Learn how to ask for someone's phone number in Cantonese, which will help you ask for other things as well
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Intro |
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| Nicole: 大家好 (daai6 gaa1 hou2). I'm Nicole. |
| Matt: Hello, everyone and welcome back to CantoneseClass101.com. Matt here with Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 13. |
| Nicole: That's right, welcome back. So what are we learning today Matt? |
| Matt: In this lesson you will learn how to ask for phone numbers. Now, I'm really excited about this lesson. |
| Nicole: Me too. This conversation takes place in a bar. |
| Matt: The conversation is going to be between two strangers. |
| Nicole: And they're speaking casual Cantonese. |
| Matt: All right. Let's get right into the dialogue. |
Lesson conversation |
| 嗨，靚女！ (hei1, leng3 neoi5!) |
| 咩事呀？ (me1 si6 aa3?) |
| 你電話幾多號呀？ (nei5 din6 waa2 gei2 do1 hou4 aa3?) |
| 我冇電話。 (ngo5 mou5 din6 waa2.) |
| English Host: One more time, a bit slower. |
| 嗨，靚女！ (hei1, leng3 neoi5!) |
| 咩事呀？ (me1 si6 aa3?) |
| 你電話幾多號呀？ (nei5 din6 waa2 gei2 do1 hou4 aa3?) |
| 我冇電話。 (ngo5 mou5 din6 waa2.) |
| English Host: And now with the English translation. |
| 嗨，靚女！ (hei1, leng3 neoi5!) |
| Matt: Hi, gorgeous. |
| 咩事呀？ (me1 si6 aa3?) |
| Matt: What's that matter? |
| 你電話幾多號呀？ (nei5 din6 waa2 gei2 do1 hou4 aa3?) |
| Matt: What's your phone number? |
| 我冇電話。 (ngo5 mou5 din6 waa2.) |
| Matt: I don't have a phone. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Matt: All right, Nicole, now I got a question for you before we really get in to this. After he says hi, gorgeous, she responds, what's the matter? What's she meaning there? Is there something wrong with the guy or is that just a normal way to respond to that question? |
| Nicole: Well that's not a normal way or a polite way. I guess she's just upset. |
| Matt: Okay. So now why is our guy being turned out here? He used the magic word before asking for the girl's phone number, he said gorgeous. |
| Nicole: Oh 靚女？ (leng3 neoi5) |
| Matt: Yeah, but he still got turned down. What's the deal? |
| Nicole: Maybe because he is not a 靚仔 (leng3 zai2). It's his problem. Or maybe he's not 靚仔 (leng3 zai2) enough. |
| Matt: So our girl is out of his league and he's not handsome enough even if he uses the magic word. |
| Nicole: Well, he could have said more Cantonese to impress the 靚女 (leng3 neoi5). |
| Matt: So what kind of impressive Cantonese are we teaching today? |
| Nicole: Numbers! |
| Matt: Oh and that's going to help our not so good looking guy out. He's really going to impress the girls with being able to count from 1 to 100. |
| Nicole: I mean if you want to make friends with a girl in Hong Kong, you have to learn how to play the game, the dice game. |
| Matt: The dice game? |
| Nicole: Yeah. And if you want to play the dice game, you have to know how to count. |
| Matt: Okay. Well I'm hoping we're going to have another lesson on the dice game to tell our listeners how to play the dice game. |
| Nicole: Oh, it's great fun. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Matt: Okay, so let's take a look at the vocabulary for today's lesson before we teach them how to play that. |
| Nicole: 打 (daa2) [natural native speed]. |
| Matt: To dial or to hit. |
| Nicole: 打 (daa2) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 打 (daa2) [natural native speed]. |
| 電話 (din6 waa2) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Telephone. |
| Nicole: 電話 (din6 waa2) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 電話 (din6 waa2) [natural native speed]. 手機 (sau2 gei1) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Cell phone. |
