Cantonese emotion sounds/ words - part 1

Hello! Let’s talk a little about emotion words today. Emotion words are very important in the Cantonese language in order to fully express your emotions. Sometimes if you don’t add these emotion words, people can still understand you but they might not be able to read your emotions unless they are trying to read your face or if you expressively tell them about how you feel. There are many of them, don’t need to be startled, I will use the same or similar examples to guide you through them so you know how to use which emotion word in your sentences.

In Cantonese, there are the single character, double character, triple character and multiple character emotion words. First, today we will only discuss some single character emotion words. As well, these single character emotion words that I am talking about today, are usually seen at the beginning of the sentences rather than at the end of the sentences.

The first one we will talk about is the sound 哎 (Dummy PY: Eye), 哎 (Dummy PY: Eye) can express shock or functions as a sigh. When it functions as a sigh, for example:

哎! 我都唔知! (Dummy PY: Eye! Ngo Doe Um Gee) Meaning “Sigh! I also don’t know!”

or sometimes people might say with the two character emotion words,

哎吔! 我都唔知! (Dummy PY: Eye Ya! Ngo Doe Um Gee) Meaning “Sigh! I also don’t know!”

哎 (Dummy PY: Eye) is very often paired with 吔 (Dummy PY: Ya) to express surprise or shock, when they are paired they turn into the two character emotion words. For example:

哎吔! 我要食飯! (Dummy PY: Eye Ya! Ngo You Sick Farn) meaning “Oops! I need to eat” like they realized that they forgot to eat.

Or If someone trips over something, hurt themselves, they will also say: 哎吔! (Dummy PY: Eye Ya!)

Next, let’s talk about the 哈 (Dummy PY: Ha) sound. The 哈 (Dummy PY: Ha) sound can function just like the English sound “Ha”, in Cantonese the 哈 (Dummy PY: Ha) sound can express realization, starting a question, blaming, surprise, and how one feels good about oneself. For example for realization:

哈！係喎! (Dummy PY: Ha! High Wor) Meaning “Ha! Oh yes!” or in Hong Kong English “Ha! Yes wor!”

For example for starting a question:

“哈！你知唔知呀?” (Dummy PY: Ha! Neigh Gee Um Gee Ah?) meaning “Ha! Do you know?” or in Hong Kong English “Ha! Do you know ah?”

For example for blaming, at times the 哈 (Dummy PY: Ha) sound can also be degrading:

“哈！你咁都唔知?” (Dummy PY: Ha! Neigh Gum Doe Um Gee?) meaning “Ha! You don’t know even this?”

But it can also express surprise:

“哈！你咁都知?” (Dummy PY: Ha! Neigh Gum Doe Um Gee?) meaning “Ha! You know even this?”

But it can also be used to indicate that someone is being proud or cocky:

“哈！我知!” (Dummy PY: Ha! Ngo Gee!) meaning “Ha! I know!”

Let’s move onto another very similar 吓 (Dummy PY: Huh) sound. 吓 (Dummy PY: Huh) is used to question something or express surprise or shock, this 吓 (Dummy PY: Huh) has a slightly lower tone than 哈 (Dummy PY: Ha), it sounds more like the “huh?” in English. For example:

“吓! 我唔知喎!” (Dummy PY: Huh! Ngo Um Gee Wor!) meaning “Huh? I don't know!” or in Hong Kong English, “Huh? I don’t know wor.”

Another one that is so similar in function to 吓 (Dummy PY: Ha) sound is the 嘩(Dummy PY: Wah) sound. 嘩(Dummy PY: Wah) sound can just be expressing your feeling of surprise or questioning with a surprised tone. For example just expressing surprise:

“嘩! 我唔知喎!” (Dummy PY: Wah! Ngo Um Gee Wor!) meaning “Wah! I don't know!” or in Hong Kong English, “Wah! I don’t know wor.”

And for questioning with a surprised tone, you can say:

“嘩? 我唔知喎!” (Dummy PY: Wah? Ngo Um Gee Wor!) meaning “Wah? I don't know!” or in Hong Kong English, “Wah? I don’t know wor.”

There is another sound 呣 (Dummy PY: Um), also used to question as well as expressing surprise but slightly less surprised than 吓 (Dummy PY: Ha) and 嘩(Dummy PY: Wah) sound, for example:

“呣? 我唔知喎!” (Dummy PY: Umm? Ngo Um Gee Wor!) meaning “Umm? I don’t know!” or in Hong Kong English, “Umm? I don’t know wor.”

Or the 呣 (Dummy PY: Um) sound can also be used to express acknowledgement, for example:

“呣! 我知啦!” (Dummy PY: Um! Ngo Gee La!) meaning “Umm! I know!” or in Hong Kong English, “Um! I know la!”

The next couple ones I am going to talk about are less like English. The first sound I am going to talk about is 嗱 (Dummy PY: Nah), when 嗱 (Dummy PY: Nah) is used at the beginning of the sentence, it functions as the word to grab someone’s attention, for example:

嗱! 你睇? (Dummy PY: Nah! Neigh Tie?) meaning, “Here! You see?” Or sometimes 嗱 (Dummy PY: Nah) can also carry a cautionary tone, for example:

嗱! 你知㗎啦! (Dummy PY: Nah! Neigh Gee Ga La!) meaning “Here! You know now!” or in Hong Kong English, “Nah! You know ga La!” that just means, ok now you know, with the subtle undertone meaning, don’t tell me later on you didn’t know.

The next emotion sounds 𠳏 (Dummy PY: Cher) and 噓 (Dummy PY: Hui) carry the feeling of disdain or despise or disappointment, a little like “Boo” in English. How do we use it? For example:

𠳏! 你又話知! (Dummy PY: Cher! Neigh Yow Wah Gee!) meaning “Boo! You said you knew!”

Or

噓! 你又話知! (Dummy PY: Hui! Neigh Yow Wah Gee!) meaning “Boo! You said you knew!”

Or you are cheering or rooting against the situation or someone you can also use 𠳏 (Dummy PY: Cher) but not 噓 (Dummy PY: Hui) in this case.

𠳏! 我都有啦! (Dummy PY: Cher! Ngo Doe Yow La) meaning “Boo! I also have it” or in Hong Kong English “Cher! I also have it la.” To show that you look down upon something.

The last one I am talking about today is the emotion sound 吆 (Dummy PY: You), or you can also say 超 (Dummy PY: Chew), this is a sound that is very close to our swear word, so like instead of saying the swear word you are saying “Freak”/ “Fork”, whatever, you get the idea. These two emotion words are to show sort of in a joking way but not really all the time to show dissatisfaction.

吆! 你又話知! (Dummy PY: You! Neigh Yow Wah Gee!) meaning “Freak! You said you knew!”

Or

超! 你又話知! (Dummy PY: Chew! Neigh Yow Wah Gee!) meaning “Freak! You said you knew!”

Or even with a stronger tone:

吆! 行開啦! (Dummy PY: You! Harng Hoy La!) meaning “Freak! Walk away! Or in Hong Kong English “You! Go away la!)

Or

超! 行開啦! (Dummy PY: Chew! Harng Hoy La!) meaning “Freak! Walk away! Or in Hong Kong English “Chew! Go away la!)

That’s all I wanted to talk about today. Next week we can talk a little more about emotion sounds that you add at the end of sentences and what they mean.