities use simplified Chinese characters.

In many cases the regional dialects are not clearly regionalised but vary gradually across a region. Thus linguists can identify anywhere between seven and seventeen separate Chinese languages where the speakers of different dialects are mutually unintelligible.

Some of the phrases in the list cannot be translated from English to Cantonese.

[edit] Pronunciation guide

[edit] Tones

Cantonese is a tonal language. This means that the same syllable, pronounced in a different tone, has a different meaning. To complicate this, there may be more than one character pronounced as the same syllable with the same tone (though this is uncommon). In this case, context usually helps resolve the ambiguity. This may sound daunting, but is in fact is better than say, english, where there are a great deal of words that are spoken identically (eg. their, there, they're) and have nothing but context to help determine which one it is. Cantonese has context and tone to help distinguish words.

Different variations of the Cantonese dialect have a different number of tones, from as few as six to as many as ten or more. Most speakers, however, and all modern linguistic interpretations get by with being able to distinguish (both in spoken and heard Cantonese) between the following six tones:

1 - high, 2 - high rising, 3 - mid level, 4 - low falling, 5 - low rising, 6 - low.

It should be noted that a native Cantonese speaker will have great difficulty understanding a non-native speaker unless syllable and tone are properly pronounced. It has been stated that Cantonese is one of the most difficult languages in the world (i.e. if considered as a separate language apart from standard Chinese), but this is just plain silly. The very minor initial difficulty in learning the tones is more than made up for by the childishly simple grammar, and absence of almost all plurals, genders, tenses and forms that plague the english language.

[edit] Vowels

Romanised cantonese pronunciation guide.

Sounds can only be approximated at best using romanisation. This guide gives a general indication of the correct sound to make, but the best way to be completely accurate is to listen closely to native speakers and mimic the sounds they make.

"a" --> "uh" sound as in "gun" or "sun".

"aa" --> "a" sound as in "ska".

"e" --> "e" sound as in "ten"

"i" --> "ee" sound as in "mean" or "preen".

"o" --> "aw" sound as in "awe" or "saw".

"ou" --> "oh" sound as in "own" or "loan".

"u" --> "oo" sound as in "spoon" or "soon".

[edit] Common diphthongs

"au" --> "ow" sound as in "loud" or "mouth".

"eo" --> "u" sound as in "flurry"

"iu" --> "ew" sound as in "few" or "pew".

"oi" --> "oy" sound as in "joy" or "ploy".

"yu" --> same as the German "ü" or French "u" sounds.

[edit] Consonants

"Ng" --> pronounced exactly the same as English "ng" at the end of such words as "song", "bring", lung".

"J" --> Can be spoken like English "y" sound as in "yolk".

"C" --> Can be spoken like English "ch" sound as in "cheese", but is closer to a "ts" sound.

"L" --> Can be spoken like English "l" sound as in "length".

"N" --> Can be spoken like English "n" sound as in "no", but is often found to be a mix of "n" and "l" sounds.

"L" & "N" are not always interchangable in Cantonese, where "neoi" meaning girl is not the same as "leoi" meaning inside.

"Z" --> Can be spoken like English "j" sound as in "joke", but is closer to a "dz" sound.

Hard consonants at the ends of words like "k", "p" and "t" are clipped, meaning that you don't enunciate them as overtly as you might if you were saying a word like "sick" or "mutt".

[edit] Phrase list

An "m4" sound can be used as a prefix on many words to imply the "not" or opposite form. For example "hou2" means good, "m4 hou2" means not good, i.e. bad. It is pronounced exactly the same as an english "m" sound, as if you were going "ummmmmm" but shorter.

[edit] Basics

Hello

你好 Lei5 hou2. (informal See note above).

How are you? 

你點樣啊? Lei5 dim2 joeng6 a?

Fine, thank you. 

唔錯 M4 co3. [No need to say "thank you" in Cantonese]

What is your name? 

你叫乜名 Nei5 giu3 mat1 meng4?

My name is ______ . 

我嘅名叫 Ngo5 ge3 meng4 giu3 ______ .

Nice to meet you. 

我好開心見你 Ngo5 hou2 hoi1 sam1 gin3 nei5.

Please. 

請 Ceng2/cing2.

Thank you. ("after someone does something for you")

唔該 M4 goi1.

Thank you. ("when someone gives you a gift")

多謝 Do1 ze6.

You're welcome. 

唔使 M4 sai2.

Yes. 

係 Hai6.

No. 

唔係 M4 hai6.

Excuse me/pardon me/sorry. 

對唔住 Deoi3 m4 zyu6.

Goodbye 

再見 Zoi3 gin3.

I can't speak name of language. 

我唔識講... Ngo5 m4 sik1 gong2 "name of language"

Excuse me, do you speak English? 

請問你識唔識講英文? Ceng2 man6, nei5 sik1 m4 sik1 teng1 ying1 man4 aa3?

Is there someone here who speaks English? 

請問有冇人識講英文 Ceng2 man6 jau5 mou5 yan4 sik1 gong2 ying1 man4?

Help! 

救命啊! Gau3 meng6 ah!

Look out! 

小心! Siu2 sam1!

Good morning. 

早晨 zou2 san4.

I don't understand. 

