Learn where you should put those pesky time words when speaking Cantonese
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Welcome to CantoneseClass101.com. I’m David. |
| Nicole: 大家好, 我係 Nicole. (daai6 gaa1 hou2, ngo5 hai6 Nicole.) |
| David: And we’re here at Absolute Beginner Season 2 lesson 4. |
| Nicole: “Are you Late for Work in Hong Kong Today?” |
| David: I’m never late. So in this lesson we’ll learn about time. We’ve got a dialog here that takes place at work, it’s between two colleagues; and they’re speaking casual Cantonese, as always. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 我今朝遲到 (ngo5 gam1 ziu1 ci4 dou3.) |
| “I was late this morning.” |
| 遲到幾耐？ (ci4 dou3 gei2 noi6?) |
| “How late?” |
| 少少啫。十點。 (siu2 siu2 ze1. sap6 dim2.) |
| “Just a little. 10 o'clock.” |
| 一個鐘頭？ (jat1 go3 zung1 tau4?) |
| “An hour?” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So Nicole, have you ever been late? |
| Nicole: No, although sometimes my watch is a bit fast in the morning. |
| David: Of course.... actually, It's common for people in Hong Kong to work until seven or eight in the evening. |
| Nicole: That’s because we work hard. |
| David: So maybe being a bit late in the morning it’s understandable. |
| Nicole: But it's not that common. Everyone in Hong Kong is very industrious. |
| David: And the economy is really good, so it's a great place to start a career. |
| Nicole: Definitely. Lots of opportunity. |
| David: Anyway, our vocabulary today is about time. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Nicole: 遲到 (ci4 dou3) [natural native speed] |
| David: to be late |
| Nicole: 遲到 (ci4 dou3) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 遲到 (ci4 dou3) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 幾耐 (gei2 noi6) [natural native speed] |
| David: how long |
| Nicole: 幾耐 (gei2 noi6) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 幾耐 (gei2 noi6) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 少少 (siu2 siu2) [natural native speed] |
| David: a little |
| Nicole: 少少 (siu2 siu2) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 少少 (siu2 siu2) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 啫 (ze1) [natural native speed] |
| David: just (placed after an adjective) |
| Nicole: 啫 (ze1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 啫 (ze1) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 朝早 (ziu1 zou2) [natural native speed] |
| David: morning |
| Nicole: 朝早 (ziu1 zou2) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 朝早 (ziu1 zou2) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 中午 (zung1 ng5) [natural native speed] |
| David: noon |
| Nicole: 中午 (zung1 ng5) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 中午 (zung1 ng5) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 下晝 (haa6 zau3) [natural native speed] |
| David: afternoon |
| Nicole: 下晝 (haa6 zau3) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 下晝 (haa6 zau3) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 日頭 (jat6 tau2) [natural native speed] |
| David: daytime |
| Nicole: 日頭 (jat6 tau2) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 日頭 (jat6 tau2) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 夜晚 (je6 maan5) [natural native speed] |
| David: evening |
| Nicole: 夜晚 (je6 maan5) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 夜晚 (je6 maan5) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 今朝 (gam1 ziu1) [natural native speed] |
| David: this morning |
| Nicole: 今朝 (gam1 ziu1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 今朝 (gam1 ziu1) [natural native speed] |
| Nicole: 今晚 (gam1 maan1) [natural native speed] |
| David: tonight |
| Nicole: 今晚 (gam1 maan1) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nicole: 今晚 (gam1 maan1) [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| David: Let's have a closer look at some of these words and phrases. A lot of the new vocabularies are about times of the day. So the first word we have is.... |
| Nicole: 朝早 (ziu1 zou2) |
| David: “early morning” |
| Nicole: 朝早 (ziu1 zou2) |
| David: So how early is this? |
| We’re talking about from 6am to 9 or 10ish am |
| David: So you can say “In the early morning, I had breakfast.” |
| Nicole: 朝早我食咗早餐 (ziu1 zou2 ngo5 sik6 zo2 zou2 caan1). It’s “In the morning, I had breakfast.” |
| David: So after the “morning”, here we’ve got... |
| Nicole: 中午 (zung1 ng5) |
| David: which is “noon”. What’s between 9 o’clock and noon? |
| Nicole: Nothing, we don’t have that in Cantonese. I guess you can say 朝早 (ziu1 zou2). |
| David: I see, so there’s no separate word for that. It’s just work time… We jump right from early morning to noon. |
