Family, friends, house

fàan ūk kéi -  ‘go home’ (fàan means ‘to return to’, ūk kéi means ‘home) 

màh mā – ‘mother’

tái yī sāng – ‘see the doctor’ (yī sāng is ‘doctor’)

tùhng – ‘with’ (apparently, this a short form of tùhng màaih)

yāt chàih -  ‘together’

jyuh – ‘to live, dwell’

bàh bā – ‘father’

hàng dai – ‘brothers’

jí muih – ‘sisters’ (rhymes with…I can’t think of any English word… it rhymes with ‘mooy’)

yat chaih – ‘together’

gám, gám yéung – ‘and then’, or ‘so’, or ‘therefore’

gàan – classifier for houses and rooms 

ūk – ‘house’  (rhymes with ‘book’ not with ‘suck’)

yāt dihng – ‘certainly’

daaih – ‘big’

lah, lak – statement particle. It terminates a lot of statements.  I think it’s meant as a softener, so statements don’t sound so direct.  I cannot recall any instance where I’ve heard anyone say lak. Everyone I know says lah.

dou gei – ‘quite’, ‘rather’  (dou gei daaih means ‘quite big’)

deui mh jyuh – ‘sorry’ (used for apologising)

jau – ‘to run away’, ‘leave’ (jau lah… ‘leave already’)

joi gin – ‘goodbye’

The really new words for me today are: hàng dai ,jí muih, gàan, yāt dihng, dou gei

(Bookmark, p27 of Baker & Ho)

Some classifiers, this and that, and you reckon?

Today’s new words

go – a classifier for people and other stuff.  Wristwatches use go

sáu bīu – wristwatch

jì – classifier for stick-like things, such as pens and pencils

tùhng màaih – and; also.  I already know this but didn’t know how to write it down.

ga? – contraction of ge a? where ge is the possessive.

gú – guess, reckon.  Léih gú haih bīn go ga? (who do you think this belongs to? lit. You think is who own?)

chìh dī – later on. Ngoh chìh dī mahn kéuih (I’ll ask him later).

nī – this

gó – that

According to Baker & Ho, to say “this person” or “that thing”, you need to indicate the appropriate classifier between this and the object.  Example: “this go person” or “that jì thing”

bīn – which?  This is why to ask who? in Cantonese is bin go?  Which classifer-for-person and bin douh for where? (lit which road?).

If the subject is obvious, you can simply by discarding the noun (not the classifier). This has some similarity to English:

A: Leih yiu bin jì bat a?  (Which pen do you need?)

B: Ngoh yiu gó jì  (I need that one)

To look for; to lead to

wán - to look for.  Example: néih wán bīn go a? (who are you looking for? lit. you look for who?)

sih - matter, business, affair. Example: yáuh māt yéh sih a? (for what purpose? lit. have what thing purpose?)

daai – to lead.  Example: ngóh daai léih heui X (I’ll lead you to place X; lit. I lead you go to X)

mī yeh?  - another way of pronouncing māt yéh?

ge – shows possesive.  Example ngóh ge chē (my car).  But it can be left out in cases of ‘close personal relationship’ (according to the book I’m reading), and only if the relationship term has more than 2 syllables.  Example ngóh ge taai táai (my wife), can be said as ngóh taai táai.

mh gòi – thank you; excuse me.  This is the first Cantonese word I learned.  However, I never learned what the words actually meant. According to Baker & Ho, it means ‘ought not’

(Bookmark: page 16 of Baker & Ho)

Countries and other new words

Nouns do not change when they become plural.  Unbelievable.  First, verbs don’t change, now nouns.  That simplifies a lot of things.  A person is yàhn, and two people is also yàhn.

 Nàahm-fèi (South Africa)

Dāk-gwok (Germany)

Gà-nàh-daaih (Canada)

Sàn-sài-làahn (New Zealand)

Chàhn sīn-sàang mh leng (Mr Chan is not good looking).  Although I knew that you could say Chàhn sīn-sàang hóu leng (Mr Chan is handsome), I haven’t really used mh leng before (I think I would be saying mh hóu leng).

maaih (to sell).  I know this, but I keep forgetting the tonal difference between it and máaih (to buy)

(Bookmark: End of Chapter 1 of Baker & Ho)

Ten New Words a Day?

I keep trying to learn Cantonese but life and laziness always intervene.  This time I will try a new method:  I will learn 10 new words or phrases each day and post it here.  I have a lot of down time every working day as I travel to and from work.  Each direction takes about 50 minutes.  I should perhaps try to use the trip going home for learning Canto.

I am using the book: Complete Cantonese by Hugh Baker and Ho Pui-Kei.  I can immediately see that this book is not like many boring foreign language books – their examples and explanations are lively.

Jèung Taai-táai hóu ma?  (Is Mrs Cheung OK?)  I know the meaning of each of these words separately, but I didn’t know this is how you can ask how a third party is.  

Hóu hóu  (very good)  Because hóu can mean good, or very.

Nē? is a shortcut you can use to avoid being repetitive.  (Actually I know this already, but I’ve always seen it used as part of the phrase Néih nē? (how about yourself?)  You can replace néih with someone’s name, or a pronoun such as Bruce nē? (how about Bruce?) or kéuih ne?  (how about him / her?)

Not quite ten words, but I’ve run out of time.  (Marker: stopped at section 1.8 of Baker & Ho)