我唔明白 Ngo5 m4 sik1 teng1.

Where is the toilet? 

廁所喺邊喥? Ci3 so2 hai6 bin1 dou6?

[edit] Problems

Leave me alone. 

唔好搞我 M4 hou2 gaau2 ngo5.

Don't touch me! 

唔好掂我! M4 hou2 dim6 ngo5!

I'll call the police. 

我會叫警察 Ngo5 wui6 giu3 ging2 caat3.

Police! 

警察! Ging2 caat3!

Stop! Thief! 

咪走! 賊仔! Mai5 zau2! Caak6 zai2!

I need your help. 

唔該幫吓我 M4 goi1 bong1 haa5 ngo5.

It's an emergency. 

好緊急 Hou2 gan2 gap1.

I'm lost. 

我蕩失路 Ngo5 dong6 saat1 lou6.

I lost my bag. 

我唔見咗個袋 Ngo5 m4 gin3 zo2 go3 doi6.

I dropped my wallet. 

我唔見咗銀包 Ngo5 m4 gin3 zo2 ngan4 baau1.

I'm sick. 

我唔舒服 Ngo5 m4 syu1 fuk6.

I've been injured. 

我受咗傷 Ngo5 sau6 zo2 seung1.

Please call a doctor. 

唔該幫我叫醫生 M4 goi1 bong1 ngo5 giu3 ji1 sang1.

Can I use your phone? 

可唔可以借嗰電話用？ Ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 ze3 go2 din6 waa2 jung6.

[edit] Numbers

0 

零 ling4

1 

一 jat1

2 

二 ji6

3 

三 saam1

4 

四 sei3

5 

五 ng5

6 

六 luk6

7 

七 cat1

8 

八 baat3

9 

九 gau2

10

十 sap6

After learn the following it becomes much easier to work out from up to 100. Cantonese makes numbers much easier, by writing down simple calculations which represents another number, for example:

11 

十一 sap6 jat1 (10 + 1)

12 

十二 sap6 ji6 (10 + 2)

13 

十三 sap6 saam1 (10 + 3)

20 

二十 ji6 sap6 (2 lots of 10)

39 

三十九 saam1 sap6 gau2 (3 lots of 10 + 9)

Then it comes to the larger numbers:

100 

一百 jat1 baak3

1000 

一千 jat1 cin1

10,000 

一萬 jat1 maan6

100,000 

十萬 sap6 maan6

1,000,000 

一百萬 jat1 baak3 maan6

10,000,000 

一千萬 jat1 cin1 maan6

100,000,000 

一億 jat1 jik1

[edit] Time

Today 

今日 gam yat

Tomorrow 

聽日 ting yat

The next day 

第二日 dei yi yat

The day after tomorrow 

後日 hau yat

yesterday 

尋日/琴日 kam yat

[edit] Clock time

Hour 

點 dim / 點鐘 dim jung (optional)

Minute 

分 fan

Second 

秒 miu

One o'clock 

一點 yat dim

two o'clock 

兩點 leung dim

Three o'clock 

三點鐘 saam dim jung

Twelve o'clock 

十二點鐘 sap yi dim jung

Noon 

晏晝 aan jau

Midnight 

半夜 boon ye

one thirty/half one 

一點半 yat dim boon

quarter past one 

一點三 yat dim saam

quarter to one 

十二點九 sap yi dim gau

one sixteen and fifty six seconds 

一點十六分鐘五十六秒 yat dim sap lok fan jung ling ng sap miu

[edit] Duration

[edit] Days

Day 

日 yat

Week 

星期 Sing kei / 禮拜 laai bai

Monday 

星期一 sing kei yut

Tuesday 

星期二 sing kei yii

Wednesday 

星期三 sing kei saam

Thursday 

星期四 sing kei sei

Friday 

星期五 sing kei ng

Saturday 

星期六 sing kei lok

Sunday 

星期日 sing kei yat / 禮拜 laai bai

Everyday 

天天 tin tin / 日日 yat yat / 每天 mui tin / 每日 mui yat

[edit] Months

A year 

一年 yat nin

A month 

一個月 yat goh yuut

January 

一個月 yat yuut

February 

二月 yi yuut

March 

三月 saam yuut

April 

四月 sei yuut

May 

五月 ng yuut

June 

六月 lok yuut

July 

七月 chat yuut

August 

八月 baat yuut

September 

九月 gau yuut

October 

十月 sap yuut

November 

十一月 sap yat yuut

December 

十二月 sap yi yuut

[edit] Writing time and date

[edit] Colors

red 

紅色 hung sik

orange 

橙色 chaang sik

yellow 

黃色 wong sik

green 

綠色 look sik

blue 

藍色 laam sik

purple 

紫色 gi sik

grey 

灰色 fui sik

brown 

咖啡色 gah feh sik

black 

黑色 huk sik

white 

白色 baak sik

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Bus and train

[edit] Directions

[edit] Taxi

Taxi 

的士 dik shi

[edit] Lodging

[edit] Money

[edit] Eating

have you eaten yet?

你食咗飯未呀? lei sik dzo fan mei a?

[edit] Bars

[edit] Shopping

[edit] Driving

[edit] Authority

[edit] Learning more

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