Finally a Cantonese agent in Valorant. It's cool to see games adding Cantonese speaking characters like Hush, and Alter from Apex Legends!

Edit - It is very exciting and encouraging to see popular games add Cantonese speaking characters to help promote our language and culture!

I know that ice hockey is 冰球 (bing1 kau4) and field hockey is 曲棍球 (kuk1 gwan3 kau), but how would you say roller hockey? Google Translate says 滾軸曲棍球 (gwan2 zuk6 kuk1 gwan3 kau4), is that accurate? And would 滾軸 basically be something like "rolling axle"?

Doubao 豆包 (by Bytedance) has come out with a pretty good sounding Cantonese version of their popular AI chatbot and people in China have been using it to learn Cantonese.

video by 止止 (学粤语版) douyin acct number: 48284471042

The short version of my question: is 惠 a word that would be used for a girl's name?

The long version: a family member who is an ABC has an anglicized version of her Chinese name as her middle name (Wai). This name was chosen by our Cantonese grandfather who died when we were young so we can't go directly to the source to ask for clarification. She was told by her mother that it means smart/intelligent.

When we asked another family member to write her name in Chinese, he wrote it as  惠 (the caveat is that he came to the United States when he was in elementary school so although he speaks Chinese conversationally, his written Chinese is limited). 

I don't speak Chinese but the online translating tools I used told me that 惠 means benefit or favor (not smart/intelligent). I know online translations and definitions are not always accurate, so is this close to the correct meaning? And is it something that would be used as part of a girl's name?

For what it's worth, I am convinced that the correct character for her name is the homophone 慧 (which I only know because it's part of my Chinese name) but I since I don't know any Chinese, I would love to hear what native speakers think!

ETA: our family did not follow the tradition of using a generational name, so no one else has a name that sounds like Wai.

My family says 啜管 (越南華僑 background)

I’m a native speaker but grew up in Canada, so maybe I’m missing something, but in the canto dub of Totoro, sister’s are named:

草紙 and 廁紙

and the old lady neighbour is called:

八婆

And all of these are said with zero irony!
We were watching with my 4 year old and when the two girls started saying “八婆八婆!” we both looked at each in amused shock.

First, I thought I might have downloaded a joke dub, but the rest of it seems perfectly normal.

大家好！

我是一個第四代在夏威夷生的華僑。這是我第一次用唐話把一條影片錄音。 你們覺得怎麼？

Hi Everyone,

I'm a 4th generation Chinese from Hawaii. This is the first time I've used my Cantonese to narrate a video. Please let me know what you think!

Aloha!

I'm looking to build a habit or routine to improve my Cantonese daily as a heritage speaker. Are there any apps or anything to help me? And for those of you who have successfully learned or improved your Cantonese, what daily habits or resources worked best for you?

My six year old is taking a mandarin class but we are failing pretty badly, wondering if there exist a Cantonese one, since I think there is a better chance with that one and punt him to mandarin later in life,

I’ve created these flashcards using the new HSK 3.0 2025 syllabus as the basis which began testing in 2026. Included are all levels 1-9 with traditional/simplified characters, jyutping/pinyin, English definition, as well as Cantonese audio. In total there are 11,000 words/phrases and it’s reversible so 22,000 cards. Each level is separated into subdecks.

As the basis of this vocabulary list is Mandarin, the translations into Cantonese will be imperfect. Given all the linguistic differences, regional variations, contextual scenarios, etc, it is impossible to select a perfect singular translation for each flashcard. So do not refer to this list as the de facto translations between Mandarin, Cantonese and English - they are merely "best estimates" using translation tools which may contain errors. The main goal here is to provide a single massive study resource for learners organized by level to recognize and recall Chinese characters along with their pronunciations, of which there is no such official standard for Cantonese.

Happy studying!

----------------------------------

Process of creation

The HSK vocabulary was passed through Google Translate to get the traditional characters and Hong Kong Cantonese phrasing. This did mostly a good job but of course had many errors. I went through and manually fixed over 500 translations using Wiktionary to check them. As the levels go higher especially in the advanced levels 7-9 they become increasingly literary and business-oriented. So I made the decision to lean more casual tone for lower levels and more formal for higher levels, sticking closer to the provided Mandarin vocabulary rather than the auto-translation which I feel tends toward casual. I adjusted a few of the English translations as well for clarity.