| Nicole: 手機 (sau2 gei1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 手機 (sau2 gei1) [natural native speed]. 號碼 (hou4 maa5) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Number. |
| Nicole: 號碼 (hou4 maa5) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 號碼 (hou4 maa5) [natural native speed]. 屋企 (uk1 kei2) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Home. |
| Nicole: 屋企 (uk1 kei2) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 屋企 (uk1 kei2) [natural native speed]. 幾多 (gei2 do1) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Literally how many? |
| Nicole: 幾多 (gei2 do1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 幾多 (gei2 do1) [natural native speed]. 七 (cat1) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Seven (7) |
| Nicole: 七 (cat1) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 七 (cat1) [natural native speed]. |
| 八 (baat3) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Eight (8). |
| Nicole: 八 (baat3) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 八 (baat3) [natural native speed]. |
| 九 (gau2) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Nine (9) |
| Nicole: 九 (gau2) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 九 (gau2) [natural native speed]. |
| 十 (sap6) |
| Matt: Ten (10). |
| Nicole: 十 (sap6) |
| Nicole: 零 (ling4) [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Zero (0) |
| Nicole: 零 (ling4) [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 零 (ling4) [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Matt: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases that we just went over. |
| Nicole: Okay. The first phrase is 電話 (din6 waa2) |
| Matt: Telephone. |
| Nicole: 電話 (din6 waa2) |
| Matt: Telephone |
| Nicole: 手提電話 (sau2 tai4 din6 waa2) |
| Matt: This is mobile phone or portable phone. |
| Nicole: 手提電話 (sau2 tai4 din6 waa2) |
| Matt: Mobile phone. But I know you have a shorter word for that as well. |
| Nicole: Right. 手機 (sau2 gei ). |
| Matt: Cell phone or literally hand machine. |
| Nicole: 手機 (sau2 gei1). |
| Matt: Cell phone. |
| Nicole: But because almost everyone has a 手機 (sau2 gei1). nowadays, when you say 電話 (din6 waa2), you'll be actually referring to their cell phone, so you can say, 你嘅手機 (nei5 ge3 sau2 gei1). |
| Matt: How do “your phone” again？ |
| Nicole: 你嘅手機 (nei5 ge3 sau2 gei1) or 你嘅電話 (nei5 ge3 din6 waa2) |
| Matt: What about my phone? |
| Nicole: 我嘅電話 (nei5 ge3 din6 waa2) |
| Matt: What if someone needs say landline. |
| Nicole: That'd be 屋企電話 (uk1 kei2 din6 waa2). |
| Matt: Or literally home phone. |
| Nicole: Right. If we break down, the first half is 屋企 (uk1 kei2) |
| Matt: Which means home. |
| Nicole: The second half is 電話 (din6 waa2). |
| Matt: Phone. |
| Nicole: So 屋企電話 (uk1 kei2 din6 waa2) |
| Matt: Means landline. |
| Nicole: So you can say 我有電話 (ngo5 jau5 din6 waa2) |
| Matt: I have a phone. |
| Nicole: Or the opposite 我冇電話 (ngo5 mou5 din6 waa2). |
| Matt: like we heard in the dialog, I don't have a phone. |
| Nicole: You can also say, 你有手機 (nei5 jau5 sau2 gei1). |
| Matt: You have a cell phone. |
| Nicole: 我都有手機 (ngo5 dou1 jau5 sau2 gei1). |
| Matt: I also have a cell phone. See how we stick the adverb… |
| Nicole: 都 (dou1) |
| Matt: …between the subject and the verb here? |
| Nicole: Right. Another example of this though is 我哋都有手機 (ngo5 dei6 dou1 jau5 sau2 gei1). |
| Matt: We all have cell phones which is pretty likely in Hong Kong nowadays. |
| Nicole: In everywhere. |
| Matt: Now, what if I lose my phone and need to get one? |
| Nicole: You can say 我要手機 (ngo5 jiu3 sau2 gei1 ). |
| Matt: I need or I want a cell phone. |
