How to say, "This Car" in Cantonese?

[Learner6826]

Hi, I'm doing a small dialogue in Cantonese and I want to say "I want to buy this car" in Cantonese.

I was wondering if "Ngoh seung maaih ni go che" is correct?

[skylee]

Instead of "go" (個), use either "gaa" (架) or "bou" (部) as the measure word for "car".

[Justinus]

"Lay" 呢 "Gaa"架 "Che"(use [ts] instead of [ch] would be better.)

[wai ming]

(use [ts] instead of [ch] would be better.)

The OP is using Yale romanization.

[yuensin]

The correct word is "Ngoh seung mai e tong che" instead of

"Ngoh seung maaih ni go che" is correct"

Your sentence is more like Cantonese with a Mandarin accent.

You cannot use ni in this sentence. You can use ni in Cantonese only if you are saying definitely say when you want to buy this and that.

You also cannot use go to refer to things like car, carriage, cannon, ship, boat whether in Cantonese or Mandarin

You can use go to refer to people, not to non living things, animals..etc.

When go can be used is simplying by learining and experience, there is no simple rule to say when can be used.

Ngoh means I, me

seung means thinking of , want, intend ....depends on the use

mai means buy, purchase(verb, not noun)

e means this one, here etc,

tong is a numerical number say for one car, one bus, one lorry etc. It is just like in English we say a boy, a girl.....a string of pearl...an egg, an apple, a bunch of flowers..

In cantonese we refer to this car as "ye tong che".meaning "this one car".

che means car, carriage, chariott....

[skylee]

tong is a numerical number say for one car, one bus, one lorry etc. It is just like in English we say a boy, a girl.....a string of pearl...an egg, an apple, a bunch of flowers..

In cantonese we refer to this car as "ye tong che".meaning "this one car".

What is the character for this "tong"? I can't guess what it stands for.

AFAIK the proper measure words in Cantonese for cars are 架 and 部.

[sanbit]

here is how to say "I want to this car", the characters are almost the same as mandarin except for 呢 : http://sanbit.com/recordings/90

[trien27]

"e tong" is not Cantonese!

It's either from Hakka, Hokkien or Taiwanese / Holoe, etc...

[trien27]

"ye tong che" isn't Cantonese!

It's more from Hokkien, Hakka or Taiwanese / Holoe, etc...

There's no "ye tong" in Cantonese grammar.

[trien27]

"Ngoh seung maaih ni go che" is not correct Cantonese: It should be "Ngo seung maai ni ga che" or "Ngo seung maai ni bo che".

AFAIK the proper measure words in Cantonese for cars are 架 and 部.

Only true Cantonese speakers would know that.

Edited April 1, 2009 at 02:51 AM by trien27
additional information

[zozzen]

To make measure words more complicated, the measure word for Car in Cantonese could be 輛 in a more formal tone ( news broadcast)

E.g. 今晨一輛貨櫃車在荃灣公路失事, 造成五死十二傷....

架 and 部 is the most common anyway.

[usayare]

To make measure words more complicated, the measure word for Car in Cantonese could be 輛 in a more formal tone ( news broadcast)

E.g. 今晨一輛貨櫃車在荃灣公路失事, 造成五死十二傷....

架 and 部 is the most common anyway.

輛 is used in written context only

while 架 and 部 are used in conversational Cantonese

To answer Learner6826's question:

ngo5 soeng2 mai3 nei1 bo6 ce1

我想買呢部車

[Yan Hoi]

Many Singaporean and Malaysian Cantonese speakers use tong4 (橖) as a unit measure for cars, so yuensin was referring to yi1 tong4 tse1 (依樘車).

Many Cantonese speakers also use 依 interchangeably with 呢 to refer to "this", but my personal preference is 呢.

I'd personally say: ngo5 soeng2 maai5 nei1 (ni1) ga3 tse1.