Basic Greetings in Cantonese

[synesthetically]

Thank you for this!

[DubCmusicTV]

Sik Jor Fan Mei AH!!!!

[Kaibo8]

@DubCmusicTV Thumbs up! You are using Yale system. Chinese characters: 食咗飯未啊 sik6 zo2 faan6 mei6 aa1 (Jyutping ) It means "Have you eaten?" It was a popular greeting expression in the past because having enough food was the most important thing at that time. It is still a polite way to greet when some friend visits you during your meal time.

Google translate does not know how to translate it yet.

[bluelover404]

another very popular greeting in cantonese is: HEY DID YOU EAT YET?!

lol

[hazelnut299]

@bluelover404 You have no idea how right you are. :p

[p11271]

Actually we(HK ppl) always say "hello","bye bye","thank you","sorry","excuse me" in daily but we often to say "nei hou ma"when we have greetings.

[theoriginalmcsquare]

and i thought the 4 tones of mandarin were difficult to learn..

[Kaibo8]

@theoriginalmcsquare hahaha don't be scared. In English, we may at least have 3 tones. If a person speaks Cantonese with only 4 tones, he/she may be understood pretty well. Context is very important.

[Ishlam]

@theoriginalmcsquare the more traditional cantonese has 9 tones!!

[dyld921]

@Ishlam It still has 6 tones, but 3 of them are entering tones and are combined with 1,3,6 ;)

[SleepingWeina]

hahaha. <3 this. i like tO.. say the Words when it has > M4 < hahaha...

[RainfallMint]

I love Cantonese (big Stephen Chow fan!), Japanese, and Korean. They all sound so amazing. Love all the different tones!

[NC181818]

There are 9 tones in Cantonese... just that the last 3 tones are not that common.

[shaoduoduo]

i like cantonese dialect. but why this proram do not show a characters - it would be more easy and more interesting to learn if you see how to write what you just said...

[dedash]

I thing cantonese is actually prety easy :p

[kingofthai]

Long live Cantonese!

[CantonCanadaboy]

@kingofthai

Yes, Long live Cantonese

[XkeychainX]

....Cantonese sounds difficult!!! :S

[Darkevia]

dude that site is a disgrace half the writing of the words mean nothing and so do half the sayings

[Darkevia]

nhog sik gahng hoh doh gwahng-dohng wah, nay sik tayng hoh doh yeeng mun

[vivz753]

i know how to speak a lot of cantonese, you know how to listen to a lot of english :D woot

[elmo11259]

m goi!

[Pockygirl360]

joy gin is like see you later or see you next time,

unless it means both goodbye and those? xD

(i speak canto but canton's accent is a bit different from where my family comes from ^^)

[Kattzsleepy]

i need to pass should be ng goi jeh jeh :] ng goi is when someone helped you with something, then you say the word.

It's like 'thanks' but different with doh jeh.

[AznLonelyBoi]

ng goi is when someone does something for you.

Dou je is when someone gives you something.

[Kattzsleepy]

yeaaap

me = bad grammar

[GuamKomudo]

Cantonese is so weird, Ni Hao is pronounced like Lay Ho, when I asked my friend to say it in Cantonese it was WAY weird to think Ni Hao along the line of history was made into Lay Ho.

[Colliecool]

Ni Hao didn't become Lay Ho or anything. Cantonese is a dialect of much of the Southern Province, especially Guangzhou.

They both developed at or around the same time. Mandarin did not become Cantonese, nor did Cantonese become Mandarin.

[GuamKomudo]

Then why are most the words the same accept spoken WAY different. Like wo is like ngo, and tou is tao. Its like as the people branched out from the middle east the asian people (Chinese) the language was alterd alittle bit. Even with Japanese there are some choice words that you can tell came directly from Chinese just with a really weird accent. Its obvious most the languages in oriental asia came from the Chinese language. Somewhere along the line across that river the language changed.

[ngahuaiae]

Okay, you seem to be a little confused.. what do you mean by 'the words are the same'? You mean the characters? The words are obviously NOT the same, otherwise you wouldn't be making this comment..

[GuamKomudo]

Like it seems like alot of Cantonese is just Mandarin but somewhere along the line it was extremely alterd. I thought the river that seperated the languages has something to do with this because for 1000s of years they didnt really travel alot like us now, so the language across the river was weird or something lol Like Wo (Me)in Cantonese is Wo but just with a weird accent which makes it sound like Ngo. Like if in America people are like Window and Windah.But WAY more extreme right???Kinda?

[ngahuaiae]

I know what you mean, but what I'm trying to tell you is that Cantonese is not just Mandarin with a different pronunciation, it's like Madarin in many ways (simply because they are related, as they both belong to the Chinese language family), but it is not a version of Mandarin. Mandarin is one of the dialects of Chinese, which developed independently of Cantonese (and vice versa). That's why the pronunciation is different, because they developed independently.

