Let's Talk Cantonese - Why? Because!

[@jondehthoraf]

finally an organised teacher.

[@CantoneseCorner]

Thank you! 💖

[@AsakuraClan]

your singing of the crazy rich asians song was really good!

[@cacritic28]

Hello Sue, I just found and subscribed to your channel a few days ago. I played this video for my Hong Kong born and raised husband to listen to without telling him you were not Chinese. Afterwards when I revealed this secret, he complimented you for not having an accent which meant you had perfect Cantonese pronunciation! You speak better Cantonese than I do as an American born Chinese who lives in Southern California ! But i have admit I speak perfect English with no Chinese accent! 😂

[@CantoneseCorner]

Oh my gosh!!!! That is so ...wow! I wish I had been there to see his reaction :D and thanks so much for the compliment and for sharing the story!! I think it's so cool how our accents or languages we speak all tell a story in themselves ... and I gotta say that's one part (of the whole thing haha) that I loved about CRA - the different languages and accents (I could listen to Astrid/Gemma Chan recite the alphabet over and over ... her accent is so lovely -- and in FRENCH, too! :) Thanks so much again and have a good weekend!!

[@sunilv1807]

Your videos are so graceful!! 🤩😍 Happy to learn Cantonese! Haha! Thank you so much!

[@CantoneseCorner]

Hi there! You're welcome! I'm so glad you think so. Happy learning! :)

[@margsmaxion]

What is good afternoon and goodnight in Cantonese thank you so much

[@Ray888z]

I just subscribed. Your Cantonese is excellent. There's no foreign accent at all - just pure Cantonese

[@CantoneseCorner]

Thank you!! 💖

[@Ray888z]

Wow, my comment was 4 years ago

[@shrimboy7492]

Thank you Sue! Great lesson.

[@CantoneseCorner]

You're welcome! :)

[@carlosjoshualibarnes4590]

Mgoi saiii Ms Sue. Stay safe in HK. ~

[@CantoneseCorner]

Thanks, Carlos! We have been really lucky ... our flat was pretty well protected from the winds today, but friends of ours have been having a tough time with water coming in through windows and air conditioning units ... one friend's building was swaying out in Ma On Shan!!! But all are safe, so that's the main thing. Pictures on the news are pretty horrific ... praying for everyone!

[@keizi1116]

i hope i learn from u ty very much for free lessons.... i do my best learn cantoneae everyday bcuz in hk if cant speak cantonese just be left.ignored lonely and not part of their circle of friends i dream bexome.chinese friends 2

[@gwulfwud]

Hi sue, thanks again for this great lesson! I'm having a little bit of trouble trying to get the tones correct, since I'm used to the jyutping system. So I finally had those numbers on the right tone a few weeks ago, but it's a little tough trying to switch between the two. Can you give me some suggestions on how to approach that issue. Can't really figure out which ones are high, mid, low, high rising and low rising with the current way of spelling. Again, thank you so m uch for the time and effort you've given to make these videos.

[@CantoneseCorner]

You're welcome! I know what you mean, since I have exactly the same but opposite problem when seeing something written in the jyutping (numbers) and then have to figure out what the Yale system would be. In a nutshell, the silent "h" is used to denote all of the low tones. So if you see an "h", it's low. Then the accent marks are what you'd imagine -- if it goes up, it's a rising tone; down for falling. A straight line over a vowel denotes the high tone -- and of course there would be no "h" since it would be high. Ditto for the high rising -- no "h" but rising accent mark. Mid tones are no "h" and no accent marks! I also have a video about the Yale System ... kzbin.info/www/bejne/mqHSl3mVbrOYebM I hope that helps! As always ... happy learning! :)

[@tszwahyeung1410]

要(want, need): 我要你的（嘅）愛/我要畀錢/我要三號餐 叫(to tell, to ask): 叫佢嚟/叫佢畀錢/叫乜嘢食/你叫乜嘢名 Why did you [tell] me to get up? 點解你[叫]我起身？ Because you [need] to go to school/to go to work! 因爲你[要]返學/返工！ Why do you [want] me to go to sleep? 點解你[要]我瞓覺？ Because I can see you are really tired. 因爲我見到你好眼瞓。

[@CantoneseCorner]

This is awesome! Thanks for taking the time to do this. Much appreciated!

[@-wil2013]

大家好. "點解你[要]我瞓覺？", 係"want"或者"force".

