Listen to Podcast | Cantonese: How Do You Say “What are you talking about?”
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New Words
| English | Cantonese | Jyutping | Our Romanization |
|---|---|---|---|
| You all | 你哋(你们) | Nei5 dei2 | Lei dei |
| What are you all talking about? | 你哋係講乜嘢? (你们在讲什么?) | Nei5 dei2 hai6 gong2 mat1 je5? | Lei dei hai gong mat yeh? |
| Listen | 聽(听) | Ting3 | Teng |
| I have never heard of this before | 我冇(没)听过 | Ngo5 mou5 ting3 gwo3 | Ngor mou teng gwo |
| Give | 畀(给) | Bei2 | Bei |
| Can you explain to me? | 你可唔可以講畀我听? (你可不可以讲给我听?) | Nei5 ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 gong2 bei2 ngo5 ting3? | Lei hor mm hor yi gong bei ngor teng? |
| I don’t understand | 我唔明 (我不明白) | Ngo5 m4 ming4 | Ngor mm meng |
| Can you say it one more time? | 你可唔可以講多一次? (你可不可以讲多一次?) | Nei5 ho2 m4 ho2 ji5 gong2 do1 jat1 ci3? | Lei hor mm hor yi gong dor yat ci? |
Podcast Transcript | Cantonese: How Do You Say “What are you talking about?”
Hi everyone and a warm welcome to all of our listeners! This is Eugene from LearnDialect.sg. Well, so far, you’ve picked up quite a few conversation starters as well as phrases for self-introduction. Now, imagine you had just turned up at a social gathering. What can you say to join an ongoing conversation? Let’s find it out on today’s Cantonese – How Do You Say Podcast!
Personally, to join a conversation, I’ll like to ask for a quick download, so that I can contribute constructively. To do that, I would typically say 你哋係講乜嘢?
你哋 means “You all” so to ask the question of “What are you all talking about?”, you can phrase it as 你哋係講乜嘢?
Now, I’ll like to be prepared for the worst situation. What if it’s a conversation topic that you are totally not familiar with? You can say 我冇听过, 你可唔可以講畀我聽? This translates to, “I have never heard of this before. Can you tell me more?”
Ok, here’s one more useful phrase for you.
At any point of the conversation that you feel lost again, try saying this – 我唔明, 你可唔可以講多一次? This means “I don’t get it. Can you say it one more time?”
Summing up today’s podcast, here are the new phrases for this week:
What are you talking about? 你哋係講乜嘢?
I have never heard of this before. Can you tell me more? 我冇听过, 你可唔可以講畀我聽?
I don’t get it. Can you say it one more time? 我唔明, 你可唔可以講多一次?
Well, let me know how your next Cantonese conversation go! Feel free to share with us by leaving us a comment on Facebook or Instagram. Remember, keep practising! Thank you for listening in to our Cantonese – How Do You Say Podcast. I’m Eugene from LearnDialect.sg and see you the next week!
Love what you are reading? We’ve got lots more to share during our Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese express workshops. Join us to pick up words and phrases for everyday use in Singapore. More importantly, you can help to keep these languages alive!
Our Philosophy for Learning Cantonese in Singapore
At LearnDialect.sg, we want to make learning Cantonese fun, easy and practical for daily conversations in Singapore. As such, rather than figuring out which of the 10 or more Cantonese romanization system to use (e.g. Jyutping, Yale or Cantonese Pinyin etc.), we encourage you to form your own phonics, so that you make an association with these Cantonese words in the quickest way possible. To illustrate, the romanization of the English word, “eat”, is “Sik” using Jyutping and “Sihk” using Yale. However, in our “Have You Eaten?” podcast transcript, you’ll find that we use “sek”, which we think relates to us better. That said, you may use other romanization (e.g “sake”, “xig”, etc), as long as it helps you to make sense of what you hear.
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