Learn useful words and phrases for beginners
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Hi! |
| Welcome to Introduction to Cantonese. |
| My name is Alisha and I'm joined by Jinho |
| Hi everyone! I'm Jinho! |
| In this lesson, we'll focus on teaching you the most useful Cantonese words and phrases for absolute beginners! |
| Make sure you're repeating the words out loud after me! |
| Are you ready? Let's get started! |
| Expressing Thanks and Forgiveness |
| The best phrase to learn when studying a new language is one that expresses gratitude and appreciation. |
| We taught you this phrase in the first lesson of this series. Do you remember what it was? |
| 唔該 (m4 goi1) |
| It means "Thank you." |
| 唔該 (m4 goi1) |
| Keep repeating after Jinho until you get it! |
| 唔該 (m4 goi1) |
| Your turn! |
| 唔該 (m4 goi1) |
| The first character is in a very low tone, 4th tone. It sounds a bit like when someone is thinking about a plan, and they say "hmmm." Notice that there is no vowel in this syllable, so you have to really stress the mmm sound. |
| 唔 (m4), 唔 (m4) |
| And then the second character is in a high flat tone, 1st tone. |
| 該 (goi1), 該 (goi1) |
| Altogether it's... |
| 唔該 (m4 goi1) |
| OK. One last time... |
| 唔該 (m4 goi1) |
| Remember that this "thank you" is used when someone helps you or provides a service. For example, when someone hold the door for you, or when the cashier gives you some change. But when you receive a gift, we use another term for saying "thank you." |
| Right, that would be 多謝 (do1 ze6). It's the "thank you" we use to thank someone for a gift. |
| Jinho, can you repeat that please? |
| 多謝 (do1 ze6) |
| Your turn! |
| 多謝 (do1 ze6) |
| The first character is in high flat tone, 1st tone. It means "many." |
| 多 (do1) |
| And the second character is a low flat tone, 6th tone. It means "thanks." |
| 謝 (ze6) |
| Altogether it's... |
| 多謝 (do1 ze6) |
| OK. One last time... |
| 多謝 (do1 ze6) |
| The next phrase we'll teach you is perhaps the second most useful phrase of all. It's to apologize or to excuse yourself. |
| You're gonna love it, because it's the same as the first "thank you" we learned! |
| 唔該 (m4 goi1). Surprise! It also means "excuse me." |
| You can use this phrase when you want to grab a waiter's attention, or when you're hustling through the busy streets of Hong Kong! |
| It's a very useful word! So make sure you memorize it! |
| 唔該 (m4 goi1) |
| Your turn! |
| 唔該 (m4 goi1) |
| Imagine you're on the street, and you want to stop someone to ask them for directions. What do you say? |
| 唔該 (m4 goi1) |
| OK. One last time... |
| 唔該 (m4 goi1) |
| Now you can say the two "thank you's" and "excuse me" in Cantonese. Let's move on. |
| Where is...? |
| Asking where something is is an incredibly important and useful phrase to learn. You're going to need this when asking where the bathroom, metro station, or hotel is. |
| To ask where something is, put the name of the place or location first, and then add... |
| ___喺邊？(___ hai2 bin1?) |
| For example, if you want to ask "Where is the toilet?" |
| 廁所喺邊？(ci3 so2 hai2 bin1?) |
| Let's break this sentence down. First is the object 廁所 (ci3 so2), meaning "toilet." Then comes the verb 喺 (hai2), meaning "is." And finally, we have the question word 邊 (bin1), meaning "where." |
| For the metro station, it'll be... |
| 地鐵站喺邊？(dei6 tit3 zaam6 hai2 bin1?) |
| You can ask where something is by simply adding... |
| ___喺邊？(___ hai2 bin1?) |
| OK. Now let's teach you some vocabulary so that you can use it in the sentence. |
| Here are some of the most common words you'll need: |
| 廁所 (ci3 so2) |
| bathroom |
| 廁所 (ci3 so2) |
| 廁所喺邊？(ci3 so2 hai2 bin1?) |
| Next... |
| 地鐵站 (dei6 tit3 zaam6) |
| metro station |
| 地鐵 (dei6 tit3) means "metro" or "subway." And 站 (zaam6) means "station." |
| Altogether |
| 地鐵站 (dei6 tit3 zaam6). |
| 地鐵站喺邊？(dei6 tit3 zaam6 hai2 bin1?) "Where is the metro station?" |
| If you ask someone this question, they'll direct you to the closest metro station. |
| If you'd like to ask where a specific train station is, for example, Hong Kong station... |
| 香港站 (hoeng1 gong2 zaam6) |
| 香港站喺邊？(hoeng1 gong2 zaam6 hai2 bin1?) |
| And that's where you can take the Airport Express! |
| And the next word is... |
| 酒店 (zau2 dim3) |
| hotel |
| 酒店 (zau2 dim3) |
| 酒店喺邊？ (zau2 dim3 hai2 bin1?) |
| For a specific hotel, just place the name before "hotel." |
| 酒店 (zau2 dim3) |
| 四季酒店 (sei3 gwai3 zau2 dim3) "Four Seasons Hotel." |
| 四季酒店喺邊？ (sei3 gwai3 zau2 dim3 hai2 bin1?) "Where is the Four Seasons Hotel?" |
| You can substitute almost anything and simply add... |
| ___喺邊？(___ hai2 bin1?) |
| ...to ask where something is in Cantonese. |
| In this final lesson, you learned how to say "thank you", "excuse me", "I'm sorry", and to ask where something is in Cantonese. |
| And in this series, we introduced you to the basics of Cantonese pronunciation, grammar, writing, and more. |
| Let's conclude with some parting advice from Jinho, and listen to some of his tips on how to learn Cantonese from a native Cantonese perspective. |
| Parting Advice - Insider Knowledge |
| The best way to learn Cantonese, particularly if you want to improve your communication skills, is to watch and study contemporary Cantonese videos. That's because we often use expressions in daily conversation that aren't necessarily introduced in grammar textbooks. |
| Watching contemporary videos, such as our videos here at CantoneseClass101.com, will ensure that you're learning real, applicable Cantonese in the fastest and most effective way. |
| Also, being familiar with the Jyutping system is super helpful, especially before you can recognize the Chinese characters. Make use of our Jyutping Chart, where you can listen to audio of each Cantonese sound. |
| Yes, it's one of our learners' favorite tools! You can find it under Cantonese Resources, in the "Cantonese Alphabet" section. |
| You've reached the end of this course 'Introduction to Cantonese,' but it's only the beginning of your journey to Cantonese fluency! Where do you go from here? Try our Absolute Beginner Cantonese for Every Day series where we teach you beginner vocab and even more useful phrases! Or check out any of our other video series. We have many different categories for you to choose from. |
| Good luck as you continue learning Cantonese, and we'll see you in another video! |
| Bye! |
| Bye-bye! |
Comments
Hide