Best resources for learning Cantonese grammar

cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/1346691

There are quite a few resources available for learning spoken Cantonese but i’ve found it difficult to find resources to learn Cantonese grammar.

For example, the sentence “he asked me to send you some photos” is, in my opinion, not a difficult sentence to translate in many languages but it seems particularly difficult in cantonese:

佢叫我 send的畫比你 keui yiu ngoh send dik waak bei nei he + ask + I + send + of + photo + ? + you

I have found this is called the “passive voice” but i don’t understand the sentence order or why/where this “bei” is used. I learnt that “bei” means “by” so i don’t understand why it’s used here.

Does anyone have any good resources for learning cantonese grammar, especially making sentences?

Astrealix,
@Astrealix@lemmy.world avatar

There’s unfortunately not many resources because most language learning apps tend to just say “Chinese” :p Honestly, I think most people just learn it from immersion — not many people learn it without a connection to the land and language.

seemebreakthis,

This girl is definitely an exception: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciI2WcPMS9c

Cloudless,
Cloudless avatar

佢 = he
叫 = ask/tell
我 = I
啲 = some/several
畫 = pictures
比 = to / give
你 = you

Pat12,

Where did you learn that 比 is a variation of 畀 ? I just saw on wikipedia that this is colloquial cantonese but i can’t find it in any grammar books

Cloudless,
Cloudless avatar

Grammar books are written by linguists. But languages are used by people.

比 is not officially a variation of 畀, but people commonly use or misuse it as one. No native Cantonese speaker will misunderstand the use of 比 in this context, even if it is not strictly correct.

It is similar to how some English words are often misspelled, but the meaning is still clear. For example, supersede vs supercede, advise vs advice.

Pat12,

比 is not officially a variation of 畀, but people commonly use or misuse it as one. No native Cantonese speaker will misunderstand the use of 比 in this context, even if it is not strictly correct.

Thanks for this information. As someone learning Cantonese how can I learn these topics? just from experience?

Cloudless,
Cloudless avatar

Ideally you should learn through a good teacher/tutor, they should inform you common variations etc.

I am not a learner so I can't really point you to learner resources. But I can suggest:

  • Some wikipeida pages are in Cantonese language, you can read them for practising
  • Visit some Cantonese-based forums so you can observe how people write cantonese casually

Keep posting questions to Cantonese communities on Lemmy. Many people are willing to help.

Pat12,

Thank you! i am still learning the basics :)

I will check those out once I am more advanced!

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