Learn Cantonese 粤语播客

Hello everyone, 大家好！

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.)

 

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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

 

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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

 

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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

 

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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！

 

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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

 

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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.

 

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Let me know what other places you want to say.

Hi, Everyone,

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

What is Standard Cantonese?

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

Lesson 4 Where Are You From?

 

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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。