What's New?
(this website gets updated regularly so check back here to see what
has changed!).
12th June 2009
CantoDict
v1.3.17
is now live.
The forum post previews to the right have been changed to allow the full post
to be seen. Just click the "+-" links next to them to expand.
Server issues continue to be a problem, I hope to migrate to somewhere more
stable soon.
10th January 2009
Happy New Year to everybody!
I've had very little time to be present on this site for the past few months,
for which I apologise [...]
More
Information...
30th October
A major server upgrade is underway meaning disruption to CantoDict and our
forums. Apologies for any inconvenience.
More Information...
/\dam
Last 10 posts in our forums:
Re: Quotes from previous messages 02:09 by Muzza
[+-] Quote
rathpy
Just click on the Quote link of the text you want to (partially) quote.
You'll notice their text is enclosed in tags. eg. [ quote = Muzza ] blah de blah de blah [ / quote]
Delete the stuff you don't want. eg [ quote = Muzza ] blah [ / quote]
Followed your advice and here's the result. Thanks very much for that rathpy.
Neil
Re: Cantonese in Shenzhen 02:06 by Muzza
[+-] Quote
WANNABEAFREAK
I don't have trouble speaking Cantonese in Shenzhen. Actually tons can speak it but have horrible rough sounding accents. Personally real practice of Cantonese doesn't come from hotels, shops, restaurants etc. To get good at Cantonese you need to have huge input and huge amounts of extended conversations.
Realistically when you go to the shops, eg. 7-Eleven, you will just give her the coke, she says the price, you pay and then leave. Not going to improve your Chinese if at all IMO.
Even if there was a huge amount of Cantonese in SZ, would you want to use these people for practice? Many have horrible country bumpkin accents like they are farmers or have never received education before.
I take your point about how to improve. Mine was only a flying visit to Shenzen, mainly for sightseeing, so I didn't have the time or opportunity to meet people outside the hotel, restaurants, shops, sightseeing spots and so on. I do get more conversation practice with native speaking friends in Hong Kong. On my recent Hong Kong stay of twelve days, I got quite a lot of good practice. And I'm told each time I visit, that my Cantonese has improved. It's still crap mind you, but it is improving. I'll just keep trying to get that huge input that you mention, and speak whenever and wherever I can.
Re: Quotes from previous messages 01:23 by rathpy
[+-] Quote
Muzza
Could someone tell me how to quote just part of a previous message, so that it ends up as an outlined quote in the new message. I must be thick, because I cant seem to work it out; I either get the whole message outlined, or nothing at all.
Just click on the Quote link of the text you want to (partially) quote.
You'll notice their text is enclosed in tags. eg. [ quote = Muzza ] blah de blah de blah [ / quote]
Delete the stuff you don't want. eg [ quote = Muzza ] blah [ / quote]
Quotes from previous messages 00:18 by Muzza
[+-] Could someone tell me how to quote just part of a previous message, so that it ends up as an outlined quote in the new message. I must be thick, because I cant seem to work it out; I either get the whole message outlined, or nothing at all.
Re: Reading - lament of a cantonese speaker 02/07/09 21:44 by domanlai
[+-] Quote
ml
You may say that's the same, but basically it just adds the "mouth" component to other words that sound that like to make it "writeable". It's almost like remonization.
I think it is a pity to speak like this.
The mouth key is certainly not semantic and may have the romanization role you mention so i agree that it not what is best in cantonese but ... in attempt to make people to write cantonese, it should not be analysed like this.
There are also Cantonese characters created with a semantic key while there are characters created with a lot of good sens like 冇 or 冚. Besides, we should not forget that some created characters have old characters origin (佢) and that Cantonese still uses quite a number of classical characters like 睇 or 食飲話 which are still verbs in cantonese while they are not anymore in mandarin.
lastly, I read that a number of created characters favoured the phonetic aspect because native speaker have no opportunity to academically learn specific characters. it seems that a number of them could have favoured old existing characters or smarter created characters. I don't know how logn is the list.
Well, the mouth characters should discourage people to read and write cantonese.
But as you said in older posts, the main problem is that nearly nothing (especially for children) is written in cantonese.
Re: carpool 02/07/09 20:59 by bybell
[+-] Hmm, I'm wondering if a noun needs to be after 共乘 unless the context is understood. For example:
[
music543.com]
因為那小雨,我才可以和你,共乘一把雨傘,靠得好緊好緊,
-Tony
Re: Problems registering new user 02/07/09 16:34 by yuetwoh
[+-] Anyone else having this problem?
Adam, Are you available to respond?
Re: washing machines 02/07/09 16:01 by WANNABEAFREAK
[+-] Quote
bernard
top load = 頂揭式 or 上置式
which is the preferred terminology when buying washing machines in hk and gz?
front load = 前揭 or 大眼雞 or 前置式 or 歐洲式 or 滾桶式 or 波輪式
which is the preferred terminology when buying washing machines in hk and gz?
Wifey said 前置式 for front load and not sure for top load.
Re: Cantonese in Shenzhen 02/07/09 15:58 by WANNABEAFREAK
[+-] Quote
Muzza
I was in Shenzhen last week for a couple of days hoping to get plenty of practice in Cantonese. I was disappointed because there seemed to be a predominance of Mandarin spoken in the places I was at. All thestaff at the hotel, shops, restaurants and tourist attractions etc - all Mandarin speakers. On my small sample, it seems the native language is being challenged by the language of immigrants from elsewhere in China.
I don't have trouble speaking Cantonese in Shenzhen. Actually tons can speak it but have horrible rough sounding accents. Personally real practice of Cantonese doesn't come from hotels, shops, restaurants etc. To get good at Cantonese you need to have huge input and huge amounts of extended conversations.
Realistically when you go to the shops, eg. 7-Eleven, you will just give her the coke, she says the price, you pay and then leave. Not going to improve your Chinese if at all IMO.
Even if there was a huge amount of Cantonese in SZ, would you want to use these people for practice? Many have horrible country bumpkin accents like they are farmers or have never received education before.
Re: How to translate: we have achieved everything we hoped for. 02/07/09 15:51 by C Chiu
[+-] 我哋所期望嘅嘢﹐全部都做到(or 實現)。