Cantonese Tone Practice - Fāan: Translate, Tomato, Go Back

[@mrtsiqsin2290]

Welcome back, Sue! Please do more videos when you're free. For some of your questions, I'll do my best to help you. 1. 翻 literally means 'to turn over'. Note that the core meaning is 'over'. e.g. 架車翻轉咗 (the car turned over), 翻開本書 (to turn over a book) So its meaning extends to 'flip over' as in '翻閱' (to flip over a book) and '翻越' (to climb over) It only means 'to fly' in some classic poems, but this meaning is not used any more in modern Chinese. I'm not sure about 'to flutter'. I guess it should be 'to flip' here. 2. 番 means 'foreign', e.g. 番邦 (a foreign nation) You may have heard that 鬼佬 (gwai lo) in Cantonese means 'foreigner'. There is another older saying 番鬼佬, the same as 鬼佬, and 番 indicates the meaning 'foreign'. Even in 番茄 (tomato) and 番薯 (sweet potato), 番 here also means 'foreign', which indicates that 'tomato' and 'sweet potato' are from abroad, not made in China. 番 can also be used as a classifier, which refers to 'times', e.g. 三番五次 (means 'many times'). The meaning of 'remaining' in 番 is unique in Cantonese, which doesn't exist in Mandarin. 3. 返 means 'to go back'. Note that the core meaning is 'back'. e.g. 返屋企 (go home), 返學校 (go to school), 返工 (go to work). More important, 返 is also a common verbal particle in Cantonese, which is related to 'back'. It is used after verbs and has several meanings, e.g. 做返啲功課 (to do the homework that you haven't finished yet), 搵返啲錢 (to get back the money that you have lost), 身體好返好多 (you've recovered or you've got much better, literally 'your body is back to normal').

[@CantoneseCorner]

Hi Mr. Tsiqsin -- this is great stuff!! Thank you so much for taking the time to help me and us all learn more. So interesting how 番 means foreign ... and how it just exists in Cantonese as the "remaining" meaning. And thanks for pointing out the meaning of 返 as a verb particle. I use that all the time and never really "noticed" it, if that makes sense. Just something I've learned how to say along the way but never really connected it to the word faan. So cool!! I really appreciate your taking the time to share all this. 🙏

[@firewoodloki]

To flutter as in 翻飛? 翻騰?

[@tonys717]

@@CantoneseCorner Sue，it is amazing how you can put all of these together without confuse yourself. Cantonese is very difficult because it has a much longer history and it is much more richer in meaning comparing to official Chinese, I mean Mandarin. I like to point out, "番" is a more recent expression of "foreign", and as you might already aware of, it has a negative meaning in this expression. "foreign" in original Chinese should be "蕃”, this has been true up until Qing dynasty. In recent history, 番has been in common use as 蕃，but the true meaning of 番 is savage, uncivilized. This has something to do with the history of Chinese discriminative attitude toward foreigners. This goes back to the Qin dynasty, where we called foreigners "夷“, “番” is an equivalent expression of "夷”, ”蛮”。You probably heard about 生番，so 老番 in Cantonese is a discriminated expression, of course after a while the meaning has became a habit, thus the expression is now less discriminative. I regret for the Chinese naive that we ever call foreigner 老番，and I hope not to confuse you more... I like to point this out so your audiences can be aware of this...

[@carol-lo]

i am Cantonese from Hong Kong. You are right, we have used this word everyday. If you didn't record this video, I didn't realise how frequent we are using it daily !! Keep going on recording these video, you are great!

[@CantoneseCorner]

I love it when things that seem so usual can be so surprising! :) Thanks for the compliment -- I will do my best!

[@sx6078]

Hi Sue, as a mandarin speaker I searched online to find for 翻 meaning as “to fly”. And I find it used in ancient Chinese poem, meaning birds fly: 飞;鸟飞。王维《辋川闲居》：“青菰临水映,白鸟向山翻。”

[@TheBzlai]

Glad to see you back! Welcome back!

[@CantoneseCorner]

Thanks, Starwater! It's good to be back 🤩

[@chungyc1030]

Trying to teach my half Asian daughter to speak Cantonese. Your channel is a great place to start.

[@manchuckmi]

Miss seeing you. Glad you are back.

[@CantoneseCorner]

Thank you so much! It's SO good to be back! :)

[@SSL_SSL]

蘇珊，你好! 你又再次出現啦。 真係好耐冇見! 你最近點呀? 我每次見到你都好開心。 你而家係唔係喺美國? 身為一個鬼婆，你教廣東話真係好勁又有和味。好嘢! 我鍾意聽你講我嘅母语。 對學習語言如音樂一樣嘅熱愛無國界。 如果內心有強烈嘅願望，它將喺呢個世界上任何地方都搵到應有嘅地位。多啲練習，就有多啲信心，多啲進步。你繼續你嘅好工作。我多謝你分享咁豐富嘅資料, 你為自己爭氣。我鼓勵你繼續努力, 加油 !!! 祝你心情靚, 幸福，健康!!!! 全力支持你。 別擔心，要開心！下次見！ 多倫多嘅問候 !!!

