Hi, everyone, 大家好。
In our last lesson, we learned how to say where you are from.
In Today’s lesson, we are going to learn to say the places you want to go.
Now sentence patterns:
1)I want to go to (Beijing…)
我想去(北京)
2)He needs to go to (Hong Kong…)
佢要去(香港)
3)My wife has been to San Francisco and Los Angeles
我太太去过(三藩市同埋罗省)
Cities and places:
Guangzhou(Canton),Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Taipei, Taiwan, Las Vegas, New York, Saigon, Sydney,
广州，上海，苏州，杭州，台北，台湾，拉斯维加斯，纽约，西贡，悉尼（雪梨)
Try to use what you have learned:
I want to go to Hong Kong.
I’ve been to Guangzhou.
For those expecting Lesson Five, sorry that we have to delay till next week due to our beta issue and changes on our sites (we are trying to make it a better learning environment to help you.) Yes, we need more contributors, so if you are interested in helping, please let us know.
Let’s just relax and have fun this week and forget about this week lesson:
Did you know a new Cantonese Chat Room is launched at
The language spoken by the people in Canton? Canton is now officially called Guangzhou 广州, which is the capital of Guangdong Province in Southern China.
It is generally agreed that Standard Cantonese is the dialect spoken natively in and around the cities of Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macau in Southern China. As it is said in Wikipedia, “unlike Standard Mandarin, there is no official agency to regulate Standard Cantonese”. The translation of the word “Cantonese” into Chinese is not easy as there are so many different opinions. Since Canton is now called Guangzhou, Cantonese should be traditional: 廣州話 or 廣府話; simplified: 广州话 or 广府话; pinyin: Guǎngzhōu huà or Guángfǔ huà; Jyutping: Gwong2zau1 wa2 or Gwong2fu2 wa2. Guangzhou is the city’s name. Guangfu means the capital of Guangdong Province, also refering to the city.
Cantonese is just short form for Standard Cantonese. We also call it traditional: 廣東話; simplified: 广东话; pinyin: Guǎngdōng huà; Jyutping: Gwong2dong1 wa2 (meaning speech of Guangdong province) because its influential status in Guangdong province. In Guangdong province, there are also quite a few dialects which are very different from each other.
I hope I do not bore you to death… so I’d better stop here. For more information and discussion, please refer to the Wiki article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Cantonese
English: Where are you from?
Cantonese: nei5 hai2 bin1dou6 lai4
你 喺 边度 来
nei5: you
hai2 (Cant.) to be located at; here means from
bin1dou6: where
lai4: come
English: I’m from the US.
Cantonese: ngo5 hai2 mei5gwok3 lai4
我喺美国来。
English: I’m American Chinese.
Cantonese:ngo5 hai6 mei5zik6 waa4jan4
我系美籍华人。
English: Born in Hong Kong, grew up in the US.
Cantonese: hai2 hoeng1gong2 ceot1sai3 hai2 mei5gwok3 zoeng2daai6
喺香港出世，喺美国长大。
hoeng1gong2 香港：Hong Kong
mei5gwok3 美国: beautiful country = America
Please note that in the recording, “lazy” sound “gok” is used instead of “gwok” as in our daily life. We did this on purpose as you should also understand it when you hear it from a native Cantonese speaker.
English: I’m American
Cantonese:ngo5 hai6 mei5gwok3 jan4
我系美国人。
Extra in the 2nd mp3 file:
1）Please tell me where you are from.
请问你喺边度来。
2）I am from the US.
我喺美国来。
3）I’m from Canada.我喺加拿大来。
4) I’m from Japan.我喺日本来。
5) I’m from Korea.我喺韩国来。
6) I’m from South Korea.我喺南韩来。
7)I’m from UK (England).我喺英国。 I’m from Sweden. 我喺瑞典来。
9)I’m from the Netherlands.我系荷兰人。
10) I’m from Hong Kong.我系香港人。
11) I’m from Macau我系澳门人。
12) I’m from Vietnam。我系越南人 (Note: 1st one jyut6laam4jan4 uses “lazy” sound. 2nd one jyut6naam4jan4 is “correct” or official. We let you hear it because young people are using lazy sound everywhere.)
13)I’m Cantonese.我系广东人。
14)I’m from Brazil.我系巴西人。
Not: in the mp3:
Holland is a very beautiful country.
Formal Cantonese：荷兰是一个非常美丽的国家。
How can a man say “will you marry me?” in Cantonese？
nei5 jyun6ji3 gaa3 bei2 ngo5 maa3
你愿意嫁畀我吗？
nei5 = you
jyun6ji3 = be willing to
gaa3 bei2 = marry to (a man)
ngo5 = me/I/my
So “ngo5 jyun6ji3 gaa3 bei2 nei5″
= (the girl said:) I am willing to marry you.
Some still asked me how to say “how are you?” in Cantonese:
Now that you know how to pronounce “nei5″ “hou2″ “maa3″, you already know how to say it “nei5 hou2 maa3 你好吗？” = How are you?
How to say “will you marry me” by a girl to man? Let’s learn it next time.
ngo5 hou2 gwaa3zyu6 nei5
我 好 挂住 你 = I miss you very much
hou2 = very, good. Used here for stree.
gwaa3zyu6 = miss (someone)
Can’t find what you want to say? Bookmark us and come back here in a couple of days and we may have it for you. Or you can just contact us to ask for it.
ngo5 ge3 gwong2 dung1 waa2 m4 hou2
我嘅广东话唔好。 = My Cantonese is not good.
（我嘅廣東話唔好。）
ngo5 = my
ge3 = of; someone’s
ngo5 ge3 = my/mine
nei5ge3 = your/yours
gwong2dung1waa2 = Cantonese; the dialect of Guangdong province.
m4 = not
hou2 = good
我嘅广东话唔系好好。 = My Cantonese is not very good.
(Note: that in the above link there is a mistake for the word 广, which should be pronounced gwong2 instead of jim)
m4 hai6 = is not (be not)
hou2 hou2 = very good ( the first hou2 is an adverb, meaning very. The 2nd means good.)
Hi, everyone, did you miss us? I’ve been missing you! Seriously!
Welcome to CantonesePod.com.
Today we are going to focus on some useful verbs.
Let’s get actions!
Scripts:
我系河国荣. 我系一个澳洲鬼佬.
ngo5 hai6 ho4 gwok3 wing3. ngo5 hai6 jat1 go3 ou3 zau1 gwai2 lou2.
ngo5 = I/me; hai6 = am/is/are/to be; ho4 = river（surname here)
gwok3 = country; wing3 = glory; jat1 go3 = one (person);
ou3 zau1 = Australia;
gwai2 lou2 = a humorous way to call “foreigner(s)”, it does not really mean literately “ghost men”. Even those pretty Cantonese ladies who married “gwai2 lou2″, they say “ngo5 lou2 gung1 hai6 gwai2 lou2 我老公系鬼佬 (my husband is a (white)foreigner. ) And their husbands willingly call themselves “ngo5 hai6 gwai2 lou2 我系鬼佬”. That’s why Ho Kwo Wing called himself “gwai2 ou2″ here.
gwai2 can also be used as an adverb: e.g. gwai2 gam2 lek1(鬼咁叻) means very very smart.
So gwai2 also means genius/spirit (精灵), not “devil” or “ghost”
He said I’m a foreigner from Australia.
In our Cantonese dictionary, “gwai2 lou2″ is a good word while “Chinaman” is a bad word.
I’m from Sweden. 我喺瑞典来。