Singing Cantonese

Edward Tsang 2012.06.14-15

Cantonese is a tone language. So instead of "speaking Cantonese", one should try to "sing Cantonese". Following are a few useful phrases. They are not perfect pronunciations, but singing will be better than not singing for sure.


Notes:
  1. Sing every note in one quaver in Cantonese.
  2. Sing in any key.

"Thank you (for kindness in general)" or "Excuse me"
sing "mmm goi" in s r'

"Thank you very much (for kindness in general)"
sing "mmm goi sai" in s r' d'

"Don't mention it"
When someone says "mmm goi" (thank you for your kindness) to you, you may sing "mmm sei mmm goi" in s d'# s r'.
Don's worry about being out of tone, as above are not the perfect tones anyway. Just make sure that "sei" is lower than "goi" a bit.

"Thank you (for a present)"
sing "dor jer" in r' l

"Thank you very much (for a present)"
sing "dor jer sai" in r' l d'

"You are very kind"
sing "nei ho ho yun" in d' r' r' f
Yes, the final note sounds drammatically low. It wasn't a typo of f'.

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Related: Don't Speak Chinese, Sing it


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