Cantonese → English
English uses 43 sounds. You already own 17 of them from Cantonese. The other 26 are the work — and 24 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
English: make · written "a_e", "ai", "ay", "ei (eight)"
Your /ei/ is the one in sei3 四 (four).
the move: close, but not identical
English: hair · written "air", "are (care)", "ear (bear)"
American: /ɛr/.
Your /ei/ is the one in sei3 四 (four).
the move: labiodental → dental
English: think · written "th"
Tongue between the teeth, no voice.
Your /f/ is the one in fan3 瞓 (to sleep).
the move: alveolar → postalveolar
English: ship · written "sh", "ti (-tion)", "ci", "ssi"
Your /s/ is the one in sik6 食 (to eat).
the move: alveolar → postalveolar
English: church · written "ch", "tch", "tu (nature)"
Your /t͡s/ is the one in zung1 中 (middle).
the move: close, but not identical
English: bed · written "e", "ea (bread)"
Your /ɛː/ is the one in se2 寫 (to write).
the move: close, but not identical
English: time · written "i_e", "igh", "y", "ie (pie)"
Your /aːi/ is the one in gaai1 街 (street).
the move: close, but not identical
English: boy · written "oi", "oy"
Your /ɔːi/ is the one in hoi1 開 (to open).
the move: close, but not identical
English: house · written "ou", "ow"
Your /aːi/ is the one in gaai1 街 (street).
the move: close-mid → near-close
English: near · written "ear", "eer", "ere (here)"
American: /ɪr/.
Your /ei/ is the one in sei3 四 (four).
the move: voiced
English: dog · written "d", "dd", "-ed"
Your /t/ is the one in daai6 大 (big).
the move: voiced
English: go · written "g", "gg", "gu"
Your /k/ is the one in go3 個 ((classifier)).
the move: voiced
English: very · written "v", "f (of)"
Your /f/ is the one in fan3 瞓 (to sleep).
the move: voiced
English: zoo · written "z", "zz", "s (plural after voiced, between vowels)"
Your /s/ is the one in sik6 食 (to eat).
the move: central → front
English: cat · written "a"
Between /ɛ/ and /a/; mouth wide.
Your /ɐ/ is the one in sam1 心 (heart).
the move: front → central
English: bird · written "er", "ir", "ur", "ear (earth)"
American: /ɝ/ with the r.
Your /ɛː/ is the one in se2 寫 (to write).
the move: near-open → mid
English: about · written "any unstressed vowel"
The commonest English vowel. banana = /bəˈnɑːnə/.
Your /ɐ/ is the one in sam1 心 (heart).
the move: near-open → mid
English: home · written "o_e", "oa", "ow", "o (final)"
American: /oʊ/.
Your /ɐi/ is the one in sai3 細 (small).
the move: labiodental → dental, voiced
English: this · written "th (function words, between vowels)"
the, this, that, they, mother, breathe.
Your /f/ is the one in fan3 瞓 (to sleep).
the move: alveolar → postalveolar, voiced
English: measure · written "s (measure)", "si (vision)", "ge (beige)"
Your /s/ is the one in sik6 食 (to eat).
the move: alveolar → postalveolar, voiced
English: judge · written "j", "g (e,i,y)", "dge"
Your /t͡s/ is the one in zung1 中 (middle).
the move: unrounded
English: cup · written "u", "o (son, love)", "ou (young)"
Your /ɔː/ is the one in ngo5 我 (I).
Words you may say identically
Two or more English sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
- f = v = θ = ð → your f vs vs vs
- s = z = ʃ = ʒ → your s vs vs vs train this pair →
- eɪ = ɪə = eə → your ei vs vs
- p = b → your p vs
- t = d → your t vs
- k = ɡ → your k vs
- t͡ʃ = d͡ʒ → your t͡s vs train this pair →
- ɹ = w → your w vs
- ɛ = ɜː → your ɛː vs
- æ = ə → your ɐ vs
- ɔː = ʌ → your ɔː vs
- aɪ = aʊ → your aːi vs
Genuinely new
Nothing in Cantonese sits close to these. They sound foreign in your mouth — which is the good news: you can hear that you are not saying them yet.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Cantonese | English | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed | Stress-timed |
| Stress | No contrastive stress; prominence comes from particles and from changed tone (變調) lifting a syllable to tone 2. | 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/. |
| Pitch | lexical tone — pitch changes the word | 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'). |
What you have that English doesn't
25 sounds with no job in English. 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 Cantonese has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned English 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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