As with most structures in Cantonese, dates are listed from General to Specific. The General format for dates and time in Cantonese is:
Year + Month + Date + Day of the Week + Time + Time of Day*
In English the date and time would be given:
|
Day of Week |
Month |
Date |
Year |
Time |
Time of Day |
|
Saturday, |
August |
10th |
2002 |
at 1:00 |
am. |
Putting that in Cantonese grammar, it would be:
|
General |
Specific |
||||
| Year | Month | Date | Day of Week | Time | Time of Day |
| 2002 | August | 10 | Saturday | at 1:00 | am. |
Another interesting thing about Cantonese dates is that months and days are not named as they are in many Western languages. Instead they are simply numbered, with the number being followed by the unit of time.
Note that Time/Time of Day can be reversed (1:00am is more specific than 1:00, but "in the morning" is less specific than 1:00).
Vocabulary
YearThe year in Cantonese is interesting in that it is both a noun and a measure word. This is significant because it does not require a measure word when counting. Because of this, giving the year and giving a number of years are differentiated in a particular way. When specifying a number of years the exact number is given, followed by the word \nihn\. No measure word should be used. When giving the year in a date, each digit should be read individually. In English we would read 1999 as "nineteen ninety-nine" while in Cantonese syntax it would be "one nine nine nine year". Note that there are two pronunciations for "year": \nihn\ and /nin/. MonthsChinese numbers months instead of naming them, as done in many cultures. Months are measured by the general measure word "go", which is how you tell whether you are referring to a month of the year or specifying a number of months. Note that the word for month is the same word for "moon". However, while the Chinese calendar is based on lunar cycles, day to day business is conducted according to the Western calendar system. Dates and DaysThe Chinese word for "day" yaht 日 is both a noun and a measure word, just like the word for "year". In counting days, no measure word is used. The same form can also be used for giving the day of the month. However, there is an alternate form for the day of the month which can be used to avoid ambiguity: houh 號. Note that for 1st-9th you would not have a "zero" in the front. The days of the week are somewhat of an exception. In all other cases, the number is given before the time word. But with the days of the week the order is reversed: Note that there are two words for week (\sing\ keih and laih baai). The two can be used interchangeably and both are very common. Also note that the seventh day (Sunday) does not use a number, but instead used the word for day (yaht). NotesTerms for "this", "next", and "last" show the nature of measure words in Chinese. The terms yaht (day), houh (date), and \nihn\ (year) are all measure words. The respective terms are used directly (eg. \kahm\ yaht, -cheut- /nin/, etc.). The terms \sing\ keih (week), laih baai (week), and yuht (month) require the measure word go to specify "this"/"next"/"last". |
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