Golden Rule of becoming a native Cantonese speaker: Tones > Everything!
In this blog, we use Jyutping to indicate the pronunciation of Cantonese characters.
Previous lesson: Introduction
Recap of Rimes
Rimes is a syllable of vowels with consonants that you can rhyme!
For example, in English, the Rime of “Cow” is “ow”; in Cantonese, cow is 牛, and the Rime is “au”.
Difference of a and aa
Two vowels in Cantonese start with a. a sounds like “uh” in English, and aa “ahhh” in English.
And all their combinations as well. For example, 分 sounds like “fun”, and 飯 sounds like “fran” in France without “r” sound.
Still, it may be difficult to distinguish their difference when they form rimes with other sounds.
A trick to pronounce any combinations of the aa sound is to try to add the “ahhh” sound before a.
For example, ap sounds like “up” in English, and aap sounds like “ahh-up” in one syllable.
Let’s see all the rimes combinations with a and aa!
Rimes with a
| Jyutping | Sounds in English | Cantonese Example | Jyutping | Sounds in English | Cantonese Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | uh in bruh | 嘞 | ang | ung in sung | 增 |
| ai | i in night | 擠 | ap | up in cup | 汁 |
| au | ull in dull | 周 | at | utt in butt | 質 |
| am | um in sum | 針 | ak | uck in duck | 則 |
| an | un in fun | 珍 |
Rimes with aa
| Jyutping | Sounds in English | Cantonese Example | Jyutping | Sounds in English | Cantonese Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| aa | a in far | 渣 | aang | an in France but ends with ng not n | 爭 |
| aai | i in high | 齋 | aap | alm in calm with p instead | 集 |
| aau | ow in wow | 嘲 | aat | alm in calm with t instead | 紮 |
| aam | alm in calm | 站 | aak | alm in calm with k instead | 窄 |
| aan | an in France | 讚 |
Learn a new word before you move on
In Cantonese, 早抖 will be another most common thrase you may hear, which means good night.
Its literally meaning is sleep early, it is a good wish because nowadays people sleep quite late right?
So again… 下次見!
Next lesson: Rimes with e
Further reading: Jyutping, The linguistic Society of Hong Kong
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