Guide to Cantonese for English speakers who know Mandarin

The official languages of Hong Kong are English and "Chinese", the latter in quotes because it actually encompasses a language family. The Hong Kong government calls this policy "biliterate and trilingual - 兩文三語" to indicate that printed texts have English and Traditional Chinese versions and spoken English, Cantonese and Mandarin are all accepted. Cantonese is the de facto spoken language, the home language of about 90% of the populace and the historical language of the region (although some of the earliest settlements in Hong Kong were Hakka speaking). Lots of educated people, whether civil servants, business people or Disneyland staff, regularly conduct services in three languages. While there are more multilingual regions of the world, the overall trilingualism in Hong Kong is still rather impressive. Since the colonial reign ended in Hong Kong in 1997, even the casual observer can tell that the general level of English has worsened but the level of Mandarin has improved greatly.

People often ask how different are Mandarin and Cantonese. It's suffice to say they are mutually unintelligible, but the nuances get complicated. If you are familiar with the Romance language family spread in Southern Europe, you could analogize that Cantonese and Mandarin are like Spanish and French. The Romance languages probably started diverging mainly following the decline of the Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries, and Mandarin and Cantonese probably diverged from Middle Chinese around the 6th century. However the geographic spread between North and South China is much greater than between Italy, France and Portugal. Nonetheless a single Chinese written script and a sense of ethnic unity kept the language from diverging as much as it normally would, while the emergence of nationalisms and independent orthographies in Europe divided a dialect continuum into distinct official languages.* Tl;dr - you could say the Chinese languages are more divergent than the Romance languages in some ways, and less in other ways.

Carlos Douh - The poster boy for a westerner who's learned good Cantonese

Most English speakers who move to Hong Kong (and plenty who grow up there) don't learn Cantonese or Mandarin. They already speak one of the official languages so it's easy enough to get by in Hong Kong. Obviously though, being able to speak English and Cantonese in Hong Kong leads to a much fuller experience. Learning the language is difficult and the Hong Kong environment doesn't make it convenient. While Mandarin-learning resources are bountiful, Cantonese-learning resources barely exist - which is why I'm writing this. One major problem is the lack of a phonetic standard - there is a system called Jyutping but it's not commonly used. Nevertheless, I believe it's definitely possible to learn Cantonese in Hong Kong especially when you come in with a background in Mandarin. My office was very Cantonese heavy, and mainland Chinese arrivals would nearly always be conversant in Cantonese within a year. Hong Kong has a thriving community of former China expats, who eventually move to Hong Kong for its unique blend of China with western characteristics. If you're one of them and don't know Cantonese, this is for you. From my anecdotal experience, there are 100 adults who learn Mandarin well for every 1 that learns Cantonese well.

Every word in Mandarin can be said in Cantonese as well. In fact all Chinese speakers can read the same text. However the modern written language is similar to formal Mandarin, and so even though Cantonese speakers can read written Chinese, they will use different words and expressions in conversation. The most important things to learn are 1. common sound changes for the words that are mutually shared and 2. these colloquial expressions.

I know that I'm not the most qualified person to write this, but I don't see the more qualified people writing this, so here goes. Instead of using jyutping, I've chosen to use subjective phonetic English spelling, which is kinda what I've always used. I'm also going to ignore Cantonese tones here, even though there are 9 and they are important. However I subscribe to the school of not focusing your language-learning efforts on tones. Nearly every Cantonese speaker I've talked to would be hard-pressed to name all 9 tones, and do not actively think about tones while speaking. Languages are organic and make human sense, and I think with enough repetition, the tones will naturally come to you.

Let's start with the sound changes:

1. Sound Changes

qi -> kay

星期 －xīngqí - sing kay - Week

奇怪 - qíguài - kay gwai - Weird

其中 - qízhōng - kay zhong - Among them

國旗 - guóqí - gwok kay - National flag

zhi - > jee

一至九 - yīzhì jiǔ - yut jee gau - One to nine

只係 - zhíxì - jee hai - Only

支持 - zhīchí - jee chee - Support

手指 - shǒuzhǐ - sou jee - Finger

知道 －zhīdào - jee dou - Know

(jik is also a common change, such as 直 - Straight)

bai -> baak
一百 - yī bǎi - yut baak - One hundred

白色 - bái sè - baak sik - White color

(some other characters like 拜 are just pronounced bai)

xian - > seen
先生 - xiānshēng - seen sang - Mr.
電線 - diànxiàn - deen seen - Electric cable
 新鮮 -  xīnxiān - sun seen - Fresh

ji -> gay
幾多 －jǐduō - gay do - How many
飛機 - fēijī - fei gay - Airplane

自己 - zìjǐ - jee gay - Oneself
基本 - jīběn - gay boon - Basic
記得 - jìdé - gay duc - Remember

you -> yao

有 -yǒu - yao - Have

又 - yòu - yao - Again

左右 -zuǒyòu - jor yao - Left right

郵件 - yóujiàn - yao geen - Mail

石油 - shíyóu - sek yao - Oil

Note: when I first started learning Mandarin, I always got 有 and 要 confused. Cantonese 有 just sounds too much like Mandarin 要. Vice versa isn't quite so true, but it's still confusing.

