Reading and Writing Cantonese with Latin Script
tsong kit introduction | table of contents

• Consonants
• Vowels
• Inflection

Warning: This page is not meant to be authoritative and is by no means the last word on Hong Kong Cantonese phonetics. It is a phonemic starting point developed for the purpose of learning Tsong Kit and Hong Kong Cantonese online. It is modifed Guangdong Cantonese.

韻母
wan-6 mou-5

Vowels
consonants | inflection | table of contents

韻母 wan-6 mou-5	中文 dzung-1 man-4	粵音 jyt-9 jam-1	英文 jing-1 man-4
Vowels	Chinese	Cantonese (Hong Kong) pronunciation	Other language quasi-equivalent
單純韻母 dan-1 soen-4 wan-6 mou-5 Pure Vowels
a	呀	a-1	top, crop, watt
i	衣	ji-1	eat, seat, meet
u	嗚	wu-1	who, two, coup
e	些	se-1	fait, quai, (F)
oe	靴	hoe-1	Goethe (G)
y	於	jy-1	ueber, frueh, bluehen (G)
o	疏	so-1	fought, often, wrought
Note: The vowel i used in combination with consonants often sounds like the English e in words like deck, check, and feckless. This is probably a Hong Kong colloquialism. An example can be found in the Cantonese word for translation 翻譯. Although transcribed as fan-1yik-9, the pronunciation of the vowel i in 譯 is much closer to the English e in check, as the i in chick.
			vowels
複合韻母 fuk-7 hap-9 wan-6 mou-5 Complex Vowels
ai	唉	ai-1	Ay!, buy, fly
au	拋	pau-1	how, cow, brown
ei	基	gei-1	weigh, say, hay
iu	腰	jiu-1	see you (eeyou)
ou	都	dou-1	dough, row, toe
oi	哀	oi-1	boy, soy, Roy
oey	居	goey-1	oe + y
ui	胚	pui-1	gooey, phui
			vowels
帶鼻聲韻母 dai-3 bei-6 sing-1 man-6 mou-5 Nasaslized Vowels
am	庵，菡	am-1	lahm; kam (G)
im	淹	jim-1	team, scheme, seem
an	晏，根之韻	an-1, gan-1	Hahn; an (G)
in	煙	jin-1	seen, wean, bean
on	安	on-1	fawn, lawn
oen	津之韻	oen-1	schoen (G)
un	豌	un-1	noon, tune
yn	鴛	yn-1	Huene (G)
ang	罌，鶯	ang-1	lang, Gang (G)
eng	廳	ting-1	eng (G)
ing	英	jing-1	eng (G)
ong	盎		song, gong, wrong
oeng	昋	hoeng-1
ung	甕	ung-3	hung, Hunger (G)
			vowels

Credits

• 布裕民。牛津中文初階詞典大。牛津大學出版。一九九八年。