100 More Useful Words = 200

Time; Cardinality & Relativity; The Elements; Colours; Gems, Jewellery & Metals etc

Time for 10

	English	Cantonese	Comments	Char
101	Second	myAoh	Start with ‘myOh’ and add a slight ‘A’ sound
102	Minute	fun
103	Hour O’clock	dim	Precise time is said as ‘leurng dim jowng’ (2 o’clock) ‘leurng gor jowng’ means 2-hours
104	Hour of Time	jowng
105	Week	sin-kAy	Prefix number + gor; means which week ahead: ‘yut gor sin-kAy’ = 1 week or next week Suffixed number means which day of the week ‘sin-kAy yut’ = Monday
106	Month	ye-ur	Can also mean Moon. A Chinese month is always lunar. ‘jyut’ version is Hong Kong language only
107	Year	lin	Properly ‘lien ‘ = 10% ‘e’ sound Said as single numbers: 2008 = yee len len bak lin
108	Year’s Old	soy	sam sup sAi soyi = 34 years old {Means 33} 40% ‘i’
109	Time	dim	Means: ‘important space’. Similar to saying ‘How long’
110	What is the time?	gAy dim	Coll: gAy dim-ah?

Keyword:

dim

v Hour o’clock

v Important space (Time or measurement)

v How long (Time or measurement)

v General word for a specified measurement; length, weight, etc

v gAi dim = What is the time?

v zhao dim = hotel

v gao dim = 9 o’clock

v gaao dim = finish something (usually work)

Note 1:

v A traditional Chinese clock is made up of only 12 hours, each of two modern hours of time

Note 2:

A persons age can be:

v An age based upon dates from the English Gregorian calendar

o Or is often given as from the Chinese lunar calendar = usually means a few years younger than real age

v Usually given as their age at their next birthday!

v If you need the exact age, ask for Date of Birth

Specific Days, Weeks and Months

111	Now	yee ga
112	Monday	sin-kAy yut	Days of the Week
	Tuesday	sin-kAy yee
	Wednesday	sin-kAy sam
	Thursday	sin-kAy sAi
	Friday	sin-kAy mmm
	Saturday	sin-kAy lop
113	Sunday	lie bye	sin-kAy t’chyut is not often used
114	Day	hO or yut	Use hO as default, and especially for day of month: ‘yee sup sam hO’ = 23rd	日
115	Yesterday	kum-mon
116	Today	gum-mon
	Tomorrow	ting yut	This is bad grammar meaning ‘Next tomorrow’, but it is easy to remember and it works very well! Therefore: ‘leurng kum-mon’ means 2-days ago. Simple!
117	The day after tomorrow	leurng ting yut
118	January	yut yeur	Months of the Year: No ‘gor’ The number in front changes And so on up to December
119	February	yee yeur
	March	sam yeur
	April	sAi yeur
	May	mmm yeur
	June	lop year
	July	t’chyut yeur
	August	bak yeur
	September	gao yeur
	October	sup yeur
	November	sup yut yeur
	December	sup yee yeur
120	Spring	chun	Seasons are not normally used in general Cantonese conversation – especially in tropical Guangdong Province - where it is usually very hot, and occasionally very cold for a couple of weeks per annum
121	Summer	ha
122	Autumn	chau
123	Winter	d-owng
124	Golden Week	wong gam zau gaa kei	National holiday for Communist rule. From 1^st October
125	Chinese New Year	nung lik san nin	Lunar date like Easter, around the start of February. Often called Spring Festival. Chinese gift ‘Mooncakes’
126	“Happy new year”	gung hei fa choi
127	Lucky Money	lAi Cee	Chinese give red envelopes with a little money
128	May Holiday	gwok zhi lou dung zit	Also called Spring Festival, the first week of May Also means May Day itself
129	Grave cleaning day	qing ming	Qing ming festival. To visit the grave(s) is ‘soeng fan’
130	Birthday	saang yut	Age has several different meanings as compared with the simple English version. See note below	生日
	Happy Birthday!	saang yut faai lok	生日快樂

The Elements

131	Sun	joeng	Sun, Solar	陽
132	Sky	tien hung	10% ‘e’.	天空
133	Stars	sing sing	‘sing’ means ‘star’. Usually plural usage = ‘sing sing’	星
134	Rain	lok yu-ee	Alt. Toisanwah: ‘lok soi’; alt. HK: ‘jyu’	雨
135	Wind	fon(g)	40% ‘g’, nasal ‘n’. Typhoon is actually ‘dai fong’ or ‘big wind’. HK for ‘dai’ is ‘tai’, hence ‘taifun(g)’	風
136	Cloudy	mat wan		密雲
137	Fog	mou	fog; mist; vapour	霧
138	Snow	syut	Usually: ‘syut soi’, or ‘ba xi soi’ (White rain)	雪
139	Flood	soi zhi	Generalised: There are dozens of versions. This one means a great flood disaster in UK understanding	水災
140	Desert	bat mou zhi dei	barren land; desert	不毛之地
140a	Polluted	Wu waa yu-ee	filthy; dirty; impure; polluted	污 or汙

