CantonesePod

Lesson 9: What do you do? ( I’m a doctor. You are …) How to say that in Cantonese?

Hi, 大家好！Welcome to another Cantonese mp3 lesson at CantonesePod.com.
We’ll come back to basics this time.
Simple sentence pattern:
pronoun + 系(hai6 = to be) + noun
The pronoun can be I, we, you, they, she, he, but the verb to be(hai6) does not change form.
e.g.
我系医生。(I’m a doctor.)
我哋系医生。(we are doctors.)
佢哋系政客。(They are politicians.)
佢系政客。(He/She is a politician.)

你系一位教授。（You are a professor.)
你哋系教授。 (You are professors.)
律师、护士、工程师、学生、市长、经理、程序员、会计、翻译、见习医生、厨师

 

 Standard Podcast [4:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (660)

For some explanation and pronunciation in Jyupting or Yale, click HERE.
Post your position or careers here and we’ll let you know how to say it. (register first)
For more lessons and other “How-to” in Cantonese, visit http://CantonesePod.com

Hi, 大家好！
Today, we are going to learn how to say what you plan to do (are going to do).
今日句型 gam1yat3 geoi3jing3
Today’s sentence pattern:
I’m going to + verbs ( In English it really means “I plan to do something.” or “I will do something.”)
so the Cantonese for that is:

我打算+verb or
a future time phrase + 我（会）+ verb
我 ngo5 = I/me/my
打算 daa2syun3 = plan to
会 wui2 = will/able to （do something).
Please note that “Chinese verbs do not conjugate like the verbs of most Indo-European languages such as English or Spanish. In English, for example, the verb ‘to eat’ has many forms compared to its Chinese equivalent: ‘to eat’ (infinitive), ‘eat, eats’ (present), ‘ate’, (simple past), ‘eaten’ (past participle), ‘eating’ (present participle), etc. Chinese only has one basic form, used for every person and tense”( wikipedia )
e.g.
1) ngo5 daa2syun3 soeng5mong5 wan2 jat1 bou6 hou2ge3 daa2jan3gei1
我打算上网搵一部好嘅打印机。
I am going/plan to find/look for a good printer online.
打印机(機) daa2jan3gei1 = printer
多功能打印機 do1gung1nang4 daa2jan3gei1
多功能 do1gung1nang4 = multi function (similar to 3 or 4 in one or “all in one”)
一部 jat1 bou6 = one set/unit
2)gam1maan5 ngo5 wui2 soeng5cyun4 nei5di1 dak1ji3 soeng2 dou3 ngo5 ge3 mong5zaam6.
今晚我会上传你啲得意相到我嘅网站。 I am going to upload your cute photos to my web site.
今晚gam1maan5 = tonight
上传soeng5cyun4 = upload
你啲 nei5di1 = your
得意 dak1ji3 = cute / interesting
相 soeng2 = photos
到 dou3 = to
我嘅 ngo5 ge3 = my
网站 mong5zaam6 = web site

3)ting1jat3 ngo5 wui2 gaau3 ngo5 po4po4 dim2joeng6 faat3 din6jau4
听日我会教我婆婆点样发电邮。
Tomorrow I am going to teach my grandma (on my mother’s side) how to send email.
听日 ting1jat3 = tomorrow ; 教 gaau3 = teach/taught
点样 dim2joeng6 = how
发 faat3=send 电邮 din6jau4 = email
琴晚 kam4jat3 = last night
kam4jat3(琴晚) ngo5 gaau3 ngo5 po4po4 dim2joeng6 faat3 din6jau4
Last night, I taught my grandma how to send email.
(Specials thanks to Leslie Frank )
You may learn more by spending more time at XueZhongwen.net

 

 Standard Podcast [2:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (688)

Although Cantonese use almost the same Chinese characters in their newspaper, most of Mandarin-speaking readers cannot really understand what they are talking about.

Why? Because they use Cantonese idioms, which have made the language so colorful.

Today, we’ll try to start to cover some of those interesting Cantonese idioms as some of our visitors have been requesting us to do so:

煲手機粥 bou1 sau2gei1 zuk1= making long calls with their celphone - the calls last so long just like cooking the porridge.
煲电话粥 bou1 din6waa2 zuk1 = make long phone call(s)
殺到埋身 killing comes to you — refers to danger is coming near.
有殺錯無放過 kill all (even the wrong ones ) so none is missed…
新鮮滾熱 brand new/fresh
死得人多 lots of people will be affected in a bad way / many people will be harmed.
失魂魚 a fish with a soul — like a chicken running with its head cut off… refers to something that can bumps into anyone in the way.

Want the Jyutping of the other words?
For now you can use Xuezhongwen.net

 

 Standard Podcast [1:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (700)

Hi, 大家好！我系保罗！（I’m Paul) Welcome to CantonesePod.com!
粤语播客欢迎您！
Today’s sentence pattern:
I have …
我有
I don’t have …
我冇 …
mou2 冇: (Cantonese Chinese character) do not have/have none/there is none.
我有好多钱！但系，我冇时间。
I have a lot of money, but, I don’t have time.

我有好多嘢做，不过我有好少时间。
I have a lot of things to do, but I have quite little time.

佢有一个好靓嘅太太，而且太太好识煮餸。
He has a very pretty wife and his wife knows cooking very well.(is a good cook)

So much for today. (今日)系咁先。
Have a nice weekend. 周末愉快！

 

 Standard Podcast [3:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (865)

Lesson 6 How do you say this in Cantonese?

Hi, 大家好！
Welcome to CantonesePod.com! 欢迎大家来到粤语播客！
What! What did I say?
欢迎
glad meet ( glad to meet you = welcome)
大家
big family (= everyone)
来到
come to
粤语
Guangdong language (=Cantonese)
播 = broadcast
客 =guest
播客 = podcast ( derives from 博客 for blog and similar sound of podcast )

OK. Today’s sentence pattern:

How do (you/we) say/write … in Cantonese/English/French/Japanese?
粤语/英语/法语/日语 … 点讲/写？

点 = how
讲 = say/speak
写 = write

e.g.
A:粤语 “I love you” 点讲? （ How do you say “I love you?” )
B:我爱你

A:英文 嘅 丑 字 点写啊? ( How do you write the word “ugly/shame” in English?)
B: U-g-l-y
A: 英文 嘅 LOVE 点串啊? ( How do you spell “love” in English?)
B: L-O-V-E
串 = spell ( literately means string something together )
啊 = question indicator (put at the end of a sentence to change a statement into a question. )
OK, see you next week at CantonesePod.com

 

 Lesson 6: How to say ... in Cantonese [5:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (771)