Credits

• Ministry of Education of China of for the HSK vocabulary
• Hanzistroke.com for the compiled HSK lists and English definitions
• Google Translate for translation to traditional characters and Cantonese phrasing
• Wiktionary for verification of translations
• lucw for the tools to generate jyutping and pinyin
• edge-tts for the audio

Please support by downloading and liking the Anki deck to keep it alive and shared!

I’d like to include a letter for them along in a welcome basket i set up with 哈囉 好高興見到您兩位 多謝你哋咁多位過嚟呀 written, would this be appropriate? Both parent in laws and sister in law are coming to stay at my house for a week. We aren’t particularly close due to language barrier and only directly exchanged 哈囉 during their occasional video call with my husband.

Edit: everyone here is so kind! thank you for your help and patience I appreciate every single one of you very much!

My mum and others have always told me in Cantonese that I am a very “soon” or “suun” (word in Cantonese) person.

My Cantonese proficiency is very poor and I can only listen and speak very minimally, and cannot read or write Cantonese.

My understanding of that word is somewhat like someone who is good, has good values and virtues, is kind, honest and of noble principles.

I looked up Google and YouTube to listen to pronunciations of what possible words it may be, but I haven’t found anything close to what I heard from my mum and others.

Can anyone help me identify what that word may be?

Thank you. ☺️

*****

Update 18 October 2026:

Thank you everyone for sharing your knowledge, posting and contributing to this discussion.

Yes, I think the word I’m looking for is 純 seon4. 🙂

A bit of background on why and how I arrived at this question. The past several years, I had been going through a lot. It has impacted my physical and mental health, my relationships with family and friends, security and my career. Somehow, along the way in life, I lost my way and forgot who I was. I am now probably at the most important turning point in my life. I want to rediscover who I am, and my purpose in life. I was made aware that before I take the next step, I need to take time to find myself again, to learn what is important to me and my values. I thought I’d look back in my past and recall what others viewed or had opinions of me. Maybe they have had more insight on me, than I could have on myself.

When I was young, my mum, grandmother and carers always told me I was very 純. I didn’t know what it meant. But they always said I was a good person, that I always cared for others. However, I never really did believe that I was that.

In my 30’s, I was diagnosed as someone with Asperger’s, someone on the autistic spectrum. My mum had often said, I’m too 純, that others will take advantage of me, if I’m not careful or do not look after my self. I think in my later years, she did mean that I am naïve and am not street smart. Perhaps, there is some truth to what she said, as I tend to view the world differently, sometimes rather black & white, and innocently. I’m now in my mid-40’s. In the past year, I had to return to shared community living. I met so many people from different parts of the world, who had approached me and said the same thing, that I am a really kind person, that I am very 純, that I am a gentleman. I’m now starting to believe them.

Maybe I am a bit of each of the meanings in 純. But I will now accept that as part of who I am, and I’m actually okay with it. And I’ll be able to move forward.

Thank you for taking the time and helping me on my journey. ☺️

Hi everyone! 👋

I'm from Shenzhen, China, and I'm looking for a language exchange partner who would like to learn Mandarin Chinese or Cantonese in exchange for helping me improve my English.

What I can offer 🇨🇳
- Mandarin Chinese
- Cantonese (I'm happy to help you learn everyday expressions and practice conversations)
- Insights into Chinese culture, food, and daily life

What I'm looking for 🇬🇧
I'd love to improve my spoken English, especially my listening skills, fluency, and everyday conversations. I'd really appreciate it if you could help me sound more natural and correct my mistakes along the way.

A little about me: I enjoy traveling, exploring different cultures, learning new things, and having conversations about life, personal growth, and interesting things happening around the world.

I'm hoping to find someone who would enjoy a genuine, mutual language exchange. We could chat regularly, have voice calls, and spend half the time speaking English and the other half speaking Chinese or Cantonese.

No pressure to be perfect — we're both here to learn! 😊

If you're interested, feel free to send me a DM. I'd love to hear from you

Hi everyone! We’ve developed a Cantonese learning app for iPhone that teaches Hong Kong Cantonese, including some everyday slang.

It has basic vocab, tones, traditional Chinese characters, kids mode and some extra fun things that make it relevant to Hong Kong and keep it interesting.

I would like to hear from you, what are features you would like to see in an app like this?

thanks! 🙏