There are 19 consonants in Cantonese. Here they are, in their full glory:
| Non-aspirated | Aspirated | Voiced Nasal | Fricative & Continuant | Approximant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b | p | m | f | |
| d | t | n | l | |
| g | k | ng | h | |
| gw | kw | w | ||
| z | c | s | j |
I’ve grouped the consonants into 6 groups, based on how similar they sound to what the letters might make you think they sound like in English:
The Red Ones (The Puffs)
The consonants marked in red are known as the Plosives, because of the way you make those sounds involve puffing some air out.
Having said that, the consonants b, d, g are strictly speaking “unaspirated”, meaning you shouldn’t really feel any air coming out if you put your hand in front of your mouth when you make the sound, so it’s a much, much softer version of their English equivalent.
| Unaspirated(little to no puff) | Aspirated(puffs of air) |
|---|---|
| b — soft version of ‘b’ in English, think ‘p’ in ‘spy’ | p — think ‘p’ in ‘pea’ |
| d — soft version of ‘d’ in English, think ‘t’ in ‘stay’ | t — think ‘t’ in ‘tan’ |
| g — soft version of ‘g’ in English, think ‘k’ in ‘sky’ | k — think ‘k’ in ‘key’ |
The Brown-ish Ones (The Familiar Ones)
(Why did I pick this colour?) Good news: these consonants sound like what you expect them to sound like in English. Just in case, here are a few words for each of the consonants:
| m — think ‘m’ in ‘my’ | f — think ‘f’ in ‘for’ | w — think ‘w’ in ‘west’ | | n — think ‘n’ in ‘no’ | l — think ‘l’ in ‘line’ | | | |h — think ‘h’ in ‘hall’ | |s — think ‘s’ in ‘see’
The Orange One (The y Sound)
Yes there’s only one vowel in this group. The consonant j is the ‘y’ sound in Englihs, but it’s spelt as j in Jyutping as the letter y is used already for the the vowel yu. This reminds me of German. Ja!
j — think ‘y’ in ‘yes’
The Purple Ones (The qu Sound)
The consonants in this group gw and kw are, as their letter say really, the combination of g or k with the w sound. The English equivalent is the ‘qu’ sounds, hence the name of this group. I’m not sure what to say of these, apart from that younger generations tend to use g and k instead of the full gw and kw sound for many words, because it’s easier to say.
| Unaspirated(little to no puff) | Aspirated(puffs of air) |
|---|---|
| gw — think the ‘qu’ in ‘squad’ | kw — think the ‘qu’ in ‘quack’ |
The Blue Ones (The New Ones)
These two consonants don’t exist exactly in English, so the best I can do here is to give you an approximation of what the sound should be to an English speaker. Like the Red and Purple groups the difference between the two consonants is one has no puff of air, and the other does.
| Unaspirated(little to no puff) | Aspirated(puffs of air) | | z — think the ‘ts’ sound in ‘cats’ | c — think the ‘ch’ sound in ‘chicken’
The Green One (The Infamous One)
This is perhaps the most infamous one of them all. Whilst the ng consonant does exist in English, it never goes in the beginning of an English word. Whereas in Cantonese there are several words that start with it (and a handful that is just ng, like:
But, despite all of this, it’s okay to aim for it and miss, as many natives also aim and miss when trying to say it, and ended with a m sound. Slightly frowned on by the elders (and some younger ones who may be keen to correct you), but they will understand what you mean.
ng — think ‘ng’ in ‘sing’