Learn some different ways to say "and"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hello and welcome to the Lower Beginner series at CantoneseClass101.com. This is Season 1, Lesson 16, How to Get Rich Quick in Hong Kong, Part 2. I'm Eric. |
| Teddy: 哈囉！ (haa1 lo3!) And I'm Teddy. |
| Eric: In this lesson, we’re continuing the dialogue from Lesson 15. If you remember, we were choosing numbers for lottery tickets. |
| Teddy: This dialogue takes place at a Jockey Club betting branch in Hong Kong... |
| Eric: ...and it’s between two friends, Jane and Wendy. |
| Teddy: They are using casual Cantonese. |
| Eric: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jane: 我揀四號。(ngo5 gaan2 sei3 hou6). |
| Wendy: 唔好！死死聲咁難聽！(m4 hou2! sei2 sei2 seng1 gam3 naan4 teng1!) |
| Jane: 咁三號啦。(gam2 saam1 hou6 laa1). |
| Wendy: 好呀，十三同廿三都好。(hou2 aa3, sap6 saam1 tung4 jaa6 saam1 dou1 hou2). |
| Eric: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Jane: 我揀四號。(ngo5 gaan2 sei3 hou6). |
| Wendy: 唔好！死死聲咁難聽！(m4 hou2! sei2 sei2 seng1 gam3 naan4 teng1!) |
| Jane: 咁三號啦。(gam2 saam1 hou6 laa1). |
| Wendy: 好呀，十三同廿三都好。(hou2 aa3, sap6 saam1 tung4 jaa6 saam1 dou1 hou2). |
| Eric: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Jane: 我揀四號。(ngo5 gaan2 sei3 hou6). |
| Eric: I'll pick number four. |
| Wendy 唔好！死死聲咁難聽！(m4 hou2! sei2 sei2 seng1 gam3 naan4 teng1!) |
| Eric: Don't! It sounds like "death!" |
| Jane: 咁三號啦。(gam2 saam1 hou6 laa1). |
| Eric: Then, I'll pick number three. |
| Wendy: 好呀，十三同廿三都好。(hou2 aa3, sap6 saam1 tung4 jaa6 saam1 dou1 hou2). |
| Eric: Okay, thirteen and twenty-three are also good. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Well, I probably wouldn't pick number thirteen. |
| Teddy: Oh that’s right, thirteen is an unlucky number in Western cultures. |
| Eric: What about Hong Kong? Is there any unlucky number? |
| Teddy: We consider the number “four” as the unlucky one. |
| Eric: Ah.. I know why. It’s because the pronunciation of the number “four” is same as that of the word for “death” right? |
| Teddy: That’s right. In Cantonese, the number four is 四 (sei3) and it sounds like the word 死 (sei2) which means “death.” |
| Eric: That’s why you cannot find the 4th floor at a hospital in Hong Kong. |
| Teddy: But you know, we also have a lucky number too. |
| Eric: I know, what it is. It’s number 8, right? |
| Teddy: That’s right. Not only in Hong Kong, but also in the mainland China, we consider the number 8 or in Cantonese 八 (baat3) as a lucky number. It’s because it sounds like the other word 發 (faat3) meaning “wealth.” |
| Eric: I see. That’s good to know. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| 揀 (gaan2) [natural native speed] |
| to choose |
| 揀 (gaan2) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 揀 (gaan2) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| 四 (sei3) [natural native speed] |
| four (4) |
| 四 (sei3) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 四 (sei3) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| 號碼 (hou6 maa5) [natural native speed] |
| number |
| 號碼 (hou6 maa5) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 號碼 (hou6 maa5) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| 死 (sei2) [natural native speed] |
| to die |
| 死 (sei2) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 死 (sei2) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| 聲 (seng1) [natural native speed] |
| sound, voice, volume |
| 聲 (seng1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 聲 (seng1) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| 難聽 (naan4 teng1) [natural native speed] |
| to sound awful |
| 難聽 (naan4 teng1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 難聽 (naan4 teng1) [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| 三 (saam1) [natural native speed] |
| three (3) |
| 三 (saam1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 三 (saam1) [natural native speed] |
| And Last: |
| 廿 (jaa6) [natural native speed] |
| twenty |
