Instant! Cantonese
Speak Cantonese in seconds!
by
Nick Theobald and Bill Loh
Copyright 2011 Bill Loh and Nick Theobald,
All rights reserved.
Instant! Cantonese - your trusted traveling companion for Hong Kong, Southern China, Macau, and Chinatowns everywhere.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0231-4
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. So watch it, we’ll be on to you in an Instant!
Another Writer & Writer book
Speak Cantonese in seconds
This little book is your passport to speaking Cantonese.
You’ll discover that our phrase eBook occasionally goes where others fear to tread. Instant! Cantonese contains hundreds of practical, street-wise and down to earth phrases and words.
Everything from “No msg with my meal please” to “Hi honey, I’m home.” And “Follow that cab!” to “What a bunch of wankers.”
Unlike some other phrase books, Instant! Cantonese uses phonetics. We keep it simple.
Cantonese is a tonal language and tones are virtually impossible to explain in print. However, most Chinese people understand that foreigners are tone deaf. In our experience, if you seem to be at least making an effort to speak Cantonese, you gain Instant! respect.
Thanks for buying our book: we need to put conflict-free diamonds on our imaginary girlfriends’ fingers.
“For my sisters Helen and Myra, and my brother Paul” - Nick Theobald
Also dedicated to Mr and Mrs T. S. Loh.
May their perpetual light shine.
How our Instant! phonetics work.
With Instant! Cantonese, what you see is what you say.
Read the following care-full-lee
English: How are you?
Cantonese: Nay ho ma?
Nay - same sound as hay
ho - what Santa says
ma - mother
English: How much?
Cantonese: Gay door cheen?
Gay - the opposite of straight
door - that’s right, door
cheen - same sound as keen
English: Tuesday
Cantonese: Sing-kay yee
Sing - as in Sing Sing prison
kay - same sound as nay
yee - sounds like three
English: Follow that cab.
Cantonese: Gun gore gar dixie.
Gun - as in Colt .45
gore - what bulls do
gar - same sound as far
dixie - as in the Dixie Chicks
English: I have a headache.
Cantonese: Or tow tung.
Or - as you’d expect “or”
tow - as in towel
tung - sounds like toong
English: I have no electricity.
Cantonese: Or ook kay mo deen.
Or - or again
ook - same sound as look
kay - as in OK
mo - like no
deen - like keen
English: My name is Bill.
Cantonese: Or gore mang high-ee Bill.
Or - or again
gore - what bulls do
mang - like hang
high-ee - high + ee run together
Bill - er, Bill
* Or and Ngor. 1st person singular.
Or is fine, but if you listen carefully to Cantonese speakers, you’ll hear them correctly say or as ngor. It’s really hard to describe. You’ll get by with or. Then you can master ngor.
Hyphenated words
When you see hyphenated words, don’t pan-ick. Words like mm-goy and high-ee are two sounds: mm and goy and high and ee, but are run together.
Bracketed characters
Yar(t) - The t is silent. It’s there, but you don’t make a big deal of it.
The First Phrase to Learn
I don’t speak Cantonese.
Or mm-sick gong gwong doong-wah.
Shopping
How much please?
Gay door cheen mm-goy?
Sounds a little expensive.
Waaaah! (Waaaah! is the great Cantonese exclamation. A loose English equivalent is Wow, or Holy shit!)
Can you make it cheaper?
Pang dee duck-mm-duck?
I’m not a tourist.
Or mm-high yow hark.
Have you got a small?
Nay yow mo sigh ma?
Have you got a medium?
Nay yow mo joong ma?
Have you got a large?
Nay yow mo die ma?
OK, I’ll think about it.
Or lum ha seen.
Have you got any other colours?
Nay yow mo kay tar sick?
Will it work overseas?
Hay-ee ngoy gwok yong duck-mm-duck?
Can you deliver?
Yow mo soong four?
When?
Gay see?
What day?
Been yart?
What time?
Gay deem joong?
Can you deliver this week?
Gum gore lay by soong for duck-mm-duck?
Can you deliver next week?
Ha gore lay by soong for duck-mm-duck?
Can you deliver this weekend?
Gum gore tzow moot soong for duck-mm-duck?
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