Latest / Learn Cantonese with Fexingo / Cantonese Time: Morning and Evening
Transcript
- Lucas: Hey everyone, welcome back to Learn Cantonese with Fexingo. I'm Lucas. Luna: And I'm Luna. Episode 157! Can you believe it? We've learned so much together. Lucas: We really have. And today we're going to talk about time of day — specifically morning and evening. Luna: Oh, like how to say 'good morning' and 'good evening' in Cantonese? I've been wanting to nail those. Lucas: Exactly. Let's start with the classic greeting for morning. In Cantonese, 'good morning' is 早晨. Luna: 早晨. Lucas: Perfect. 早晨. It literally means 'early morning', but it's the standard way to say good morning. Luna: So if I meet someone in the morning, I just say 早晨? Lucas: Yeah. That's all you need. Let's say it together. 早晨. Luna: 早晨. Lucas: Now, what about the evening? For 'good evening' or 'good night', we say 晚安. Luna: 晚安. That sounds a bit like the Mandarin way, but it's used in Cantonese too, right? Lucas: Yeah, very common. 晚安 can mean both 'good evening' and 'good night', depending on context. Like when you're leaving at night or going to bed. Luna: Got it. So 晚安 for evening or night. 早晨 for morning. Lucas: Now, let's add a couple more phrases. What about 'this morning'? That's 今朝. Luna: 今朝. Lucas: And 'this evening' is 今晚. Luna: 今晚. So 今朝 is this morning, 今晚 is this evening. That's pretty easy. Lucas: Let's put them in sentences. 'This morning I drank coffee.' In Cantonese: 今朝我飲咗咖啡. Luna: 今朝我飲咗咖啡. Lucas: Nice. That means 'this morning I drank coffee'. You remember the word for coffee from previous episodes? Luna: Yeah, 咖啡. So I can say 今朝我飲咗咖啡 if I had coffee this morning. What if I had tea? Lucas: Then just swap 咖啡 for 茶. 今朝我飲咗茶. Luna: 今朝我飲咗茶. Easy. Now for this evening? Lucas: How about 'this evening I will meet a friend'? That's 今晚我會見朋友. Luna: 今晚我會見朋友. So 會 is 'will'? And 見朋友 is 'meet a friend'? Lucas: Exactly. 會 is 'will', 見 is 'see/meet', 朋友 is 'friend'. So put it together: 今晚我會見朋友. Luna: 今晚我會見朋友. That's a useful sentence. I can imagine texting that to someone. Lucas: Let's practice all four phrases. First, greet me in the morning. Luna: 早晨. Lucas: 早晨. Now say good night. Luna: 晚安. Lucas: Say 'this morning I drank coffee.' Luna: 今朝我飲咗咖啡. Lucas: And 'this evening I will meet a friend.' Luna: 今晚我會見朋友. Lucas: You're a natural. Now let's think of a little scene. Say it's morning and you see a neighbor. Luna: I could just nod and say 早晨. Lucas: Yeah. Or if you're leaving a dinner party at night, you say 晚安 to everyone. Luna: I love that. It's so simple but it makes you sound polite. Lucas: That's right. And if you want to tell someone what you did this morning, you use 今朝. Or what you'll do tonight, 今晚. Luna: I can already picture using these. Like if someone asks what I did today, I can say 今朝我飲咗咖啡, and then 今晚我會見朋友. Lucas: Exactly. And honestly, if Fexingo has been helping you make actual progress with this language — if today's lesson was worth a coffee to you — that's the link. buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It keeps us ad-free and focused on teaching. Luna: Yeah, we really appreciate every bit of support. It helps us keep making these episodes for you. Lucas: Now back to our phrases. Let's review once more. 早晨. Luna: 早晨. Lucas: 晚安. Luna: 晚安. Lucas: 今朝. Luna: 今朝. Lucas: 今晚. Luna: 今晚. Lucas: And the sentence: 今朝我飲咗咖啡. Luna: 今朝我飲咗咖啡. Lucas: 今晚我會見朋友. Luna: 今晚我會見朋友. Lucas: You've got it. Keep practicing these, and next time you greet someone in Cantonese, you'll sound natural. Luna: I'm going to use 早晨 tomorrow morning with my neighbor. She's going to be so impressed. Lucas: That's the spirit. Thanks for joining us on Learn Cantonese with Fexingo. We'll be back with another tiny lesson soon. Luna: See you then. Practice your 早晨 and 晚安!