CantonesePod

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.)

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！

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

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.

Let me know what other places you want to say.

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?

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。

It should be easier to remember the names for the days of the week in Cantonese if you’ve already know how to count from 1 to 7:

sing1kei4yat1
星期一 星期二 星期三 星期四 星期五 星期六 星期日
sing1 = star/planet
kei4 = period
jat1 = one

Another way to say the days of the week is

礼拜一 礼拜二 礼拜三 礼拜四 礼拜五 礼拜六 礼拜（日）
lai5bai3 (礼拜 ) means worship so we just use lai5bai3 for Sunday.
And Monday is the first day after Sunday (lai5bai3)

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.

So how to say I miss you in Cantonese?

Here we go:

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.)

Have a nice weekend.