Every time, we just learn 5 short sentences.

Learn Basic Cantonese:(1)

1. 你好！ ( Hello!)
2.我叫保罗。 ( I’m Paul )
3.我姓陈。 (My last name is Chen )
4.陈小姐，你好！ (Hello, Miss Chen. )
5.保罗先生，你好！(Hello, Paul! )

Some asked us to put Jyutping and definitions for these sentences for further learning.
Please click HERE to study more and come back here to replay the mp3 lesson.
Related Lessons:
Basic Cantonese(2)
Basic Cantonese(3)

Here’s our Cantonese podcast Lesson ten at CantonesePod.com.

Did you try our “how to say” in Cantonese series? Let review two of the series:

• How to say “you are pretty” in Cantonese

• How to say “you are (so) handsome” in Cantonese?

nei5 hou3 leng3
你 好 靓 = you are (so) pretty.
you very pretty (lit.)

你 好 靓 仔
nei5 hou2 leng3 zai2 = you are so handsome
you very handsome boy (lit.)

This is our sentence pattern for today:
pronoun/noun + adjective
We call this a sentence with an adjectival predicate. Very useful and we use it a lot in Chinese including Mandarin.
e.g.

我 好 忙 （唔得闲）。 = I am very busy (very ‘not free’)
I(am) very busy. (lit.)
得闲 = free; not busy.
唔得闲 = busy.

佢 好 唔得闲。 = He/she is very busy.
He/she(is) very busy.(lit.)

我 男 朋友 好 粗 心。 = My boyfriend is very careless/thoughtless.
my male friend very rough heart (lit.)
粗心 = careless/thoughtless （ having a rough/careless heart/mind)

我嘅 女 朋友 好 细心。 = My girlfriend is very careful/considerate/attentive (She’s a careful person).
my female friend very tiny heart. (lit.)
细心 = careful; attentive.

佢嘅 前夫 很 有钱。 = Her ex-husband is very rich.
Her former husband very have money (lit.)
有钱 = having money; rich.

你 煮 嘅 餸 好 好 味。 = The dishes you cooked are very delicious.
you cook dish(es) very good taste.(lit.)
好 味 = delicious; same as 好吃 in Mandarin.

OK. Wish you a great weekend.
周 末 愉快！
week end happy (lit.)

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

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

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

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！

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

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.

Let me know what other places you want to say.

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

http://ChineseBay.com/chinese/ctchat.htm

and maybe you can find some Cantonese learning buddy there.

Have a nice weekend!

CantonesePod.com Team

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。

Thur. or Friday is the time for our weekly update for a new lesson.
I’d like to give thanks to all the good feedback to encourage us to do more and better.
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Without forward ado, here’s our weekly lesson:

Lesson Three: Please tell me, what you are doing.

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!

First, the sentence pattern of this lesson:

请问(請 問) …
cing2man6 …
Please tell me so and so..

So for “Please tell me what you are going.” in Cantonese, we’d say
请问 你 响度 做 乜嘢。
cing2man6 nei5 hoeng2dou6 zou6 me1je5
nei5 = you/your
hoeng2dou6 = be here(doing something)
zou6 = do/did/doing; make
e.g. zou6 ngoi3 (做爱） = make love.
zou6 dei6caang2 (做地产）= do real estate (be a realtor)
zou6 si6jau4gai1 （豉油鸡） = make/making soy sauce chicken
zou6 saang1ji3 (做生意）= do business
zou6 gai1/ngaap3-2 做鸡/做鸭 = be a female/male prostitute

me1je5 = what (also can be prounced as mat1je5)
Note: The “j” in JyutPing is like “y” in English word “yes”.

Now repeat after me:
我 响度 做 豉油鸡。
ngo2 hoeng2dou6 zou6 si6jau4gai1
我 响度 听音乐
ngo2 hoeng2dou6 teng1jam1ngo6 = listen/listening to music
haang4gaai1 行街 = walk/walking (around) the street i.e. shopping
Note that after the verbs (zou6, haang4), we can always put gan2(紧）to emphasize the present tense “doing”.
For example.
ngo2 hoeng2dou6 cung1gan2loeng4 (冲紧凉) = I’m taking a bath.
Here cung1loeng4 means “take a bath”.
cung1 = pour water over
loeng4 = cool, cold
In Canton or Hong Kong, when people take a bath, they really want to get cool by pouring water over themselves.

Actually, we have been learning the 2nd important sentence pattern:
ngo2/nei5 hoeng2dou6…
I am / you are (doing sth.)
We can also use “hai2dou6喺度” instead of hoeng2dou6 interchageably.
The verb hai2喺 is a special word for Cantonese, is the same as the word “在” in Mandarin. Unlike Mandarin, when we say “am/is/are doing”, we need say hai2dou6, not just hai2 in Cantonese.

Please replay this lesson until you get fimiliar with all the new stuff here.
Until next time. Zoi3 gin3.
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