English → Cantonese
Cantonese uses 42 sounds. You already own 17 of them from English. The other 25 are the work — and 25 of those are the dangerous kind: close enough to something you already say that you will substitute them without hearing yourself do it.
The silent swaps
Your mouth has something close enough to reach for. These survive for years precisely because they sound right to you — the fix is hearing the difference first, not trying harder.
the move: close, but not identical
Cantonese: Canton (in 廣東) · written "gw"
Your /k/ is the one in cat (cat).
the move: close, but not identical
Cantonese: four · written "ei"
Your /eɪ/ is the one in make (make).
the move: postalveolar → alveolar
Cantonese: middle · written "z"
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in church (church).
the move: aspirated
Cantonese: friend (in 朋友) · written "p"
Your /p/ is the one in pen (pen).
the move: aspirated
Cantonese: same / with · written "t"
Your /t/ is the one in tea (tea).
the move: longer
Cantonese: to write · written "e"
Your /ɛ/ is the one in bed (bed).
the move: rounded
Cantonese: fish · written "yu"
French u.
Your /iː/ is the one in see (see).
the move: longer
Cantonese: street · written "aai"
Your /aɪ/ is the one in time (time).
the move: longer
Cantonese: to teach · written "aau"
Your /aɪ/ is the one in time (time).
the move: front → central
Cantonese: heart · written "a"
SHORT a.
Your /æ/ is the one in cat (cat).
the move: postalveolar → alveolar, aspirated
Cantonese: to go out · written "c"
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in church (church).
the move: mid → near-open
Cantonese: small · written "ai"
Your /əʊ/ is the one in home (home).
the move: mid → near-open
Cantonese: nine · written "au"
Your /əʊ/ is the one in home (home).
the move: open-mid → close-mid
Cantonese: good · written "ou"
Your /ɔɪ/ is the one in boy (boy).
the move: near-open → open, longer
Cantonese: three · written "aa"
LONG a. saam1 三 vs sam1 心 — length changes the word.
Your /æ/ is the one in cat (cat).
the move: mid → close-mid, rounded
Cantonese: letter / to believe · written "eo"
Your /ə/ is the one in about (about).
the move: mid → close-mid, rounded
Cantonese: water · written "eoi"
Your /əʊ/ is the one in home (home).
the move: near-close → close, longer
Cantonese: small · written "iu"
Your /ɪə/ is the one in near (near).
the move: rounded, longer
Cantonese: fragrant (Hong Kong's Hong) · written "oe"
Your /ɛ/ is the one in bed (bed).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
Cantonese: cup · written "ui"
Your /uː/ is the one in food (food).
the move: close, but not identical
Cantonese: not · written "m (alone)"
A whole syllable with no vowel.
Your /m/ is the one in man (man).
Words you may say identically
Two or more Cantonese sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
- k = kʰ = kʷ = kʷʰ → your k vs vs vs train this pair →
- ɐi = ɐu = ɵy → your əʊ vs vs
- p = pʰ → your p vs
- m = m̩ → your m vs
- t = tʰ → your t vs
- ŋ = ŋ̩ → your ŋ vs
- t͡s = t͡sʰ → your t͡ʃ vs
- aː = ɐ → your æ vs train this pair →
- ɛː = œː → your ɛ vs
- iː = yː → your iː vs
- uː = uːi → your uː vs
- aːi = aːu → your aɪ vs
- ou = ɔːi → your ɔɪ vs
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| English | Cantonese | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Stress-timed | Syllable-timed |
| Stress | Contrastive, and unmarked in writing — the single most common cause of not being understood. Dozens of noun/verb pairs differ only in where the stress goes, and every unstressed vowel collapses to /ə/. | No contrastive stress; prominence comes from particles and from changed tone (變調) lifting a syllable to tone 2. |
| Pitch | No lexical tone, but intonation carries an enormous amount: rise for yes/no questions, fall for statements and wh-questions, and a whole grammar of contrast ('I didn't say SHE took it'). | lexical tone — pitch changes the word |
What you have that Cantonese doesn't
26 sounds with no job in Cantonese. They are not mistakes — but they are where an accent leaks in, because a sound you own is easy to use when a hard one is due.
The honest caveat
This is a prediction from the shape of two sound systems, not a recording of you. It says what your inventory makes likely — it cannot know that your English has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned Cantonese from someone whose accent you copied. A teacher listening to you beats it. Use it to know what to listen for.
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