| Nicole: Right. 我要手機 (ngo5 jiu3 sau2 gei1), or 我要靚手機 (ngo5 jiu3 leng3 sau2 gei1). |
| Matt: I want a beautiful cell phone. |
| Nicole: This “beautiful” 靚 (leng3) is the same 靚 (leng3) in 靚女 (leng3 neoi5) or 靚仔 (leng3 zai2). It means good quality. So you can say 我要靚手機 (ngo5 jiu3 leng3 sau2 gei1), I want a great cell phone. |
| Matt: Okay. So pretty easy so far, we're using some words that we learned before. But we haven't got to our keyword of the day yet, which is numbers! |
| Nicole: Ahh, numbers. In Hong Kong, you will hear people say "number." |
| Matt: Now that sounds similar to the English word for number. |
| Nicole: Yeah "number." That's our way of saying it, but in 廣東 (gwong2 dung1) or Mainland China you'll hear people say 號碼 (hou4 maa5) |
| Matt: Which is the Cantonese word for number. |
| Nicole: Right 號碼 (hou4 maa5) |
| Matt: So “my number” would be... |
| Nicole: 我嘅號碼 (ngo5 ge3 hou4 maa5). |
| Matt: To say his number you would say “his number” is... |
| Nicole: 佢嘅號碼 (keoi5 ge3 hou4 maa5). |
| Matt: Her room number... |
| Nicole: 佢嘅房間號碼 (keoi5 ge3 fong4 gaan1 hou4 maa5). Remember we learned this before, “room” 房間 (fong4 gaan1). So “her room number” is 佢嘅房間號碼 (keoi5 ge3 fong4 gaan1 hou4 maa5). |
| Matt: Great. I think our listeners are ready for the numbers now. So let's start from zero. |
| Nicole: 零 (ling4). |
| Matt: Zero. |
| Nicole: 零 (ling4). |
| Matt: And we've learned 1 to 6 in the last lesson. |
| Nicole: Right. How about we have a quick review now? I'll be saying the Cantonese, and you listeners can repeat and think about what number it is. |
| Matt: Then I'll give you the English translation. |
| Nicole: Okay, ready? 六 (luk6) |
| Matt: Six. |
| Nicole: 四 (sei3) |
| Matt: Four. |
| Nicole: 二 (ji6) |
| Matt: Two. |
| Nicole: 五 (ng5) |
| Matt: Five. |
| Nicole: 一 (jat1) |
| Matt: One. |
| Nicole: 三 (saam1) |
| Matt: Three! |
| Nicole: That's all, six numbers. I hope our listeners got the numbers right. |
| Matt: But don't worry if you didn't. We've got some more coming. |
| Nicole: That's comforting. Anyway, 唔使驚 (m4 sai2 geng1) you'll grasp them quickly. |
| Matt: All right, let's start off with number seven. |
| Nicole: Okay, now in this time, Matt will be saying the English and I will say the Cantonese. We will say each word for twice. |
| Matt: 7. |
| Nicole: 七 (cat1) |
| Matt: 7. |
| Nicole: 七 (cat1) |
| Matt: 8. |
| Nicole: 八 (baat3) |
| Matt: 8. |
| Nicole: 八 (baat3) |
| Matt: 9. |
| Nicole: 九 (gau2) |
| Matt: 9. |
| Nicole: 九 (gau2) |
| Matt: 10. |
| Nicole: 十 (sap6) |
| Matt: 10. |
| Nicole: 十 (sap6) |
| Matt: All right, very good. Now we're ready to start asking for a girls' phone numbers. |
| Nicole: Right. Let's get to that. |
Lesson focus |
| Matt: Our focus today is asking for a phone number. So in the dialogue we hear this. |
| Nicole: 你電話幾多呀？ (nei5 din6 waa2 gei2 do1 aa3?) |
| Matt: What's your phone number? |
| Nicole: 你電話幾多呀？ (nei5 din6 waa2 gei2 do1 aa3?) |
| Matt: Literally we are saying "you phone how many" with the Cantonese ahh at the end. |
| Nicole: That's right. So when we ask for the numbers in Cantonese, we use the word 幾多 (gei2 do1) |
| Matt: Which is the word for how many. |
| Nicole: 幾多 (gei2 do1) |
| Matt: How many. We didn't say the word for "number" here. |
| Nicole: No. Because in casual Cantonese, we just say 你電話幾多 (nei5 din6 waa2 gei2 do1), we can leave out the "number" or 號碼 (hou4 maa5) in there. You don't need to say that. |
| Matt: So make sure you're paying attention to the word order here, we're leaving the 'how many.' |
| Nicole: 幾多… (gei2 do1) |
| Matt: …behind at the end of the sentence. So it's "your phone." |
| Nicole: 你電話 (nei5 din6 waa2). |
| Matt: "How many." |
