Don't ask the price if you aren't ready for the answer

If you ask someone in English how much something costs, it's unlikely
that they will reply in French.

If you ask a Cantonese person Gei chin ah?, they will certainly reply in Cantonese. Of course, if you cannot understand prices in Cantonese, you'll have to make follow up requests: 'Sorry, can you repeat that in English?' or 'Sorry, I cannot understand Chinese'.

You might get the reply: "then, don't ask in Chinese if you can't understand the answer!", in various degrees of politeness.

So before asking how much something is in Chinese, be prepared to understand the reply.

Hong Kong uses dollar as their monetary currency. The Cantonese word for their dollar is man. Ten dollars is ten man. Man is pronounced with a short 'a' (but not like 'man' or 'fan' in English. It's more like the last a in banana).

The numbers in Cantonese from one to ten are:

1 - Yat
2 - Ee (pronounced as in yee, one syllable)
3 - Sam
4 - Say (as in 'say what?')
5 - M (Don't say 'em'. Say 'm', as in 'mm...this is delicious)
6 - Lohk
7 - Chat
8 - Baht
9 - Gau (Rhymes with cow).
10 - Sap (Zap with an 's')

Ten dollars is sap man. Five dollars is m man and so on.

Our first conversation:

A: Gei chin ah? (how much?)
B: Lohk man. (6 dollars)

Next: 1 dollar is yat man, and three dollars is sam man, but two dollars is not ee man.