Cantonese Dictionary - Cantonese-English dictionary recommendations

[albertchan]

Hi Everyone

I just signed up for Chinese school to learn Cantonese and I need help choosing the best Cantonese-English/English-Cantonese dictionary. I am in the intermediate level and it'd be nice to find a dictionary that is easy to use, simple, and reliable. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[calibre2001]

http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/scripts/wordlist.htm

[Hofmann]

CantoDict ↑ is the best dictionary on the internet.

[taigunjeung]

I use the "Chinese-English Dictionary" by the Chinese University Press with editors Chik Hon Man and Ng Lam Sim Yuk. （植汉民，吴林婵玉）

good luck learning a language that isn't read or written anywhere, say, outside the subtitles for a Wong Jing movie

[leeyah]

good luck learning a language that isn't read or written anywhere, say, outside the subtitles for a Wong Jing movie

"good luck" goes, but I wouldn't agree with the rest of the sentence, there's plenty of written (Hong Kong) Cantonese online and very useful stuff, too

At intermediate Cantonese level it's really unwise not to be interested in Mandarin because Mandarin-Cantonese on-and offline stuff is the best that you can get

Cantodict has both 粤普 so why not learn both at the same time?

[taigunjeung]

Why not learn at the same time?

dude, that's a can of worms right there, and a lifetime of worms to boot. For one thing, Canto and Mando have the honor of being an octogon peg in a decahedron hole--less obtusely, the fact that they exactly the same but completely different language. Learning something for one does not necessarily mean the same for the other. For example, 放弃in Mando turns into pau1 hei3 (I don't have that nifty trad Chinese writer).. it drives a student of both languages crazy to know what to do at the right moment.

Also, there's the fact that there are way more sources availible to study Mando than Canto. There's more classes, books, opportunity let alone a formalised pinyin system (how many in canto? about 12? can't we all just get along?). While everyone is jumping on the Mando bandwagon to score the big haul of RMB in Chinese business opportunities, I always have the feeling Canto is a insular language where locals take pride that not many (in the big picture) can speak it, whilst at the same time are comfortable with the fact that all these factors mean Canto is ultimately a dead language a couple of generations from now.

So, good luck.

[Hofmann]

Dude,

Who gave you your statistics? You seem to be exaggerating.

Also, both 拋棄 and 放棄 are perfectly normal words in both languages.

[leeyah]

Learning something for one does not necessarily mean the same for the other

I quite agree with Hofmann, seems you haven't really been doing any comparative research on what you call Canto & Mando dude, there are far more similarities than 差别 anyway, it's mostly just the pronunciation

Canto is a insular language where locals take pride that not many (in the big picture) can speak it, whilst at the same time are comfortable with the fact that all these factors mean Canto is ultimately a dead language a couple of generations from now

taigunjeung dude有冇搞錯 吖

Dude,

Who gave you your statistics? You seem to be exaggerating.

@ Hofmann Excellent response!

Anyway, taigunjeung , what's the point of your talk actually? No need to discourage a learning spirit. Perhaps albertchan has got more genius in him than we suspect

And one last thing: learning Cantonese is considered quite trendy up north