yao -> yiu
要 - yào - yiu - Need

姚明 - yáomíng - yiu ming - Yao Ming

腰 －yāo - yiu - Waist

gao -> go

蛋糕 - dàngāo - daan go - Cake

高興 - gāoxìng - go hing - Happiness

報告 - bàogào - bo go - Report

jian -> geen

再見 - zàijiàn - joi geen - Goodbye

一件事 - yījiànshì - yut geen see - One thing

建築 - jiànzhú - geen jook - Building

堅定 - jiāndìng - geen ding - Firm

(many jian are also pronounced as gaan such as 簡單 gaan daan and 一間房 yut gaan fong)

yang -> yeung

太陽 - tàiyáng - tai yeung - Sun

羊肉 - yángròu - yeung yook - Lamb meat

Ok I think that's a lot right there. First note: every single one of those sound changes have exceptions. They are just general rules that I tend to use whenever I come across a word that I only know in one language and need to guess in the other language. I'd say they work more than half the time. Second note: A bunch of sounds have no common changes, like shi and xi. Third note: I decided to just write all these examples in Traditional Chinese, as used in Hong Kong. If you are only familiar with Simplified, I honestly don't think it's that hard to gradually adjust to Traditional. This post may serve as a primer for your transition. However below, I do write the Mandarin phrases in Simplified and the Cantonese equivalents in Traditional.

2. Phrases 

是 －係 -  hai - To be

不 － 唔 - ng - Not

你怎么样？ - 點啊你？deem ah lei? How are you?

为什么？ - 點解？ deem gai? Why?

什么 - 乜嘢 or 咩嘢 - mut yeh or meh yeh (interchangeable) - What

没有  - 無 or 冇 - mou - Not have. Cantonese just combines these two words into one. Despite this, the usage doesn't change. 有冇 is exactly the same as 有没有. Because the writing of Cantonese-specific characters is not standardized, you do see both characters used.

我们 －我地 - ngo** dei - We. 地 is used exactly like们. 你地 (lei dei) means you plural and 佢地 means they (keui dei). 他 is only used in writing.

这里 - 呢度 - ni dou - Here. Substitute 呢 in all cases you would use 这

哪里－邊度 - been dou - Where. Substitute 邊 in all cases you would use 哪

刚刚 - 啱啱 - ngaam ngaam - Just now.

现在 －而家 - yee ga - Now.

听得懂  - 聽得明 - tang duc ming - Understand.
喜欢 - 鍾意 － zhong yee - Like

饭馆  - 餐廳 - chaan tang - Restaurant

乘电梯 - 搭𨋢 －daap leep - Take the elevator. Hong Kongers throw in more English words in general than Mainland Chinese, but this is an example of a nativized word. Leep actually comes from "lift"
当然 - 梗係 - gun hai - Of course. Although dong yeen has now entered common parlance.
美女 － 靚女 - liang leoi - Pretty girl. Useful.
帅哥 － 靚仔 - liang jai - Handsome guy. 仔 is used much more in Cantonese to denote child or dude.
老外 －鬼佬 - guai lo - If you're a white guy, this might one of the first phrases you learn.
的 - 嘅 - gor - possessive indicator. This is slightly tricky. Cantonese doesn't do possessions quite the same way, using the measure word instead. This word is used when the measure word is 個, as in 佢嘅朋友 keui gor pung yau, his friend. In fact most people just write 佢個朋友, but technically the tone 個 changes slightly. For different measure words, just use that measure word, i.e. 我隻貓 - ngo jek mao - my cat.

你吃饭了吗？ －你食左飯未呀？ - lei sic jor fan mei ah? Have you eaten yet? There's quite a lot going on grammatically here in this common greeting. First, Cantonese has it's own word for eat, 'sic'. Second, 了which is pronounced lieu in Cantonese, is hardly used in conversation. "jor" (which sounds similar to the pinyin zuo) is used instead to denote past tense with the character for left typically adopted, and is (usually) used in verb + 左 + object pattern unlike the Mandarin 了. Third, 未 is the Cantonese word for yet. This word is in Mandarin too, but isn't used as often or in the same way as in Cantonese. Sometimes 未 replaces 还, other times like here, it comes at the end of the sentence like in English. Finally, 呀 is a common Cantonese interjection at the end of sentences, like it is in Mandarin. 吗 is not often used as a question word - in fact in Hong Kong Cantonese, ending a sentence in an upward inflection can in fact connote a question, just like in English.

谢谢 － 唔該 or 多謝 ng goi or duo jie - Thank you

Ah the Cantonese thank you. This tricked me up when I first moved to Hong Kong and I kept using the wrong thank you for months. The two thank you's are for mutually exclusive scenarios! Use 唔該 when someone does a basic task for you or something that you asked for, and 多謝 when someone does a medium to large favor, especially if you didn't ask for it and definitely if money is exchanged.

Hope that's a good starter course! If you want to thank me, please say 多謝.

*It's an urban legend that Cantonese was 1 vote away from becoming the official language of China. The language in Beijing has been the government language for three dynasties, and got its English name because government employees (Mandarins) were required to learn it regardless of origin. The Qing Dynasty promoted Mandarin for official purposes in 1909.
**If you can't pronounce the ng in 我, just say o (same vowel as in wo) - half of Hong Kong has dropped the ng anyways.