Reading and Writing Cantonese with Latin Script
tsong kit introduction | table of contents

Warning: This page is not meant to be authoritative and is by no means the last word on Hong Kong Cantonese phonetics. It is a phonemic starting point developed for the purpose of learning Tsong Kit and Hong Kong Cantonese online. It is modifed Guangdong Cantonese.

聲母
sing-1 mou-5
Consonants
vowels | inflection | table of contents

聲母
sing-1 mou-5
中文
dzung-1 man-4
粵音
jyt-9 jam-1
英文
jing-1 man-4
Consonants Chinese Cantonese
(Hong Kong) pronunciation
Other language quasi-equivalent
b 巴 ba-1 bat, book, beach
p 怕 pa-3 put, poke, pittance
m 馬 ma-5 man, moot, middle
d 打 da-2 do, deliberate, dollar
t 他 ta-1 team, tow, toss
n 拿 na-4 nothing, numb, nullify
l 啦 la-1 limb, lumber, life
g 家 ga-1 golf, good, goal
k 卡 ka-1 cat, cool, custard
ng 牙 nga-4 sing, rung, gong
h 蝦 ha-1 hat, hold, hide
gw 瓜 gwa-3 Guadalupe, Gwendolin
kw 誇 kwa-1 equivalent, quell, quiver
dz 咱 dza-1 jungle, juggle, judge
ts 茶 tsa-4 cheese, churl, chum
s 沙 sa-1 soil, sediment, settle
j 也 ja-5 yellow, use, yule
w 華 wa-4 water, wash, watt
Note: The consonant n is often pronounced as an l in Hong Kong. For example, the Cantonese greeting for "How are you?" rendered as 你好嗎﹖sounds much more like lei-5 hou-3 ma-1, than it does nei-5 hou-3 ma-1. As I will go by the book, the resulting Cantonese will be much more similar to that spoken in Shenzhen than in Hong Kong.

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