| Nicole: 幾多 (gei2 do1) |
| Matt: Which means, what's your home phone number? |
| Nicole: 你電話幾多? (nei5 din6 waa2 gei2 do1?) |
| Matt: What about what's our home phone number? |
| Nicole: So we first say, our home phone number and then we say how many. In Cantonese, it will be translated into 我哋屋企電話幾多？ (ngo5 dei6 uk1 kei2 din6 waa2 gei2 do1?) |
| Matt: How about what's his cell number? |
| Nicole: 佢手機電話幾多？ (keoi5 sau2 gei1 din6 waa2 gei2 do1?) or shorter 佢電話幾多 (keoi5 din6 waa2 gei2 do1?) |
| Matt: How about I need your phone number. |
| Nicole: 我要你嘅電話 (ngo5 jiu3 nei5 ge3 din6 waa2). It literally means I want your phone, but with context I guess they'll know you're asking for the numbers, not the phone. 我要你嘅電話 (ngo5 jiu3 nei5 ge3 din6 waa2). |
| Matt: Sure. So to make it clear we're going to add the word for number to the end of that sentence. |
| Nicole: 我要你嘅電話號碼 (ngo5 jiu3 nei5 ge3 din6 waa2 hou4 maa5) or you can ask politely. Remember we learned the polite phrase 可唔可以 (ho2 m4 ho2 ji5). |
| Matt: Yeah, that means "can I." |
| Nicole: That's right. So put it in there before asking for the phone number. It will be very polite.it becomes 我可唔可以要你嘅電話號碼？ (ngo5 ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 jiu3 nei5 ge3 din6 waa2 hou4 maa5?) |
| Matt: Can I or can I not have your telephone number? |
| Nicole: Right. So if you call her or him 靚女 (leng3 neoi5) or 靚仔 (leng3 zai2), you're bound to get the number. |
| Matt: Really? Well let's hear what does would sound like then |
| Nicole: 靚女，我可唔可以要你嘅電話呀？ (leng3 neoi5, ngo5 ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 jiu3 nei5 ge3 din6 waa2 aa1) |
| Matt: Pretty girl, can I have your phone number? And when you answer, instead of saying 'I don't have a phone.' |
| Nicole: 我冇電話 (ngo5 mou5 din6 waa2) |
| Matt: Which is what I usually get, we're going to teach our listeners to actually say their telephone numbers. |
| Nicole: That's very easy. You only need to read the digits one by one. |
| Matt: Let's have some examples. Let's say 1914569. |
| Nicole: 一九一四五六九 (jat1 gau2 jat1 sei3 ng5 luk6 gau2) “191-4569” |
| Matt: All right. Now how about 3652888? |
| Nicole: Ah that's a very lucky number with all the 8s. 三六五二八八八 (saam1 luk6 ng5 ji6 baat3 baat3 baat3) “365-2888”. |
| Matt: Ah I remember you guys are crazy about the number 8. |
| Nicole: Well because 8 sounds like 發 (faat3), which means 'getting rich.' So it's lucky. |
| Matt: All right, good note for our listeners. Cantonese are pretty easy with numbers, when you say the years, it's going to be in the same manner. All you need to do is read the digits from left to right. |
| Nicole: That's right. Like the year 二零一零 (ji6 ling4 jat1 ling4) |
| Matt: Which is 2010. |
| Nicole: Or 二零一二 (ji6 ling4 jat1 ji6) |
| Matt: 2012. |
| Nicole: You see, pretty easy. |
| Matt: All right. So again it's a long lesson, but we've learned how to ask for numbers and how to impress… |
| Nicole: 靚女 (leng3 neoi5 ). |
| Matt: Or pretty girls. |
| Nicole: Right by counting from 0-10. |
| Matt: Now, that just about does it for today. But remember, you can always leave us a comment on this lesson or other lessons. |
| Nicole: So if you have a question, or some feedback, please, please, please leave us a comment! |
| Matt: And it's very easy to do as well. Just make sure you stop by CantoneseClass101.com, |
| Nicole: ...click on comments, |
| Matt: ...enter your comment and name, |
| Nicole: ...and that's it! |
| Matt: So you've got no excuses. We're looking forward to hearing from you! |
| Nicole: That's right. I'm Nicole. |
| Matt: And I'm Matt. |
| Nicole: See you next time. |
| Matt: Bye. |
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