naus888 Posted December 16, 2004 at 06:08 PM Report Share Posted December 16, 2004 at 06:08 PM How do you say the following in Cantonese? No Smoking You cannot smoke here Don't smoke here Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quest Posted December 16, 2004 at 07:09 PM Report Share Posted December 16, 2004 at 07:09 PM 禁止/不准吸烟/唔准食烟 呢度唔畀食烟 唔该唔好喺度食烟 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian_Lee Posted December 16, 2004 at 07:22 PM Report Share Posted December 16, 2004 at 07:22 PM Official sign posted in HK (i.e elevator) uses 不准吸烟. The main difference between Cantonese and Mandarin is 吸 vs 抽. Of course, if you say 抽烟 in Cantonese, people still understand what you mean. But probably they can guess that you are a non-native. IMHO 吸 (suck) is more accurate than 抽 (draw) to describe the action of smoking cigarettes. P.S. 不准吸煙 is more often used than 不准吸烟 in HK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naus888 Posted December 16, 2004 at 10:04 PM Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2004 at 10:04 PM Interesting that Cantonese uses 食 (to eat) in the vernacular. In Shanghaihua, we use a similar verb: 喫 (吃) (to eat, drink). Also since SHH is not very literary, we never say 吸煙 or 抽煙 in SHH, but only just 喫香煙 for "to smoke." 煙 is also never used by itself for tobacco, so 喫煙 would mean "eat smoke" rather than "to smoke." So, in SHH: No smoking 勿准喫香煙 You cannot smoke here. 儂搿搭勿可以喫香煙個 Do not smoke here. 覅勒勒搿搭喫香煙 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Roderic Posted December 18, 2004 at 03:59 PM Report Share Posted December 18, 2004 at 03:59 PM For questions about cantonese, I think you can post it here. A UK-based cantonese forum which gives a rapid response on cantonese learners. The answer usually comes with Cantonese pinyin (either Jyutyin or Yale Romanization system) . http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/phorum/ --------------------------------- Omnipotent Big Brother in Charge http://chinese-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=2894&start=20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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