Lessons for English speakers
Learn to read Cantonese
A short, active path into reading Cantonese: see how a character is built out of a meaning half and a sound half, learn the sixty characters a fable runs on, meet the grammar words 係 唔 嘅 咗 that mark written Cantonese out from Mandarin, and read a short story before opening your first book.
13 core sections · ≈ 34 min + 3 optional lookups · ≈ 43 min with everything
Verbs and stories
3 sections11
The verbs a story runs on
≈ 3 min
What you'll learn
- 有jau5 is both “have” and “there is”, and it opens a great many story sentences.
- 喺hai2 is at, in and on — one word for the whole set of English prepositions.
- The place goes before the verb: “at the hill live”, not “live at the hill”.
- Sticking a second verb on the end says how the first one turned out: see-arrive is “catch sight of”.
- None of these change shape, ever, for anybody.
Seventeen verbs
- 有have; there isjau5有一隻狗jau5 jat1 zek3 gau2“there is a dog”
- 喺at, in, onhai2喺路上hai2 lou6 soeng6“on the road”
- 去goheoi3去山上heoi3 saan1 soeng6“go up the hill”
- 嚟comelai4嚟屋企lai4 uk1 kei2“come home”
- 行walkhaang4
- 走leave, go away; run offzau2A false friend: in Mandarin the same character is “walk”. In Cantonese, walking is 行, and this one is leaving — or running, when something is fleeing.
- 睇look at, watchtai2睇書tai2 syu1“read a book”
- 見seegin3見到gin3 dou2“catch sight of”
- 話say (to someone)waa6This is the one that introduces speech in a story: 佢話 “he said”.
- 問askman6A mouth inside a gate — someone at the door, asking.
- 食eatsik6
- 飲drinkjam2
- 搵look for, findwan2
- 知knowzi1我唔知ngo5 m4 zi1“I do not know”
- 想want tosoeng2想去soeng2 heoi3“want to go”
- 跌fall over, dropdit3For a person who falls, or a thing that is dropped.
- 倒topple, come downdou2For something standing that goes over: a tree, a wall. Same sound as the 到 of 見到, different character.
One-form words: what you see here appears in every sentence, for every person and every time.
佢keoi5“he” 喺山上hai2 saan1 soeng6“on the hill” 搵水wan2 seoi2“looks for water”.
佢喺山上搵水。
keoi5 hai2 saan1 soeng6 wan2 seoi2.
The place comes before the verb, not after it. English says “looks for water on the hill”; Cantonese says “on the hill looks for water”, and reading a line in English order will put you in the wrong place.
A second verb on the end says how it turned out
見gin3“see”
見到gin3 dou2“catch sight of”
到dou2 is “arrive” — the looking arrived somewhere, so it succeeded
搵wan2“look for”
搵到wan2 dou2“find”
the same ending, and now the searching succeeded — English needs a different word, “find”
行haang4“walk”
行去haang4 heoi3“walk over there”
去heoi3 and 嚟lai4 hook on to say which way it went
Who, where, doing what
- 山上有一棵樹。
Place first, then “there is”.
Show answer +Hide answer −
saan1 soeng6 jau5 jat1 po1 syu6 — “There is a tree on the hill.” - 我見到佢。
Show answer +Hide answer −
ngo5 gin3 dou2 keoi5 — “I caught sight of him.” - What is odd about 走 for someone who knows a little Mandarin?
Show answer +Hide answer −
It means “leave”, or “run off”, not “walk”. Walking is 行haang4.