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Best resources for learning Cantonese grammar (self.hongkong)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Pat12 to c/hongkong

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cross-posted from: https://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?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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 1 points 1 year ago

Thank you! i am still learning the basics :)

I will check those out once I am more advanced!