Your Ultimate Cantonese Pronunciation Guide

There are twenty-two consonant sounds and seven vowel sounds in Cantonese. You can form every single word in Cantonese by using these sounds. Here are a couple of Cantonese alphabet pronunciation charts for you to study! You’ll also find examples of Cantonese phrases with English pronunciation. 

Consonant Table

Vowel Table

Feel free to refer to these Cantonese alphabet pronunciation charts as needed while you go through the rest of the article.

Learning Cantonese pronunciation can take a long time, and is often frustrating for Cantonese learners. But by knowing what to look out for, you can have a smoother time learning.

1. [z]

The difference between the Jyutping -z and the English “-z,” is that the Cantonese sound is made with your tongue touching the back of your upper teeth. This results in a more [dz] sound.

1. [c] 

Sometimes, this consonant gets mixed up with the [z] sound. Keep in mind that the “-c” is aspirated, whereas the “-z” isn’t. “Aspirated” means that you let air out when producing this sound.

1. [j] 

This is the same as the English [y] in the word “yes.”

1. [ng] 

There’s a similar sound in English, but it never falls at the beginning of the word. For example, by slowly pronouncing the word “sing,” (note that your tongue touches the back of your mouth), drawing out the [ng] sound at the end, and holding it, that’s the [ng] in Cantonese as an initial.

[ng] is a sound change that’s underway in modern Hong Kong Cantonese—as time goes on, young people are more frequently leaving this sound out during casual conversations. If you listen carefully, you may find that your Cantonese friends seem to say 我 (o5) instead of the correct(ngo5) in informal conversations. However, it’s still worth practicing this sound as dropping the [ng] isn’t yet considered standard speech by many people.

• The first tone is high and steady: [si1].

• The second tone is the rising tone and has an intonation similar to that used in English to indicate a question (i.e., “huh?”): [si2].

• The third tone starts from the middle and is steady: [si3].

• The fourth tone is the lowest flat tone: [si4]. You can feel a slight vibration at the base of your throat when you’re doing it correctly.

• The fifth tone is a rising tone and starts from the lowest of your range and rises to the middle: [si5].

• The sixth tone is a flat tone that starts from somewhere between the base and the middle: [si6].

The Entering Tones

The seventh, eighth, and ninth tones are called entering tones. However, they’re not real tones in the phonetic sense, but are rather syllables that end in a stop consonant such as -p,- t,- k, or a glottal stop.

• The seventh tone is a syllable that ends in a glottal stop and shares the same pitch with the first tone: [sik1].

• The eighth tone is a syllable that ends in a glottal stop and shares the same pitch with the third tone: [sek3].

• The ninth tone is a syllable that ends in a glottal stop and shares the same pitch with the sixth tone: [sik6].

There’s no better way to get the hang of these Cantonese tones than by listening to and practicing them yourself. If you have access to a native Cantonese speaker, it’s great practice to have them say words and then to repeat after them, with the native speaker correcting you where necessary. By choosing to learn Cantonese from a native speaker, you’re allowing yourself a better shot at success. Gradually, the tune of the tones will stick.

You can also use the materials at CantoneseClass101.com to listen to native speakers’ pronunciation on MP3 recordings of vocabulary words. And repeat, repeat, repeat. You can also utilize our voice recorder which allows you to hear and compare your pronunciation with the native speakers’.

In Cantonese, when two or more characters are next to each other, the original tonal pronunciation of some characters may change.

Jyutping is quite useful for transcribing Cantonese, but it isn’t a perfect system—Jyutping only reflects the original tone of a character and normally doesn’t account for any tonal changes. 

We’ll represent the tone changes in Jyutping below, but only for demonstration purposes.

Raising Low Tones in Two-Syllable Compound Words 

This rule applies to two-syllable compound words and is by far the most common of all tone change rules.

Example:

Character: 角

Romanization: gok3 (pronounced with a mid tone)

Meaning: Cape

Character: 落

Romanization: lok6 (pronounced with a low tone)

Meaning: to fall

These two characters can form a two-syllable compound word: 角落 (gok3 lok6), meaning “corner.”

Unfortunately, this pronunciation is incorrect. If the second character in a two-syllable compound word is a low tone, it will typically be uplifted to one of the higher tones—either tone one or two.

Therefore, in this scenario, the correct pronunciation for this compound word requires us to change the tone of the second character, from a low tone, (tone six), to a higher tone (tone one). 角落 should be pronounced as (gok3 lok1) instead of (gok3 lok6).

Raising Low Tones to Modify Meaning

Tone changes are sometimes made to modify the meaning of concepts that are alike.

Example 1: Changing a low tone to tone one can add an inferior quality to the original concept.

Character: 咁大

Romanization: gam3 daai6

Meaning: so big

Character: 咁大

Romanization: gam3 daai1

Meaning: that’s it

Example 2: Changing a low tone to tone two will slightly alter the meaning of the original concept.

Character: 糖

Romanization: tong4

Meaning: sugar

Character: 糖

Romanization: tong2

Meaning: candy

Mistake #1: Using the Wrong Tones

Most learners aren’t familiar with tonal languages like Cantonese. The meaning of a word can change if the pitch is changed, even if the pronunciation is the same. For people who don’t speak a tonal language, some tones may sound nearly identical to each other. This problem of perception is perhaps the most difficult part of learning a tonal language like Cantonese.

Mistake #2: Mixing up J and Y in the Jyutping System

The Jyutping romanization system is new to absolute beginners, and one of the most confusing aspects is the J consonant. Although it’s represented as a J, it actually sounds like an English Y sound. Hence, whenever you see the letter J in Jyutping, remember that it’s pronounced as a Y sound.

