Hey everyone,
I've been receiving a lot of help from others with learning to read Chinese and fix my bad grammar so I wanted to give back if any of you are just starting out. I feel guilty for getting such great help sometimes.
Anway, in Cantonese there are a lot of ways to say 'all the time', like yat yat (every day), mui chi (every time). Even saying 'sing yat' 'through-out the whole day' gets the point across. I was with my 'teacher' (wife) and she was trying to teach me a common way of saying 'from pt A to pt B' and it wasn't going through my head even though I knew most of the characters. She was upset because she said it's a very Hong Kong way of speaking and I should learn it and not be so clueless!
由細到大 - yau4 sai3 dou3 daai6 From small to big (ie from when I was small, to when I was an adult.)
My wife said you can set this up with a lot of other combinations. Here are a few examples that I know of that work -
由聖地牙哥到紐約 - yau4 sing3 dei6 nga4 go1 dou3 nau2 yeuk3 - From San Diego to New York
由朝到晚 yau4 jiu1 dou3 maan5 From morning until night
由頭到尾 yau4 tau4 dou3 mei5 From the start to the end (or another way to think of it is from head to tail)
These examples are some that I know of, but if anyone has more commentary feel free. I'm just a westerner getting his feet wet so their might be important details of using this specific grammar I don't know of.
I hope this helps a new learner with adjusting to Cantonese grammar.
I've been receiving a lot of help from others with learning to read Chinese and fix my bad grammar so I wanted to give back if any of you are just starting out. I feel guilty for getting such great help sometimes.
Anway, in Cantonese there are a lot of ways to say 'all the time', like yat yat (every day), mui chi (every time). Even saying 'sing yat' 'through-out the whole day' gets the point across. I was with my 'teacher' (wife) and she was trying to teach me a common way of saying 'from pt A to pt B' and it wasn't going through my head even though I knew most of the characters. She was upset because she said it's a very Hong Kong way of speaking and I should learn it and not be so clueless!
由細到大 - yau4 sai3 dou3 daai6 From small to big (ie from when I was small, to when I was an adult.)
My wife said you can set this up with a lot of other combinations. Here are a few examples that I know of that work -
由聖地牙哥到紐約 - yau4 sing3 dei6 nga4 go1 dou3 nau2 yeuk3 - From San Diego to New York
由朝到晚 yau4 jiu1 dou3 maan5 From morning until night
由頭到尾 yau4 tau4 dou3 mei5 From the start to the end (or another way to think of it is from head to tail)
These examples are some that I know of, but if anyone has more commentary feel free. I'm just a westerner getting his feet wet so their might be important details of using this specific grammar I don't know of.
I hope this helps a new learner with adjusting to Cantonese grammar.