Look up a number, a colour or a time

Open this when you want a word. Numbers, family, colours, parts of the body, the days of the week and the clock, none of which the closing stories need you to have memorised.

≈ 4 min of reading · Practise at your own pace

What’s in this chapter

Open this when you want a word. Neither closing story needs any of these lists memorised.
The numbers are built by stacking: ten-one is eleven, two-ten is twenty.
A number in front of a noun still needs its counting word.
Family words are more specific than English: older and younger brothers have different words.
Colours take 色sik1 — “red colour”, not just “red”.

One to ten, and how to keep going

Learn these ten and the rest are built out of them. Read across from the figure you know to the character a book prints.

Number	Cantonese
1	一jat1
2	二ji6 — but 兩loeng5 when counting things
3	三saam1
4	四sei3
5	五ng5
6	六luk6
7	七cat1
8	八baat3
9	九gau2
10	十sap6

Above ten the pattern is arithmetic: 十一sap6 jat1“eleven” is ten-one, 二十ji6 sap6“twenty” is two-ten, 二十三ji6 sap6 saam1“twenty-three” is two-ten-three. There is nothing irregular to learn.

Words for the people in a family

Cantonese is more particular than English about who is older and who is younger, so find the exact relationship in the English column first.

English	Cantonese
mother	媽媽maa4 maa1
father	爸爸baa4 baa1
older brother	哥哥go4 go1
younger brother	細佬sai3 lou2
older sister	家姐gaa1 ze1
younger sister	細妹sai3 mui2
boy	男仔naam4 zai2
girl	女仔neoi5 zai2

There is no plain word for “brother” or “sister” — you have to choose older or younger. Notice 細sai3“small” doing the work of “younger”, and 仔zai2 making a small person.

Colours, and the character they all share

Each colour is two characters. Read the first one for the colour itself, and you will see the same second character on every row.

English	Cantonese
red	紅色hung4 sik1
yellow	黃色wong4 sik1
blue	藍色laam4 sik1
green	綠色luk6 sik1
black	黑色hak1 sik1
white	白色baak6 sik1

The second character is 色sik1“colour” every time, so once you can see it the whole column becomes readable. To hook a colour onto a noun, use 嘅ge3: 黑色嘅狗hak1 sik1 ge3 gau2“a black dog”.

Parts of the body, and which day it is

Four parts of the body first, then four words for when something happens. Look up the English you want and read the character across.

English	Cantonese
hand	手sau2
mouth	口hau2
eye	眼ngaan5
heart	心sam1
today	今日gam1 jat6
tomorrow	聽日ting1 jat6
yesterday	琴日kam4 jat6
morning	朝早ziu1 zou2

Three of the four day words end in 日jat6“day”, the sun character from the first decoding.

Days of the week, and the clock

The days of the week are one word plus one more character, and the clock is a number plus one more. Read the second column across from the English you want.

English	Cantonese
Monday	星期一sing1 kei4 jat1 — “week” plus the number
Tuesday to Saturday	星期二sing1 kei4 ji6 … 星期六sing1 kei4 luk6
Sunday	星期日sing1 kei4 jat6 — the day character, not seven
what time is it?	幾點呀？gei2 dim2 aa3?
three o’clock	三點saam1 dim2
half past three	三點半saam1 dim2 bun3
morning, before noon	上晝soeng6 zau3
afternoon	下晝haa6 zau3
evening, night	夜晚je6 maan5

In speech 禮拜lai5 baai3 often replaces 星期: 禮拜一“Monday”. 點dim2 is the “o’clock” word, so “how many” plus 點 asks the time.

Come back to these chapters whenever you need them.All Cantonese chapters ↗