Cardinality and Relative Directions

141	North	bak	10% ‘k’. Mandarin ‘bei’	北
142	South	naam	Mandarin ‘nan’	南
143	East	doh’ung	Say ‘dong’ to begin with as a very complex sound. 10% ‘oh’ (Advanced pronunciation: low ‘d’, short transfer sound, high ‘ung’ with semi nasal ‘n’). Not spoken as English ‘dung’, but vaguely similar. Mandarin ‘dong’	東
144	West	sai	‘sigh’	西
	Note: Very frequently used as Placenames
145	Up	sheurng hoi	There is no Chinese word that literally means ‘up’. The default word is ‘sheurng’, HK ‘soeng’ In Cantonese ‘sheurng hoi’ also means ‘Shanghai’	上
146	Down	lok hoi	General meaning – there is no ‘Down’ word either!	下
147	Left	jor	‘jor’ as in Jordan. HK = ‘jo’	左
148	Right	yaow	HK = ‘jau’	右
149	Inside	fan lIe	(lIe: phonetic ‘L’, Caps ‘i’, phonetic ‘E’, or ‘Lee/Li surname’. HK = ‘noi’	內
150	Outside	chut hoi	Alt: ‘chut bin’. HK ‘ceot’ = ‘chut’	出便
151	Above	s’zi sheurng		之
152	Below	haa bin	Alt: ‘lok bin’	下便
153	On Top	sheurng gao	Lit. ‘Top Dog’. Use ‘Above’ to specify a place	上高
154	Underneath	zoi haa min		在下面
155	In front	cien	10% ‘e’	前
156	Beside	zoi ... zhi pong	zoi ... (Object) … zhi pong	在﹍之旁
157	Behind	hau	behind, come after	後
158	Near	gaan jyut	near something; close to something	近住
		pong bong	near; beside; next to	旁
		bong pong	near; approaching	傍
159	Far	jiu	far; distant; remote	遙
160	Move	zhao-ah!	Let’s go, please move, go, you may now enter/exit	驟

Note:

v ‘sheurng’ 上 and ‘lok’ 下

o Chinese websites: mean previous page and next page respectively

o Also means: ‘Before’ and ‘After’

v These are very basic Chinese characters that work with others to condition the exact meaning

Words for Colours

161	Red	hong	A colour is always followed by the word ‘sek’ = sounds very, very similar to ‘sic’ Cantonese will normally only use these basic colours in everyday speech. There are many more. To begin with, these six are all you should normally need to know.	紅
162	Yellow	wong		黃
163	Green	lop		綠
164	Blue	lam		藍
165	Black	hak		黑
166	White	bak		白
167	Light	chin
168	Dark	sum
169	Gold	gum
170	Silver	nn-gum
171	Grey	foo-ee	As in English, many colours have specific characters: Scarlet, crimson, vermilion etc + very different sounds Turquoise is not listed anywhere – Here is China!
172	Brown	fee
173	Beige	mAi
174	Orange	chang
175	Purple	Gee
176	Pink	fun-hong
177	Shine	Giu	shine, sparkle, dazzle = a surface, appearance & person
178	Twinkle	sim Giu	sparkle; twinkle; glint = a property (Star, eye, object)
179	Bright	ming
180	Drab	fat mei	uninteresting; boring; dull; insipid, drab, tasteless

Keyword:

sek

v To denote that one of the above is a colour, the word ‘sek’ is always added immediately afterwards

o hong sek, wong sek, etc

v Light or Dark specifiers should normally be added before the colour name

v Red with Gold are traditionally thought to be the most auspicious of colours, as used for Weddings

Gemstones, Metal and Wood

181	Diamond	z’yun sek	Often said as ‘bak sek’	鑽石
182	Ruby	hong bo sek		紅寶石
183	Sapphire	laam bo sek		藍寶石
184	Jade	yuoc	Jade is the most precious thing to most Chinese	玉
185	Ring	gaa zie	‘gi fan’ means wedding and wedding ring	戒子
186	Necklace	gung lin		頸鏈
187	Pendant	diu zoi		吊墜
188	Earrings	zi waan		耳環
189	Bracelet	sau aak		手鈪
190	Iron	tong dao		熨斗
191	Steel	gong gong		鋼
192	Aluminium	leoi		鋁
193	Copper	tung	We don’t know of any Chinese words or characters to differentiate these 3 – Perhaps you can help?	銅
194	Brass
195	Bronze
196	Stone	sek	Stone, rock or mineral	石
197	Wood	muk	Tree or wood	木
198	Bamboo	juk		竹
199	Plastic	GaaU		膠
200	Tissue Paper	Gee gun	General term: Tissues, toilet paper = same thing	紙巾

In the next Chapter, we look at Food, Restaurants and Eating