[@CantoneseCorner]

Hello!! Yes, it's been such a long time, and I really miss reading your messages! :) I'm back in Hong Kong, finally! and have been out of quarantine a few weeks so ready to get back to sharing what I know of Cantonese and learning along the way ... I have so much to learn and I love how much I can learn just by posting my videos. I hope all is well in Toronto -- I must come visit some day!

[@chloechowfun]

I'm so glad that you're back!!!

[@CantoneseCorner]

Thanks Chloe! I'm glad to be back too. Didn't really realise how much I missed it until now! :)

[@Tinynoodle5]

Yay you're back!!

[@CantoneseCorner]

I'm so happy to be back! Thanks for watching! :)

[@Po101080]

You're finally back! :)

[@CantoneseCorner]

Better late than never! :) lol Thanks for the love -- I'm so glad to be back! 😁

[@arturog6197]

Love these vids. Make me feel nostalgic. Wish I had learnt to speak Cantonese while living in HK.

[@CantoneseCorner]

I know what you mean, but I'm glad you're here learning now! 😁👏😍

[@Obscurai]

Since tomatoes were originally from Central and South America, they are considered foreign to Asia hence the name of "foreign eggplant" 番茄 since both the tomato and eggplant are of the genus Solanum.

[@CantoneseCorner]

Thank you! That is so interesting and makes perfect sense. Had no idea tomatoes and eggplants were that related haha :)

[@felizgaylord]

But ketchup is originated from China(I thought), then wouldn’t it be more interesting of an exchange? Or am I just confusing it with other things

[@sallylauper8222]

@@felizgaylord 茄汁 is pronounced "ke jahp" in Cantonese. The word "ketchup" originates from Chinese, but not from China. If I remeber my research, it's from Indonesia and from the Amoy dialect (whatever that is....). But 茄汁 refers to some kind of vegetable juice condiment, not the condiment made from tomatos that today is called ketchup. In Indonesia they have bottles of "kechap manis" which is a kind of sweet soy sauce. "Kechap" means 茄汁 and "manis" means sweet.

[@sallylauper8222]

It's a fascinating area of study. Tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes and chili peppers all come from Central/ South America. What surprises most people is that Asia has only been eating chilies for 400 years. Also, there's no variety. Red or green, fresh or dried, big or small, they are all cultivars of the same species, Capsicum annuum. You won't find jalapenos, habaneros or Anaheim peppers in South East Asia unless they're imported.

[@sallylauper8222]

@@CantoneseCorner My friend told me that "地瓜是紅蘿蔔的朋友."

[@jameswpike]

翻轉 翻滾 is where 翻 means “to fly and turn”

[@ShallExplore]

I found your videos like a week ago and, I find them very helpful! Thanks a lot, Sue! 🙏

[@CantoneseCorner]

You're very welcome and I'm so glad you found me! :)

[@一個韭菜]

番 reminds me of mahjong - your old mahjong videos

[@CantoneseCorner]

Yes!! I'm kicking myself for not including it :). And I NEED to do my mahjong follow up video! Hoping to get my mother-in-law to join me. :)

[@ccinthecloud5499]

thank you for your sharing！And i think the tone of dahk fan 得返 should be high abrupt tone like “duck” in english.

[@jonsings]

nice to have you back!!

[@CantoneseCorner]

Thank you! :)

[@路人甲-q1k]

翻,番,返 these words have different meaning but sound the same, Such as 翻書, 番薯, 返學,

[@timmys2884]

我自己係講廣東話作為母語, 好開心你繼續做廣東話的介紹 Tomato 係香港、台灣通常會寫成（蕃茄）, 在古代, 中國附近曾經有一個外族叫吐蕃, 但讀（蕃）字時會讀播 番仲有兩種用法, 一種作為量詞, 例如三番四次, 又或者會用在麻雀遊戲, 每局完成時會以（番）字表示遊戲勝利者的牌張折算成數字以方便計算 另一種用法是指好多啲意思, 在周敦頤《愛蓮說》 中, 「水陸草木之花，可愛者甚蕃」 , 值得喜愛的植物有很多 為左方便外國人, 我會用英文寫一次, 但要時間翻譯 I will write some extra usage of 番 in English as I am a native speaker in Cantonese. I feel happy that foreigners are interested in learning Cantonese. But it takes sometime to translate because it is related to idioms and classic Chinese article.

