Cantonese Typing【用廣東話打字】

Introduction

Today, I’m going to take a break from writing super long posts, and do a quick, but hopefully, helpful post on Cantonese typing, a subject that almost every learner brings up, and how to use Google’s Cantonese Input method to type Cantonese.

(The reason I’m writing this is because Cantonese has been added to the iOS keyboard, which is very exciting to this community! Please check out the video and the links below to see where to grab the keyboards on different platforms.)

Cantonese typing video

 

 

(If this video looks familiar, it should be! I’ve included it in the Complete Guide To Learn Cantonese, along with over 50 other videos.)

Remember you can get Google’s Cantonese Input software in all Google apps, in Chrome, in iOS AND in Android, so there’s absolutely no reason to not at least try it out! Here are the links to the relevant pages.

Google account settings: https://myaccount.google.com/inputtools

iOS Gboard: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gboard/id1091700242

Android Google Cantonese Input: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.inputmethod.cantonese&hl=en

Chrome extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-input-tools/mclkkofklkfljcocdinagocijmpgbhab?hl=en

Google has since updated a few of its apps, so these screenshots will hopefully reflect some changes (until they’re displaced by future changes).

iOS settings

Gboard → Languages → Chinese (Hong Kong [China]) → Cantonese

 

Google input tools

Chrome extension settings

Typing Cantonese characters – the current state

For the longest period of time, Cantonese learners (and to a certain extent Cantonese natives) have struggled with typing Cantonese out, and not without good reason…typing Cantonese is really hard!

The most popular input methods in Hong Kong include: 九宮 (gau2 gung1)、倉頡 (cong1 kit3)、速成 (cuk1 sing4). Unfortunately, these methods are either difficult or impractical to use for learners.

Cantonese input method: 倉頡

倉頡 is a system of input based on the concept of splitting a character into divisible components. For example, the character 輸 (syu1) can be split into five components, which are highlighted in red, yellow, green, light blue and blue respectively.

They’re represented like so:

Red: 交

Yellow: 交

Green: 人

Light blue: 橫

Blue: 勾

交 (gaau1) means “a cross”, resembling the component that look like the character 十.

人 (jan4) means “person”, and could refer either to the radical or a component that looks like the radical.

橫 (waang4) refers to a horizontal line, as seen with the light blue line.

勾 (ngau1) represents a hook, which is probably similar to the stroke name.

These are, in turn, represented by these characters:

交 = 十

人 = 人

橫 = 一

勾 = 弓

And these characters are, in turn, represented by these keys

十 = J

人 = O

一 = M

弓 = N

Generally, these representative keys are separated into five categories, as shown colour coded in the photo:

哲理 (zit3 lei5): philosophical / meaning

筆畫 (bat1 waak6): stroke

人體 (jan4 tai2): human body

字形 (zi6 jing4): character shape

難字 (naan4 zi6): difficult characters (miscellaneous)

I won’t bore you with the details, but these are the different ways in which character components are represented.

In other words, as a learner, you need to remember these combinations for each character, or you must have a very good intuition of how the components shown on these keys relate to the shape of each character.

That’s insane!

Cantonese input method: 速成

速成 (cuk1 sing4) is a slight improvement on the above, requiring that you only input the first and the last component keys.

But that’s still a lot of memorization!

Cantonese input method: 九宮

With 九宮 (gau2 gung1), you’ve got something that’s slightly better in terms of usability. Instead of relying on your memory, you “type” out a character similar to how you’d “write” a character. In other words, it’s based on strokes.

Unlike writing a character by hand, the basic principle of 九宮 is:

左邊頭兩筆，右邊頭一筆。

The first two strokes on the left, the first stroke on the right.

With just three strokes, you’re supposed to be able to type any Chinese character, based on nine squares that represent commonly used components in Chinese characters.

With the character 新, for example, you would type in the dash, horizontal line, and diagonal line, which correspond to 4, 7, 9 in the numpad. You’d then select the character among the nine that show up.

While this is a lot easier to learn, this method is a lot slower, because you constantly have to look to choose the character you want.

So not so good for practical uses either!

Google Input for Cantonese

The best way for inputting Chinese, I have to conclude, would be to type based on sound. After all, inputting this way:

1. Has NO learning curve (you already know how each word is pronounced);
2. Is a lot more accurate (because you can input multiple characters, making the combination more unique to search)

Yup, Google’s done it again with Google Input!

To be more precise, Google Input for Cantonese has existed for a long time, but I feel like there aren’t no tutorials showing you how to use it, and it doesn’t seem that popular (despite its ease of use).

So I decided to create one here.

Jyutping conversion table

To be precise, the reason there’s a learning curve is because the Google Input method for Cantonese isn’t the same as Jyutping. It’s remarkably similar in many ways, but it’s not exactly the same thing.

So what this tutorial will do is to give you plenty of examples helping you map out all the initials and finals in Jyutping to the standard used by Google Input.

