Cantonese Ch.1-6 -- Tones

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: Rimes with e

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In this lesson, we talk about Rimes with u, yu. Here we use u similar to languages like German or Italian.

And yu is equivalent to “ü” in German. Let’s take a look.

Rimes with u

For u, ui, un, ut, u sounds like “oo” in “foo”.

For ung and uk, u sound like “one” in “tone”.

Jyutping	Sounds in English	Cantonese Example	Jyutping	Sounds in English	Cantonese Example
u	oo in foo	夫(fu1)	ut	oot in boot	闊(fut3)
ui	ewy in chewy1	灰(fui1)	ung	one in tone	風(fung1)
un	oon in cartoon	歡(fun1)	uk	ook in cook	福(fuk1)

¹“Chewy” is two syllables, but in Cantonese this is a diphthong. So try to blend it into one sound, treat the “ew” as the major sound and the “j” as a small tip at the end of the syllable.

Rimes with yu

Unfortunately, in English there is no word sound exactly as yu.

But you can imitate it by positioning your tongue more forward, closer to your front teeth (not touching them!), and try to say the word “foo”.

In some accents, when people say the word “occupy” or “education”, they may use the yu sound as well.

Jyutping	Sounds in English	Cantonese Example	Jyutping	Sounds in English	Cantonese Example
yu	u in occupy	書(syu1)	yut	uned in tuned	雪(syut3)
yun	une in tune	酸(syun1)

Next lesson: Tones

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Further reading: Jyutping, The linguistic Society of Hong Kong