RTHK Lesson 4 Hai M’Hai

Transcription of Cantonese words and phrases used in Lesson 4 of RTHK Naked Cantonese (I will mark up the tones later when I have time)

<X> chung man dim gong ah? – How do you say <X> in Chinese?

gong dong wah – Cantonese

Ah Sa – sand

lei ho – how are you

gei ho – quite good (in response to “lei ho?”)

leng loy lei ho – how are you beautiful girl?

suhk loi –pretty (not sure)

hai – is

m’hai – isn’t

Ah Sah ho leng loi ah – Ah Sah is pretty

hai ah – is (ah seems like a softener)

dik si – taxi

tap dik si – take a taxi

chik hoi – go straight

lido chun jo – turn left here

lido chun yau – turn left here

fai di – go faster  (fai = fast, di adds ‘er’)

man di – go slower (man = slow, di adds ‘er’)

o m’seong say – I don’t want to die

m’ho keng din wah m’goi – don’t talk on the phone please (please stop talking on the phone)

gei doh chin ah? – how much is it?

din toi – radio

hai a tsam m’goy – next stop please

li do ah – here (to stop the bus here)

yau lok – I want to get off

chin siu siu yau lok – a little bit more please (and then I will get off)

Lesson 3 Hello and Goodbye

Transcript of Cantonese words and phrases used in lesson 3 of RTHK Naked Cantonese (I will add tonal accents later, as time permits):

leng loy lei ho – beautiful girl how are you

jo san – good morning

chung man dim gong ah – how do you say this in Chinese?

le ho – how are you?

wai,  dim ah? – hey, how’s it going?

wai – hey

wei – hey (another pronunciation of wai)

jo tao – good night (intimate, something like the Japanese oyasumi nasai)

ting yat geen – see you tomorrow

ting yat – tomorrow

geen – see

gei ho – [I’m] fine (a response to “lei ho?”)

<Chinese word> dim gai ah? - <Chinese word> how do you explain <Chinese word>

lei lah? – and you? (a response to “lei ho?”), literally “you, how about”

bai bai – good-bye

mo man tai – no problem

jau a lei – go away

RTHK Lesson 2 – Yao Mo

Transcript of Cantonese words from Lesson 2 of RTHK Naked Cantonese.  Will update the tonal accents later.

jing tong lik – gin and tonic

be tsao – beer

<X> chung man dim gong ah? – how do you say <X> in Chinese?

tsong – spring onion

din si – television (electric sight)

ah sah – sand

ah la – slender and beautiful maiden ( Don’t know if Cecilie was joking here?)

chin - money

lei – you

lei yao mo chin ah? – do you have (any) money?

yao – have

mo – not have

lei yao mo be tsau? – do you have any beer?

tsao la! – be off!

lei yao mo jing tong lik – do you have any gin tonic?

lei yao mo hei lik ah? – do you have any Heineken?

lei yao mo tsing do ah?  - do you have any Tsing Tao?  (a brand of beer)

tsing do gei chin ah – how much is Tsing Tao?

yat pui tsing do gei chin ah?

lei ho – how are you

say sap m man – 45 dollars

pang yao – friend

lei yao mo pang yao – do you have any friends?

lei yao mo din si gei – do you have a television set?

hei soy – lemonade

ho lok – Coca Cola

Two of something is leung, not yee.

leung pui tsing do m’goy – two glasses of Tsing Tao please.

leng tsay – handsome boy

leng loy – pretty girl

Cantonese in the bar

Decided to start blogging again after discovering RTHK Naked Cantonese.  Cecilie and Sarah Passmore make picking up Cantonese rather interesting.  I’ve previously heard of Cecilie through seeing her odd advertisement about learning Cantonese the “natural way – from a Norwegian”

I hope to pick up as much as I can from the Naked Cantonese lessons by writing down the phrases discussed in each of the lessons. I’ll just write them down phonetically at first and clean up the actual tones and spellings in subsequent posts.

Cantonese phrases discussed in Lesson 1:

Ngo msik gong ying man – I don’t know how to speak English

This is Cecilie’s technique for forcing Cantonese speakers to speak to you in Cantonese and not English.

be tsao – beer

yat pui be tsao ah mgoy – one pint of beer please

me ah be tsao? – what kind of beer?

sang lik – San Miguel

sang lik ah m’goy – San Miguel please

ga si ba – Carlsberg

chung man dim gong ah – how do you say that it Chinese?

hei lik – Heineken

gei do chin ah – how much? (lit. how many money)

gei chin ah – how much (more colloquial)

ee sap man – 20 dollars

ho peng ah – so cheap