Written vs Spoken Cantonese

As most of you already knew, spoken Cantonese is quite different than written Cantonese, which is very similar to Chinese (Mandarin).
The written Chinese used is the same everywhere (Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan). This is called Standard Chinese.

Written Standard Chinese was largely formalised after Classical Chinese fell out of official use in the early 1900s, and was based on spoken Mandarin. Therefore, when one ‘writes in Chinese’, Mandarin speakers write as they speak, Cantonese speakers do not.

It is important to clarify the meanings of “Chinese”, “Cantonese” and “Mandarin”:
“Chinese” is 中文; 文 means “writing”.
“Cantonese” is 廣東話; 話 means “speech”.
“Mandarin” is 普通話; 話 means “”speech”.

In Hong Kong, Standard Chinese writing is used in all settings eg. signs, books, newspapers, websites, magazines, shops… So do not neglect standard written chinese! It is crucial to improve cantonese listening. It’s best to know both spoken cantonese and written chinese to really progress in cantonese. In formal written documents, Cantonese and Mandarin are the same. In fact, it’s required that all government documents in Hong Kong be written in formal Chinese, meaning it’s the same as Mandarin, and not colloquial Cantonese.

You will never see spoken Cantonese written down unless in the most informal, ‘chatty’ settings (eg. internet chat forums/gossip websites, gossip magazines, Facebook etc.), and educational purpose. For example:

Wikipedia’s articles on Beethoven Chinese
Cantonese

Other references: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_Cantonese

The way cantonese and mandarin is written is very similar when ignoring slang words and particles. Most cantonese/mandarin only words have a one to one correlation, following are some of the most common examples: