You = Gwai-lo ("foreigner") learning Cantonese?
No matter what your motivations are--career, Kung-fu movies, party tricks to impress that boy/girl from Hong Kong--or to surprise your roommates one day, that you understand everything they are talking about you--we'll go from simple phrases to useful sentences. In no time you will sound like a "zi-gei-jau" (in-the-know buddies)!
While this page, prepared by the Radio/Television Hong Kong, is written in Chinese, you can still click through sound clips, and try to identify the word whose pronunciation is written within the short phrase. Check it out!
是但 \Si6 daan6\
是但 | jerryhui
Vabandage, et ma ei räägi eesti keelt hästi… (ainult eelmisel suvel) Ma kuulasin seda (väga tore hälle!), aga ma tahaks texti lugeda. Tänan!
榖種 “Gook chong” \guk1 zung2\
炖冬菇
“Done dong goo” \dan6 dung1 gu1\
生豬肉
“Sang jew yoke” \saang1 zyu1 juk6\
n. Literally, raw pork. Colloquially, something that you didn’t do but is blamed for.
e.g. 尋日佢被人砌生豬肉。\cam4 jat6 koei5 bei2 jan4 cai3 ~\
Yesterday s/he was blamed for something s/he didn’t do.
Someone made a song for the Ching Chong Ling Long Ting Tong girl.
吹水
“chui shui” \coei1 soei2\
v. to chat.
e.g. 小芬約小玲出去食晚飯兼吹水。(Fanny invited Ling for dinner and chatting.)
\siu2 fan1 yoek3 siu2 ling4 cut1 hoei3 sik6 maan5 faan6 gim1 ~\
v.To tell a tall tale; quite commonly used in the phrase 吹水唔抹嘴 \coei1 soei2 ng4 maat3 zoei2\ (lying without wiping corner of one’s mouth; as in blatantly lying and without apology)
e.g. 佢成日吹水唔抹嘴，信佢兩成都死。 (S/he lies without apology all the time, even if you trust him/her two percent you’ll still be screwed.)
\koei5 sing4 jat6 ~, \seon3 koei3 loeng5 sing4 dou1 sei2\
新年流流 \san1 nin4 lau4 lau4\ “right around New Year”
Chinese New Year was this past week. Did you celebrate? How did you celebrate? This week I’ll share some new year greetings and other new year related words.
This past “week” (sorry again, it’s been a busy time!) we went through a bunch of phrases with repeated words. Sometimes the repeated words are an extra layer of desciption, as in 輕飄飄 (literally “light drift drift”). Some are sounds. But some really don’t have apparent meanings, like 紅噹噹 (red), 肥飩飩 etc. It’s time like this I wish I could be a linguistic historian, and would be able to trace their origins!
Along the subject of colors, almost every single color has a phrase that uses double words. Perhaps another week.
We’ve also encountered common phrases that contain words with no standard written Chinese words for (肥飩飩 fat, can also appear as 肥騰騰). Outside of the scope of double words, and especially looking into nursery rhymes, there are many many more of such words. If you can pull off one of these in a conversation, you can often make a Cantonese speaker chuckle…
Ending with another nursery rhyme here, with the phrase “turning round and round”:
氹氹轉，菊花園 \tam4 tam4 zyun3 guk1 faa1 jyun4\
Going round and round, like a daisy garden
炒米餅，糯米糍 \caau2 mai5 bang2 no6 mai5 ci4\
Fried rice cakes, sweet mochi
阿媽叫我睇龍船 \aa3 maa1 giu3 ngo3 tai2 lung4 syun4\
My mom told me to watch the dragon boats
我唔睇，睇雞仔 \ngo3 ng4 tai2 tai2 gai1 zai2\
I didn’t watch (the dragon boats), but watched the little chicks instead
雞仔大，拎去賣 \gai1 zai2 daai6 ling1 hoei3 maai6\
The chicks grew to become hens, I took them and sold them
賣得幾個錢 \maai6 dak1 gei2 go3 cin4\
I earned a few coins
買架風車仔 \maai5 gaa3 fung1 ce1 zai2\
I buy a small wind mill
佢轉得好好睇 \koei5 zyun3 dak1 gei2 ho2 tai2\
It spins beautifully
睇佢氹氹轉，菊花園 (repeat from top) \tai2 koei3 tam4 tam4 zyun3 guk1 faa1 jyun4\
I watch it go round and round, like a daisy garden… .