| 廿 (jaa6) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| 廿 (jaa6) [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What are we starting with? |
| Teddy: 廿 (jaa6) |
| Eric: What can you tell us about this? |
| Teddy: 廿 (jaa6) is the colloquial way to say 二十 (ji6 sap6), or "twenty." Can you hear the difference between 二十 (ji6 sap6) and 廿? (jaa6?) |
| Eric: I can! But how are they used differently? |
| Teddy: When we're talking about the number twenty, we usually use 二十 (ji6 sap6). But when there's a classifier following the number, we can use both. For instance, 二十個 (ji6 sap6 go3) and 廿個 (jaa6 go3) are the same. Also, for numbers starting with twenty, such as twenty-one, we can say 二十一 (ji6 sap6 jat1), or 廿一 (jaa6 jat1). |
| Eric: So for twenty-one to twenty-nine, we can apply that rule, right? |
| Teddy: Yes. 廿一, 廿二﹐廿三﹐廿四﹐廿五﹐廿六﹐廿七﹐廿八﹐廿九 (jaa6 jat1, jaa6 ji6, jaa6 saam1, jaa6 sei3, jaa6 ng5, jaa6 luk6, jaa6 cat1, jaa6 baat3, jaa6 gau2) |
| Eric: Do you do that for other numbers? |
| Teddy: Yes, for example, two hundred thousand is 二十萬 (ji6 sap6 maan6), and as we learned just now, we can say 廿萬 (jaa6 maan6). |
| Eric: Okay, that's easy. So, what’s the other phrase we want to talk about? |
| Teddy: It's the expression 死死聲咁難聽 (sei2 sei2 seng1 gam3 naan4 ting3). |
| Eric: What does that mean? |
| Teddy: Let's break it down. 死死聲 (sei2 sei2 seng1) is "the sound of death." 咁 (gam3) means "such," and 難聽 (naan4 teng1) is "awful to listen to." Wendy said that because Jane mentioned the number four, which sounds like "death." |
| Eric: So Wendy thinks "number four" sounds awful? |
| Teddy: Right. Let's look closely at the last two characters – 難 (naan4) is "difficult," and 聽 (teng1) is "to listen." Together, 難聽 (naan4 teng1) literally means "difficult to listen," implying "to sound bad" or "to sound awful." |
| Eric: Can you repeat that phrase again please? |
| Teddy: 死死聲咁難聽 (sei2 sei2 seng1 gam3 naan4 ting3). [pause] |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn the different words for the conjunction "and." |
| Teddy: Right, in the dialogue, Wendy said 十三同廿三 (sap6 saam1 tung4 jaa6 saam1), "numbers thirteen and twenty-three." |
| Eric: So which word means "and"? |
| Teddy: 同 (tung4) means "and." For example, for "Wendy and Jane," we’ll say "Wendy 同 (tung4) Jane." |
| Eric: Can you give some more examples? |
| Teddy: Sure. 我同你 (ngo5 tung4 nei5). |
| Eric: "Me and you." |
| Teddy: 貓同狗 (maau1 tung4 gau2) |
| Eric: "Cats and dogs." Okay, so are there a lot of other words that also mean "and?" |
| Teddy: Not too many. In the spoken form, we usually just use 同 (tung4) or 同埋 (tung4 maai4), and in some cases, we’ll use 又 (jau6) or 而 (ji4). However, in the written form we never use 同 (tung4) and 同埋 (tung4 maai4). The most common ones are 和 (wo4), 及 (kap6) and 與 (jyu5). |
| Eric: Although we're learning spoken Cantonese here, it's nice to know the difference in the written form. |
| Teddy: In Mandarin Chinese, speaking and writing are generally the same. They write what they speak. But Cantonese has slightly different in spoken and written forms. |
| Eric: Do you mean the word "and" will be the same in written and spoken Mandarin? |
| Teddy: Yes, but at this point, let's just focus on the colloquial form of Cantonese. |
| Eric: Right, listeners, you can find more details in the lesson notes. Now, Teddy, can you repeat the words equivalent to "and?" |
| Teddy: Ok, 同 (tung4). [pause] 同埋 (tung4 maai4). [pause] |
| Eric: They are basically the same, they both mean "and." |
| Teddy: Right. For example, "Wendy 同 (tung4) Jane" is the same as "Wendy同埋 (tung4 maai4) Jane." "我同埋你" (ngo5 tung4 maai4 nei5) is the same as "我同你." (ngo5 tung4 nei5). |
| Eric: Got it! |
Outro |
| Eric: Since we’ve reached the end of the lesson, how do we say, "You and I say Goodbye together?" |
| Teddy: 你同我一齊講拜拜! (nei5 tung4 ngo5 jat1 cai4 gong2 baai1 baai3!) |
| Eric: Great! Thanks for listening, everyone. Until next time! |
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