Well, I’ll assume that you want to remember more than some cringe tourist level phrases to just get by.
Usually, Cantonese is a spoken language and is rarely written but there are too many Chinese T shirts with words designed to insult tourists that can’t read Chinese, so I insist on adding written characters instead of romanized pronunciations.
It’ll save you from a lot of humiliation, I promise.
“this dumb foreigner can’t understand chinese”
“hooker”
Cringe tourist words:
- Hallo obviously equals hello
- 唔該 is a super word that can mean “excuse me/ please/ thanks” at the same time
- 唔好意思/對唔住= sorry
- 多謝 = thanks
- 人 = human
- 錢 = money
- 公廁= public toilet
- 巴士 = bus
- 港鐵 = MTR, train service in Hong Kong (full name: mass transit railway)
- 電車 (slang: 丁丁) = tram (only available on Hong Kong island)
- 小巴 = minibus (a cuter looking bus but more expensive)
red roofed minibus = motorized death
The green roofed mini buses have more organized routes and their drivers are less sociopathic.
- 999 = EMERGENCY phone number for police/ambulance/firemen
- 電話 = phone (all kinds of phone), literally means “electric talk”
- 八達通 = octopus card, (cashless payment method in Hong Kong)
- bye bye = goodbye
- 迪士尼 = disney
- 海洋公園 = Ocean Park (rides + mountain cable car + aquariums all in one , plus cheaper than Disney)
- 食飯 = to eat a meal
- 飲茶 = BEST cantonese meal/banquet. Usually with relatives or oligarch friends. Takes place in a wine tower (酒樓) or tea tower (茶樓)
- 博物館 = museum
- 肉 = meat
- 魚 = fish
- 食齋 = eat vegetarian
Insults: (5 stars for usefulness) Nothing lets you gain respect faster from locals than mastering their profanity. Use these phrases in any scenarios, and I mean ANY.
- 屌你老母 = fuck you (not literally)
- 頂你個肺 also = fuck you
- 屌 = fuck (as a verb)
- 發夢啦 = in your dreams
- 白痴 = idiot
- 黐線 = deranged
- 收皮啦 = shut the fuck up
- 食屎啦 = go eat your own shit
- 人妖 = homophobic f word
Health and human anatomy: for obvious scientific research purposes 😉
- 陰道 = vagina (literally means “dark path”)
- 食道 = alimentary canal (literally means “food path”)
- 肛門 = anus (literally means “butt door”)
- 尿 = pee
- 口 = mouth
- 癌症 = cancer
- 新冠肺炎 = covid 19
- 性交 = have sex, literally means “gender exchange”
Politics:
- 選舉 = election
- 特首= chief executive (top government official in Hong Kong)
- 中共 = CPC, communist party of china
- 政變= coup
- 暗殺 = assassinate
- 奴役 = to enslave
Note: there are many levels of knowledge and this post will only bring you to the bottom 3 levels. So far, I have not known anyone who has created Cantonese, except maybe Jesus Christ himself.
鸡?只因？