Lesson 1: Hello! - 第一課：你好！

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Lesson
Character Practice (Traditional)
Character Practice (Simplified)

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Sentences / 句子（geui jí）

你	好！				Hello!
Néih	hóu!
你	幾	好	嘛？		How are you?
Néih	géi	hóu	ma?
好好。					Very well.
Hóuhóu.
你	呢？				And you?
Néih	nē?
我	都	好好。			I’m very well, too
Ngóh	dōu	hóuhóu.

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Notes / 注釋（jyu sīk）

你好

This is a greeting in Cantonese, generally used in quite formal situations. The response to this greeting would be repeating ”你好“. In informal situations, most Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong would just use "Hello".

你幾好嘛？

Another quite formal greeting, a general enquiry into someone's health, however the response is usually just “好好”, regardless of one's health or general situation.

你呢？

“呢” is an extremely useful word - it can be used after any subject to turn the conversation to that subject. For example:

A: 你幾好嘛？How are you?

B: 好好。你呢？ Very well. And you?

In this conversation, speaker B makes speaker A the new subject of the conversation, simply by saying “你呢？”

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Conversations / 會話（wuih wá）

Conversation 1

黃	大衛	：	瑪麗	，	你	好。
Wòhng	Daaihwaih	：	Máhlaih	，	néih	hóu.
陳	瑪麗	：	你	好	，	大衛。
Chàhn	Máhlaih	：	Néih	hóu	，	Daaihwaih.

Conversation 2

黃	大衛	：	你	幾	好	嘛？
Wòhng	Daaihwaih	：	Néih	géi	hóu	ma?
陳	瑪麗	：	好好	，	你	呢？
Chàhn	Máhlaih	：	Hóuhóu	，	néih	nē?
黃	大衛	：	我	都	好好。
Wòhng	Daaihwaih	：	Ngóh	dōu	hóuhóu.

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New Vocabulary / 生詞（sāang chìh）

你	néih	you
好	hóu	good; very
幾（几）	géi	how many; how much
嘛	ma	(general question particle)
呢	nē	(elliptical question particle, e.g., "how about...?")
我	ngóh	I; me
都	dōu	also; all
黃大衛 （黄大卫）	Wòhng Daaihwaih	(Name: David Wong)
陳瑪麗 （陈玛丽）	Chàhn Máhlaih	(Name: Mary Chan)

N.B. Simplified characters shown in brackets

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Download this lesson as a PDF:
Lesson
Character Practice (Traditional)
Character Practice (Simplified)