[@mrtsiqsin2290]

香港和台灣是寫「番茄」，「番」字不用加草花頭，寫「蕃」的人是以為「茄」有草花頭，所以連「番」也加上，但其實是多餘的。

[@CantoneseCorner]

Thank you so much! I'm glad you brought up the usage of 番 in mahjong 😅 ... I completely forgot .... I think I need to play more! LOL :)

[@jd4925]

Great to see you given more Cantonese lessons😀

[@emirellis1504]

Enjoying all videos and learning!

[@CantoneseCorner]

That's awesome!! Happy learning! :)

[@anamulhoquehasan6660]

Where is your classe room?

[@tichu7]

When someone says "faan hoeng gong", which definition of "faan" are they using : " return to Hong Kong" , or to "fly to Hong Kong"? As someone who is not from Hong Kong, am I right to clarify to them that I am not from there (even though I have traveled there before)?

[@CantoneseCorner]

Hi! Was going to leave it to a native speaker to reply, but I'll jump in first and say that definitely you're using "return" and not "fly" to Hong Kong when you're using "fāan" because the use of "fāan" (as @MrTsiqsin commented) is an antiquated use. So they're definitely saying "return to Hong Kong". And as for the second question, if I understand you correctly, you're asking whether saying 'returning" to HK means that you are originally from there. But there is none of that meaning, so no need to clarify that you're not from Hong Kong. It just simply means you're returning there. I suppose someone may assume you're from there if you say you're returning there, but that's their assumption -- it's not embedded in the meaning of the word "fāan". But I can totally see how it would seem that way!!

[@tichu7]

@@CantoneseCorner Thanks!

[@davidpan8264]

It's perfectly correct in saying "faan" means "return". The question is: returning to where? The most common situation is you live in Hong Kong and is returning to Hong Kong, the place where you use to live. However, suppose you are an American borne and raised up in Hong Kong, you can still say "faan mei gwok" although you may have never been in the States before. It is common for Chinese Hongkongers saying "faan daai luk" when referring to travelling to Mainland China no matter whether they have been there before.

[@CantoneseCorner]

@@davidpan8264 OOh, yes! Thank you for commenting. I've never heard anything other than "fāan daaih luhk" when talking about going to the Mainland in general. Or else people will be more specific about going to a certain city or place like "heui bāk gīng".

[@tichu7]

@@davidpan8264 I see, so returning to one's place of ancestry works (which makes sense, now that I recall the "faan heong has" phrase.)

[@felix6905]

Hello sue,I saw you accepted an interview with Apple Daily!

[@ac9669]

番茄，番薯，that means they are not native chinese vegetables, they are "foreign" species.Therefore the prefix "番” is added

[@CantoneseCorner]

Thanks!! I never put two-and-two together to realise that may be why they're using the fāan 番. Whole new perspective!

[@Xbox720plus]

你可以读汉子吗？如果可以你是怎么记住那些形状差不多的小方块的？

[@leslieyip1452]

Hi Ms Weather

[@ac9669]

Welcome back

[@CantoneseCorner]

Thanks!! Great to be back! :)

[@andykw2667]

Hello ! Çà fait longtemps!content de vous revoir ici! Ônoï mòw kíne fáane neï Magreî,kám yàte hòï sáme neï fáane leï dou. Merci pour votre vidéo!👍

[@CantoneseCorner]

Hi!! Thanks so much! And I'm glad to know my high school French hasn't completely disappeared LOL :) And I can even read (I think!) your phonetics for the Cantonese ... if I were writing it in Yale, it would be: Hóu noih móuh gin néih, Marguerite. Gām yaht, hóu hōi sām néih fāan dou laih! But if I'm right, then you don't need the first "fáane" (fāan) as it doesn't match the "hóu noih móuh gin". And the last "dou" should be before the "leï" (néih). BUT! My native friend said it would be much more common to say: 好耐冇見 (Hóu noih móuh gin!) 今日好開心你返咗嚟 (Gām yaht, hóu hōi sām néih fāan jó laih!) So the "néih" isn't necessary when saying "Hóu noih móuh gin" and the past tense "jó" is "more" correct and as you can see still before the laih. :) I hope I understood correctly what you wrote and that what I had to share was useful!

[@andykw2667]

@@CantoneseCorner Hi Margherite! Merci beaucoup pour toutes vos précisions,c est tout â fait çà. Et pour continuer sur le "fãne" il semblerait qu il y a une nuance lorsqu on l utilise deux fois d affiler... Exemple: Ngò hàï fàt gôk dôk dgô geï nìne sú là,ngò nàm dzù,tcheút nìne "fãne fãne"Mēï gôk. J ai étudié quelques années en France,déjâ.je pense revenir (habiter) Aux Etats unis l année prochaine. Merci Margherite,au plaisir!! :)

[@sianke1991]

👏 👏

[@CantoneseCorner]

Thank you! :)

[@liuhiu2346]

Support！！