[@mrtsiqsin2290]

Thanks Sue for your detailed explanation! By the way, I find your character of 解 a bit strange. Actually the right lower part is 牛 (cow). You can see the right upper part is 刀 (knife). The right part of 解 is made up of 'cow' and 'knife' because the original meaning of this character has something to do with 'split', 'divide', etc. For example, '解剖' means 'dissect' or 'anatomy'.

[@CantoneseCorner]

Haha ... yes, it is a bit strange because I didn't write it very well! Thanks for correcting and explaining it and for your detailed explanation -- the story behind the characters is always so fascinating.

[@voxtar2001]

had no idea yan waih means “because” but now I know. I’ve always used “because” in English or will use dim gaai in it’s replacement...my parents always understood what message I trying to get across

[@CantoneseCorner]

I'm so glad I could help! :)

[@sannywong9718]

Hi Sue, I just happened upon your channel and I’m thrilled to try and re-learn my Chinese. I am an ABC and my parents were from Guangzhou. I grew up speaking Chinese but sadly have forgotten most of it since we just wanted to speak English when we were growing up. My dad spoke Toisan dialect and my mom spoke both Toisan and Cantonese dialect. I seem to understand many of the Cantonese words you have written so I wonder if the two dialects are similar. When I do speak Chinese, I don’t know if I’m using Cantonese or Toisan words.

[@CantoneseCorner]

Hi Sanny -- that's so interesting! I wasn't even aware of the Toisan dialect and so just looked it up and thought it was interesting to read that on one site, it said the two couldn't understand each other, but another said that Toisan speakers could understand Cantonese, but not the other way around. I'm so happy to hear you're re-learning your Chinese ... since starting this channel, I've become even more interested in the language for its own sake (instead of just using it to communicate) and now I wish I had been this interested in it from the start since its evolution and history is so interesting!

[@sannywong9718]

I’m so glad you are doing these videos and thank you again. You speak Cantonese perfectly with no accent and you sound like a native born. Unlike me with my American accent!

[@CantoneseCorner]

Sanny Wong thanks! It sure helps to live in Hong Kong for the accent ☺️ and my daughter says the same thing ... she has been studying in the USA for a few years now and thinks her accent has changed - and she is so not happy about it! 😅

[@ki5168]

I was under the impression ‘yiu’ 要 means want and 需要 was need. Though, I’m just beginning Cantonese.

[@emilychee7131]

Hey Sue, I love your videos. How do you say disgusting in Cantonese?

[@CantoneseCorner]

Thanks so much! :) Disgusting ... a very useful word, and hope what you need it for isn't too gross!! In Yale, it is written as "waht daht" both low tones. It's most commonly seen (in HK anyway) as 核突. I also found it on cantonese sheik (great resource, but I wish they used Yale system to write it in English) www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/1310/ I hope that helps! :)

[@littlesulteros5225]

Wow!! So wow with this new video u made Ms Sue this is one of the topic I requested from u in one of ur video I commented on😊😊 I really like and learn alot in ur teaching because u explain very understandable 😊 And the best of all ur voice is beautiful as u are😊 lei hou leng a!!😊😊😘

[@CantoneseCorner]

Hi Verginia!! It is! :) I'm so glad you like and find my videos useful and gosh, thanks for such a nice compliment (two actually!) I remember I had "hearted" your comment before, intending to go back to it, and now KZbin says a whole month has gone by! Where does the time go? I'm so sorry it's taken me so long!

[@holiveiralee]

Thank you so much, Sue! Your videos has been very useful to me. I am remembering the cantonese that I spoke with my grandma! I have one question: how you see the difference between ngaan fan and kuy? Thank you so much again! I hope you were safe during the typhoon !

[@CantoneseCorner]

Hi Henrique! I'm so so sorry I'm just replying to your message now. Thanks for the well-wishes - we were safe and it seems so long ago now, even though there are still lots of branches at the sides of roads. I'm so glad my videos are helpful and that it's bringing back memories of your grandma! To answer your question, I see it the same as in English, I guess -- ngáahn fan is sleepy and definitely means you want to sleep, while guih is more like tired and can be used to mean either you're sleepy or just like "my legs are tired" after say walking a long way or "my hand is tired" after writing a lot. Or your whole body is tired after a workout or something like that. I hope that makes sense and helps! :)

[@JM-zw8cq]

If you haven’t done it on another video already would be good for you to do a break down of your initial greeting because u say so quickly and fluently so would be good to slow it down and break it down in an episode if you are still making these.

