Cantonese for English speakers — where to begin

What is Cantonese?

Cantonese is a Sinitic language — related to Mandarin, but a different language, not a dialect you can guess your way through. It's the everyday spoken language of Hong Kong and Macau, and it's heard in Chinatowns worldwide.

One important convention this site follows: written Chinese ≠ spoken Cantonese. Formal written Chinese (the kind used in newspapers and official signs) follows Mandarin-style grammar. Everyday Cantonese speech uses its own vocabulary and grammar — 係 (hai6) instead of 是, 唔 (m4) instead of 不, 冇 (mou5) instead of 沒有. This course teaches real spoken Cantonese, written in Traditional Chinese characters the way Hong Kongers actually write it in messages.

Jyutping — the romanization this course uses

Jyutping is the modern standard romanization for Cantonese, developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong. Each syllable is written as initial + final + tone number: nei5 hou2 (你好, hello) breaks down as n + ei + 5 and h + ou + 2.

• The number at the end is the tone — there are six tones in modern Hong Kong Cantonese.
• Jyutping is a learning aid, not a writing system. Real Cantonese is written with characters; Jyutping tells you how to pronounce them.
• You don't need to memorize every rule today — the tones article and initials & finals article cover everything in detail.

Six tones — the famous part

Cantonese distinguishes six tones. Tones 1–3 occupy the higher part of the pitch range, while tones 4–6 occupy the lower part. The exact pitch is relative to the speaker, not a fixed musical interval. Tone changes the word completely — si1 (poem) and si4 (time) are different words.

Good news: tones come naturally from listening and copying, not from math. Use the audio buttons on every example, and read the six-tones guide when you're ready to go deeper.

The easy news — Cantonese grammar is simple

After the tones, grammar will feel like a relief:

• No verb conjugation — the verb never changes for person or tense. 食 (sik6, eat) works for "I eat", "he ate", and "they will eat"; aspect markers do the rest.
• No grammatical gender, no articles — no "the/a", no masculine/feminine.
• SVO word order — same basic order as English: 我食飯 (ngo5 sik6 faan6) = "I eat rice/meal".
• Three verbs to know early: 係 (hai6) = "to be" (identity), 喺 (hai2) = "to be at" (location), 有 (jau5) = "to have / there is". They look similar but do different jobs — this article keeps them straight.

Five phrases to try today

How to study this course

Work through the stages in order — each builds on the last:

• **STEP 1 — Sounds:** learn Jyutping and the six tones, then initials & finals. You don't need perfect pronunciation; you need enough to hear and copy.
• **STEP 2 — Grammar:** sentence patterns, pronouns, negation, aspect, particles, classifiers. This is where sentences start feeling natural.
• **STEP 3 — Words & conversation:** the highest-frequency vocabulary, greetings, and numbers.
• **STEP 4 — Real-world Cantonese:** travel, restaurant, and transport phrases for Hong Kong.

Every Cantonese word and phrase in this course has a 🔊 button — use it. The Wonton Cantonese app lets you drill the same phrases between readings.

Mini practice