Cantonese initials

Initial	Sample word	Jyutping	Google Input
b	八百	baat3 baak3	baat baak
c	察覺	caak3 gok3	chaat gok
d	大人	daai6 jan4	daai yan
f	蜂蜜	fung1 mat6	fung mat
g	各自	gok3 zi6	gok ji
gw	果仁	gwo2 jan4	gwo yan
h	好運	hou2 wan6	hou wan
j	也許	jaa5 heoi2	ya heui
k	卡片	kaat1 pin2	kaat pin
kw	誇張	kwaa1 zoeng1	kwaa jeung
l	蘿蔔	lo4 baak3	lo baak
m	貓王	maau1 wong4	maau wong
n	納稅	naap6 seoi3	naap seui
ng	我國	ngo5 gwok3	ngo gwok
p	鋪頭	pou3 tau2	pou tau
s	稍為	saau2 wai4	saau wai
t	頭條	tau4 tiu4	tau tiu
w	委屈	wai2 wat1	wai wat
z	作曲	zok3 kuk1	jok kuk

Cantonese finals

Final	Sample word	Jyutping	Google Input
aa	花瓶	faa1 ping4	fa ping
aai	差人	caai1 jan4	chaai yan
aau	抄牌	caau1 paai4	chaau paai
aam	參觀	caam1 gun1	chaam gun
aan	餐廳	caan1 teng1	chaan teng
aang	橙汁	caang2 zap1	chaang jap
aap	插水	caap3 seoi2	chaap seui
aat	刮花	gwaat3 faa1	gwaat fa
aak	客人	haak3 jan4	haak yan
ai	鬼神	gwai2 san4	gwai san
au	狗尾	gau2 mei5	gau mei
am	柑橘	gam1 gat1	gam gat
an	跟住	gan1 zyu6	gan jyu
ang	藤條	tang4 tiu2	tang tiu
ap	濕透	sap1 tau3	sap tau
at	乜嘢	mat1 je5	mat ye
ak	麥片	mak6 pin3	mak pin
e	車頭	ce1 tau4	che tau
ei	飛機	fei1 gei1	fei gei
eu	掉嘢	deu6 je5	*diu ye
em	舐嘴	lem2 zeoi2	*－jeui
eng	靚車	leng3 ce1	leng che
ep	夾到	gep3 dou3	*gip dou
ek	錫錫	sek3 sek3	sek sek
i	癡線	ci1 sin3	ci sin
iu	料理	liu6 lei5	liu lei
im	劍身	gim3 san1	gim san
in	見到	gin3 dou2	gin dou
ing	敬佩	ging3 pui3	ging pui
ip	怯場	hip3 coeng4	hip cheung
it	跌倒	dit3 dou2	dit dou
ik	擊敗	gik1 baai6	gik baai
o	波子	bo1 zi2	bo ji
oi	改善	goi2 sin6	goi sin
ou	傲慢	ngou6 maan6	ngou maan
on	幹事	gon3 si6	gon si
ong	康樂	hong1 lok6	hong lok
ot	割讓	got3 joeng6	got yeung
ok	角度	gok3 dou6	gok dou
oe	鋸扒	goe3 paa2	geu pa
oeng	薑茶	goeng1 caa4	geung cha
oek	腳臭	goek3 cau2	geuk chau
eoi	居住	geoi1 zyu6	geui jyu
eon	輪流	leon4 lau4	leun lau
eot	律政	leot6 zing3	leut jing
u	扶搖	fu4 jiu4	fu yiu
ui	晦氣	fui3 hei3	fui hei
un	歡樂	fun1 lok6	fun lok
ung	豐富	fung1 fu3	fung fu
ut	闊度	fut3 dou6	fut dou
uk	福祉	fuk1 zi2	fuk ji
yu	署長	cyu5 zoeng2	chyu jeung
yun	存在	cyun4 zoi6	chyun joi
yut	奪得	dyut6 dak1	dyut dak

 

1. 掉嘢 (deu6) is a sound that doesn’t exist in the system Google Input uses. Fortunately, there are very few words with this sound, so you can just hand write this. The reason diu is put in here is because there are multiple readings of this character, and diu is one of them.
2. 舐 (lem2) is also a word with very few corresponding characters, and is a modern sound. This probably needs to be handwritten too.
3. 夾到 (gep6 dou2) – this is another case of not having the “ep” sound in this input system. This character can be handwritten or input with another sound, “gip”.

Note that Google’s Input system is actually pretty tolerant – most of the time, if you input Jyutping instead of this system, it’ll still be able to recognize the word.

However, there are a few that you absolutely can’t mix up, and those are:

1. c → ch
2. j → y
3. z → j
4. oe → eu
5. oeng → eung
6. oek → euk
7. eoi → eui
8. eon → eun
9. eot → eut

Helpful tip: For last characters in a word, you can just type the first letter of the romanization. For example, you can type “gwong dung w” instead of “gwong dung wa” 廣東話. It doesn’t seem a lot in this example, but it adds up when you start typing Cantonese all the time.

Is it just me, or do the above seem like Jyutping to Yale conversions? (Sorry, I don’t use Yale a lot.)

But, that’s it!

If you remember this table (just the places where they’re different), then you can get started with Google’s Input method for Cantonese right away.

Happy typing!