Mistake #3: Pronouncing the Final -P, -T, -K

Many English speakers tend to pronounce Cantonese words ending in a -p, -t, or -k like they would in English—byreleasing a strong burst of air. However, this is incorrect as the final -p, -t, and -k are unreleased in Cantonese. Instead, you should cut the sound off.

Proper pronunciation is important, very important. Some say it’s even more important than getting the grammar perfectly correct! Why would this be?

1) Good Understanding 

If communicating with native speakers matters to you when learning Cantonese, you need to be understood when you talk, and you need to be able to understand the native speakers. After all, without understanding, the purpose of language is null and void! In order to be understood, you need to be able to speak the language in a way that is familiar to native speakers, or at least recognizable by them. 

When learning to speak a new language, you will learn that the more you progress the more intricate it becomes! For instance, almost every language has vocabulary that may look the same in writing, but because the words are pronounced differently, they have very different meanings. This means that you may say a word in Cantonese, and because of a slight change in pronunciation, the meaning of the word changes completely. Understandably, this can make for pretty embarrassing situations! At worst, your mispronounced Cantonese will sound garbled to a native speaker. 

Knowing the nuances of how a word or letter is pronounced will also help you to understand spoken Cantonese better.

No worries if this feels hard; you’re learning, and with our help at CantoneseClass101, you will not have a problem with mispronunciation if you follow our advice and examples carefully.

2) Good Communication 

Not pronouncing Cantonese or any other language correctly can lead to a lot of frustration because you’re unable to express what you mean, and you will not be understood correctly. Even if you have total knowledge of Cantonese grammar, and can write it like a native, not knowing how to speak it properly will only make for very frustrating communication all around.

3) A Good Impression 

Even if you’re only a beginner, it is possible to speak any language correctly. This way, you are bound to make a good impression on native speakers, and when you’re more fluent, you will be likely to garner a lot more respect than a fumbling newbie speaker who doesn’t care much for correct pronunciation. 

People often have a lot of patience for someone who learns to speak a new language, but native speakers are more likely to address you and engage with you in conversation if you work hard on your accent. This is simply because you’ll be able to understand one another! So, proficiency in pronunciation can mean the difference between having none or plenty of Cantonese speaking friends. It will also serve you well in the workplace, and make you popular with your Cantonese speaking managers and employers or employees.

Learning to speak Cantonese properly is also a sign of respect for not only the language, but also the native speakers and their customs.

1) Use voice recording tools to perfect your pronunciation

CantoneseClass101 has plenty of resources to help you with your Cantonese pronunciation, so be sure to make thorough use of our recordings with native Cantonese speakers. These are available not only to demonstrate to you how you should pronounce Cantonese vocabulary, but also sentences and dialogues. Watch and listen to these over and over again to train your ear, and watch the teacher’s mouth as she speaks in the video lessons. Then, copy the speech as best you can. Later, you can record yourself to hear if you sound like a native speaker and compare yourself with native speakers. Great for self-motivation.

2) Practice in front of the mirror.

And see that you’re copying the correct lip and mouth movements.

3) Use our CantoneseClass101 dictionary!

Use the Cantonese dictionary provided by CantoneseClass101 to look up words and listen to the audio pronunciation. This will go a long way towards giving you an idea of how to pronounce a word or letter correctly.

4) Train your ear to the language!

Make an effort to listen often to Cantonese music and recorded books, and watch plenty of Cantonese movies and/or TV shows in Cantonese. This will train your ear to the language, and you’ll be surprised how quickly you pick up the accent. Remember, this is the way we learned to speak when we were young - mostly by listening to the adults talking, and repeating what they say!

5) Practice, practice, practice… 

Repetition of the same thing may be boring, but in learning a new language, you’re creating new pathways in your brain. For these to remain and become habitual, you will need to repeat the correct pronunciation often.

6) Make friends with a native Cantonese speaker.

Don’t be shy to address them in Cantonese! Ask them to correct you when you make a pronunciation mistake - this is a wonderful way to practice and learn the language first-hand, and also to make new friends.

7) Practice your pronunciation with your Cantonese teacher!

If you’re a serious student and don’t know where to meet native Cantonese speakers, consider investing in CantoneseClass101’s Premium PLUS plan. This means you will have your own native Cantonese teacher available to practice your pronunciation with, and much more! Send recordings of yourself speaking Cantonese and get feedback from your Cantonese teacher.

We hope that our ultimate guide in Cantonese pronunciation proved helpful to you. Learning the pronunciation of the language spoken in Hong Kong will ensure you have a much better time in this beautiful place, even if it’s difficult at first. With CantoneseClass101.com, you can have your daily dose of Cantonese whenever and wherever you want, through your mobile apps, desktop software, and our website. We offer entertaining, engaging, and effective lessons on various aspects of the Cantonese language and culture. Until now, we’ve delivered more than 750,000,000 lessons to thousands of happy students from all around the globe. You can learn Cantonese with over 1060 audio and video lessons delivered by our knowledgeable and energetic hosts, detailed PDF lesson notes, an abundance of vocabulary learning tools, spaced repetition flashcards, and a lively community to discuss the lessons with fellow learners. What are you waiting for? Download our lessons, enjoy our audio and video files, and start learning now! And keep in mind that if you prefer a one-on-one learning approach and want to further accelerate your Cantonese learning, you can take advantage of our MyTeacher program by upgrading to Premium Plus!