[@kinghreenleung2933]

Your channel deserves to have many more subscribers.And l am happy that so many Cantonese native speakers praise your command of Cantonese,but it also implies a thing that makes me sad,that is native speakers taking a large proportion of the views.l wish you gaining more subscribers who are really eager to learn Cantonese.

[@CantoneseCorner]

I understand totally what you mean, and do wish that I can help more who need/want to learn ... but I also appreciate having native speakers watch and comment to help us all learn more! Thanks so much for the support ... I'll keep making videos to help to keep Cantonese alive!! :)

[@alitaryasa2211]

i arrived at macau on 14 sept 2018 😂😂😂

[@lexaaxel916]

Thank you, Sue! Stay safe with the typhoon! Siu sam! :)

[@CantoneseCorner]

多謝! 有心! (dò jeh! yáuh sàm!) Thanks so much! It's so nice of you to think of me! It's almost 10pm here and it's quieted down a lot ... we're lucky that nothing happened to our flat or building ... but we live pretty close to where the hotel had most of their blue-glass windows blown out -- have you seen that video? It's crazy!! Hope wherever you are the weather is better!

[@lexaaxel916]

Haha we don't have horrid weather like that very often here (in Sydney, Au) - but if you get another typhoon, please tell it to rain on our farms - we need rain so bad! Haha. Glad all was safe! :)

[@alexkhawajawaheed1270]

Thank you for this great video! It's nice tying in things I have previously learned and seeing them come together in this lesson :) I do have a question as well: My language partner said there is another way to say "to ask" --> mahn as in "ngoh soeng mahn leih..." Do you happen to know what the difference is between these to ways of saying "to ask" --> giu vs mahn? Are they relatively interchangeable or are there subtle differences that make one more appropriate in certain situations than the other? Thank you for your time and help!! (=^ _ ^=)

[@geoffstandee]

Where did you learn Cantonese? Can you also speak Mandarin?

[@CantoneseCorner]

Hi there and sorry for my late reply! I learned Cantonese first by listening to friends speak it non-stop at university (a long time ago) then I came to Hong Kong and took lessons for a few months, then just kept going on my own. Helped/helps to have a in-laws that don't speak English :) I can't speak but a few words of Mandarin and that's a real shame but until I need to speak it, I probably never will!

[@geoffstandee]

@@CantoneseCorner Thanks! You speak it so fluently it surprised me!

[@EppingForest304]

👍

[@fabianchan7]

Thanks. So the 'dik' in Cantonese is the same as Mandarin 'de' as in 'wo de'.

[@CantoneseCorner]

Yes, as far as I know, it is! But no one would say "dīk" when speaking Cantonese, unless I guess they wanted to (just because they can). It is so oddly amazing that Cantonese speakers learn to write characters they basically never speak ... and learn to pronounce those written characters in Cantonese even though they will never say them in every day conversation. Then to learn them again in Mandarin and have to say them a completely different way!

[@fabianchan7]

I think its a matter of application. Its just like any other language that the formal writing ways are different than how it is spoken informally; just like how you emphasized on your video of calling fast food ie you just say number of the set meals instead of talking long sentences.

[@Yopee]

@@fabianchan7 only news anchors or important company/government bigwigs blabbering on a podium will say dik in cantonese. Normal people who say dik in normal daily conversation sound weird. Same for ta (him/her/it), and, in many cases, si (is/event) and but (no/not). Saying dik/ta and sometimes si/but basically gives away that the speaker is nowhere near fluent in cantonese and isn't familiar with spoken cantonese versus written chinese.

[@hh155]

Is the word "neih" pronounced with a N or L?

[@CantoneseCorner]

It is more traditionally and correctly pronounced with the "N" sound, but you will more often hear it pronounced as "léih" with an "L" sound. Not sure why this has happened except that it is easier to say a soft "L" sound (without totally curling your tongue) than to pronounce the "N" sound with your tongue more forcefully hitting the roof of your mouth. Try saying both ... the "léih" without curling your tongue like we would saying English words ... and then "néih" pressing your tongue against the front of your palate ... you should find that it takes more work to make the "N" sound! Hope that helps and happy learning! :)

[@Ray888z]

It's a slang distortion of "nay" (you).

[@stevey7059]

You should self recommend yourself to TVB when they need characters that suits you, we need some girls otherthan Gregory Ho Kwok Wing and Brian Bo.

[@dreamer1036]

Love this video! I'll follow you. @realkristiankay