In lesson 1, we learned about numbers, time and phonetics (Cantonese Pinyin).

The many tones in Cantonese make singing in Cantonese really fun (and composing music challenging as well). In this song 數字人生, a big part of the lyrics is plain numbers.

Numbers

ling4	jat1	ji6	saam1	sei3	ng5	luk6	tsat1	baat3	gau2	sap6	baak3	tsin1	maan6	bun3
零	一	二	三	四	五	六	七	八	九	十	百	千	萬（万）	半
0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	100	1000	10000	half

Conversation 對話

P：褚邦彥！
J：李冠燁！
P：食咗飯未呀？(Have you eaten?)
J：未呀，不如一齊咯！ (Not yet. How about we eat together?)
P：好啊！去天天見麵咯！ (Sure! Let’s go to Everyday Noodles!)
J：好！點去㗎？ (Yep. How can we get there?)
P：坐61ABCD，3分鐘就有車㗎喇。(We may take 61ABCD. There’ll be one in 3 minutes.)
J: 好呀！幾點開門？(Ok. When [does it] open?)
P：4點開門。而家5點3，已經開咗啦。 (It opens at 4. It’s now 5:15. It’s open.)
J：唔知碗牛肉麵要幾多錢？ (How much is the beef noodle soup?)
P：牛肉麵…大概11文啦。 (The beef noodle soup… About 11 dollars.)
J：我荷包（銀包）有11文，啱啱好夠！ (I have 11 dollars in my wallet. Just enough!)

Cantonese Pinyin

Here is a table of all the initials(consonant) and finals(vowels) used in Cantonese³. You may listen to the recordings and repeat the words for practice.

Initials:	Sound			Finals:
b	bed	巴士	bus	aa	亞馬喇前地	Praça de Ferreira do Amaral
p^	pig	泊車	parking	a	溼地	wetlands
m^	mat	馬路	road	e	咖啡	coffee
f	fort	花	flower	i	粉絲	Cellophane noodles/Chinese vermicelli
d	dent	大學	university	o	科學	science
t^	ten	太陽	sun	u	水壺	kettle
n^	net	女生	girl	oe	涼茶	herbal tea
l	late	龜苓膏	Guilinggao	eo	出口	export
g	gate	糯米雞	(a kind of dim sum1)	y	蒸魚	steamed fish
k^	king	番茄	tomato
ng^	sing	燒鵝	roast goose	m*	唔	not
h	hat	蝦餃	shrimp dumplings	ng*	五	five
gw	Guam	節瓜	Chi qua2
kw	quick	規則	rule
w	word	雲吞麵	wonton noodles
dz		蒸魚	steamed fish
ts	beds	飲茶	to drink tea
s	sand	沙田	Sha Tin
j	yes	蝦仁	peeled shrimp

Time

The notation of time in Cantonese is unique in a way that is not like English or Mandarin. Time notation is structured in this format as following:

X點/点 (dim2) Y（個字 (go3 zi6) ⁴）

X, as in X o’clock, is usually in 12-hour format just like in English.
What’s interesting is Y. It is the number that the minute-hand is over at the time.
For example:
05:45 / 17:45 – 五點九
09:20 / 21:20 – 九點四

As for on-the-hour and half-hour times, we use the words 正 (dzing3) and 半 to indicate.
03:00 / 15:00 – 三點正 or simply 三點
10:30 / 22:30 – 十點半

“What if I want to be accurate?” you say. In that case, you can always use “分 (fan1) “, which is the same as in Mandarin.
6:01 – 六點零一分
6:16 – 六點十六分

What time is it?

Now that you know how to tell time in Cantonese, try the following to test yourself.