[GuamKomudo]

Yeah, I knew they wernt just different pronouciation, alot of times its just totally different. But little stuff like the word head, is said Tou in M and Tao in C. So you can kinda see where they both are Chinese lol

[F0reseer]

Actually, you should ask yourself why Lay Ho slowly became Ni Hao. Cantonese has existed longer than Mandarin and preserves a lot of the phonetics of Classical Chinese. I know you're thinking everything leads back to Mandarin because it's the official language but just because the government made it so doesn't mean Chinese sounded anything like it 2000 years ago. In fact, the dialect closest to Old Chinese is probably Hakka. Mandarin is a relatively young language. Youngest of all.

[crazyhanyu]

Some of the most common everyday words are completely different (e.g.他 /佢 for "he" in Mandarin and Cantonese), but it's certainly a lot easier to learn Cantonese if you already know Mandarin than if you don't.

[klavierc]

@Colliecool

euh, cantonese is at least twice if not three times older than mandarin

[ngahuaiae]

What are you on about. Lay Ho is the Cantonese equivalent of Ni Hao, not a strange version of Ni Hao. Cantonese, like Mandarin, or Wu etc. is one of the dialects of Chinese (they are different enough to be regarded as separate language, but, as they are spoken by one people (the Chinese), they are classified as dialects).

[KHRaccoon]

A more polite way to say excuse me is mm goi tze tze.

[LaMasChevere22]

omg cantonese is like a jillion times harder than mandarin...but still cool!

[tammyyyx]

I AGREE! D;

[DeathDesire0]

;O I don't agree, I think Canto is easier O.o

[jbhkhc]

Mandarin has far less tones.....its easier to pick up just from being in China. Cantonese is insane to learn for a beginner

[Fwagwah]

Isn't it possible to also say "Hou ma?" and just drop the Nei/Lay

[Kaibo8]

You are right.

As a close friend, you can just say "hou ma?"

[rytsoi]

normally people would include the lay

[BAIYUE1]

@Fwagwah

Why don't teach Cantonese language for Cantonese children in school?

[wendia317]

it doesn't matter if it was lay hou ma or nay hou ma, it kinda sound the saame.. but i think mandarin is ni hao ma...

[SilvaOne]

I thought nei hou ma was mandarin!?!?

I thought cantonese was lay ho ma?

[Emely248]

actually..what you wrote...is the sameeee!:P

mandarins is :ni hao ma

peace^^y

[1022292057]

"nei hou ma" is the official cantonese pinying

"lay ho ma" is just a common understanding using english pronouciation to refer to chinese words

moreover, "lay" is a lazy pronounciation, ppl type that either becoz he don't know it's incorrect or purposely typing that to reflect his own lazy prounciation in real-life.

most HKers type "nei ho ma" for mutual understanding

[Acemach]

Here in malaysia everyone says "lay" =P

[Oumashta]

I am cantonese and I live in HK. Only people from mainland china, old people, and people who can't speak it correctly say "Nei ho ma" Here everyone I talk to says "Lay ho ma"

[rytsoi]

older speakers tend to speak a little differently as compared to the younger speakers but generally most words are speak in the same way ..or sound similar

[JAMES19860817]

in mandarin is ni hao ma?(PinYin)....lol

[theglassring]

can you tell me the direct link to that board with sound?

[theglassring]

i can say after i hear it but then i forget how to say it when i didnt hear lol

[SWMTD]

I scare that fewer and fewer people wanna learn Cantonese now

[crazyhanyu]

Yes, Cantonese may become an endangered language. It's still strong in Hong Kong,of course. But across the border in Guangdong, there are lots of ppl who can't speak it.

[kiskiri97]

I'm in Macau for 13 years. Before the cantonese was essencial, and still is pretty much spoken by people here. I prefer cantonese to mandarin. It's a strong languange.

[ethl314]

i onli know zhor tao = good night?

[ltcj511]

@ethl314 jo tou is better pronouciation ;)

[vgjr300]

thank you so much! where did you get this program?

[catherinebaker2007]

dont argue lol hai can mean not just one thing. In chinese, something can mean various things depneding on what context you say it in

[Dr4g0nstyl3]

what

[DrewJ16]

hai = yes

[Dr4g0nstyl3]

in chinese there is no yes if someone askes you "hou m hou a?" and you say "hou" hou means yes many words can mean yes but the actually meaning of hai is still to be

[jhsjsams719]

thats japanese!!

[TorotheTIGER]

wow... not japanese at all

[crazyhanyu]

你講得唔啱. 嗰個係廣東話。英文叫"Cantonese".你明唔明呀﹖

You're wrong. That's Cantonese.

[DrewJ16]

i correct myself, "hai a" = yes

[2DGUNNY]

omg thnk u!

[Dr4g0nstyl3]

hai means to be