| Nicole: 中午 (zung1 ng5) |
| David: “At noon, I have lunch” |
| Nicole: 中午我食午餐 (zung1 ng5 ngo5 sik6 ng5 caan1). Or normally, you’ll here people in Hong Kong say 中午我食lunch (zung1 ng5 ngo5 sik6 lunch). |
| David: So people actually say “lunch”. |
| Nicole: Yeah. |
| David: Let’s hear that again. |
| Nicole: 中午我食lunch (zung1 ng5 ngo5 sik6 lunch). |
| David: So the next 2 words are “afternoon”... |
| Nicole: 下晝 (haa6 zau3) |
| David: and “evening”... |
| Nicole: 夜晚 (je6 maan5) |
| David: So how do we use these in sentences |
| Nicole: You can say 下晝我做嘢 (haa6 zau3 ngo5 zou6 je5) “afternoon I work”; Or 夜晚我去酒吧 (je6 maan5 ngo5 heoi3 zau2 baa1). |
| David: “Evening I go to the bar”. Alright, so if you meet someone and you want to invite them out in the evening, how would you do that? |
| Nicole: 夜晚得唔得閒 (je6 maan5 dak1 m4 dak1 haan4) |
| David: “Do you have time in the evening?” |
| Nicole: 夜晚得唔得閒 (je6 maan5 dak1 m4 dak1 haan4) |
| David: Once again, “In the evening”... |
| Nicole: 夜晚 (je6 maan5) |
| David: “do you have time?” |
| Nicole: 得唔得閒 (dak1 m4 dak1 haan4) |
| David: Alright. Our last 2 words are “this morning”... |
| Nicole: 今朝 (gam1 ziu1) |
| David: and “tonight”... |
| Nicole: 今晚 (gam1 maan1) |
| David: As in the following sentences. |
| Nicole: 今朝我去飲茶 (gam1 ziu1 ngo5 heoi3 jam2 caa4) “I go to Cantonese restaurant this morning to have Cantonese brunch”; Or 今晚我去玩 (gam1 maan1 ngo5 heoi3 waan2) “this evening I’ll go to have some fun”. |
| David: Ok. |
| Nicole: Before we go, please pay attention to the tones of the 2 words 今朝 (gam1 ziu1) and 今晚 (gam1 maan1), all 4 sounds use the first tone. |
| David: Very high and flat. Ok. So those were a bunch of time words. We’re gonna run these again in our grammar section. We’ll talk about how to put them in sentences. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: So Nicole, in Cantonese time words are really easy. |
| Nicole: That’s right, just put it at the beginning of the sentences |
| David: We basically just take the time words and put it at the beginning of the sentences. Let’s have some examples. |
| Nicole: 朝早去飲茶 (ziu1 zou2 heoi3 jam2 caa4) |
| David: “In the morning, to have Cantonese brunch.” |
| Nicole: 朝早去飲茶 (ziu1 zou2 heoi3 jam2 caa4) |
| David: And the subject there is probably “I”, we don’t state it, but it’s “I’m going to have lunch.” |
| Nicole: That’s right, or depend on the context. |
| David: So our next one is... |
| Nicole: 中午好熱 (zung1 ng5 hou2 jit6) |
| David: “It's hot at noon.” |
| Nicole: Next we have 下晝好忙 (haa6 zau3 hou2 mong4) |
| David: “I'm busy in the afternoon.” |
| David: Pay attention to the time words in these sentences, these are the time words we reviewed a bit earlier in the last session. |
| Nicole: And in the lesson we just mentioned, the time word is 下晝 (haa6 zau3). |
| David: “afternoon” |
| Nicole: 下晝 (haa6 zau3) |
| David: Okay, for our last 3 sentences we’re going to reverse things. We’re going to give you the English first, if you can’t translate the whole sentence, try to at least translate the time phrases. “To go out at night” |
| Nicole: 夜晚去玩 (je6 maan5 heoi3 waan2) |
| David: “To go out at night” |
| Nicole: 夜晚去玩 (je6 maan5 heoi3 waan2) |
| David: So the time word there is “night”. |
| Nicole: 夜晚 (je6 maan5). |
| David: How about “I wasn't late this morning.” |
| Nicole: 今朝冇遲到 (gam1 ziu1 mou5 ci4 dou3) |
| David: “I wasn't late this morning.” |
| Nicole: 今朝冇遲到 (gam1 ziu1 mou5 ci4 dou3) |
| David: And the time word there is “morning”. |
| Nicole: 今朝 (gam1 ziu1). And if you want to add the subject, you can add it at the very beginning of the sentence, even before the time phrase. So “I wasn't late this morning.” can be said as: 我今朝冇遲到 (ngo5 gam1 ziu1 mou5 ci4 dou3). |
| Right, it’s like lego, we just put the subject at the beginning, and we don’t need to change anything else. |
| David: We’ve got one more sentence for you, and that would be an answer if someone asks you out, it’s “I'll be free tonight.” |
| Nicole: 今晚得閒 (gam1 maan1 dak1 haan4) |
| David: “I'll be free tonight.” |
| Nicole: 今晚得閒 (gam1 maan1 dak1 haan4) |
| David: Again there’s no subject here, we can add it. |
| Nicole: 我今晚得閒 (ngo5 gam1 maan1 dak1 haan4) |
| David: “I, tonight, to be free.” |
| Nicole: Actually the word order in Cantonese is very free and loose. If you want to stick in 我 (ngo5) after 今晚 (gam1 maan1), that’s okay too. |
| David: So you can choose, you can either put the subject before the time phrase, or after the time phrase. |
| Nicole: Right. |
Outro |
| David: That’s our podcast for today, we hope you like it. |
| Nicole: Bye-bye. |
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