Rhymes

There are 56 rhymes in Cantonese. They can be categorized into for types:

(1) Rhymes consisted of only vowels

aa 媽 e 咩 i 眯 o 摸 u 呼 oe 靴 yu 書 ai 迷 ei 眉 oi 代 ui 灰 eoi 虛 aai 買 au 謀 eu 掉 iu 苗 ou 帽 aau 貌

(2) Rhymes consisted of a vowel and a nasal ending

am 針 em 舐 aam 站 an 真 in 尖 on 肝 un 官 eon 輪 yun 聯 aan 讚 ang 增 eng 靚 ing 煎 ong 港 ung 公 oeng 良 aang 橙

(3) Rhymes consisted of a vowel and a final stop

ap 輯 ep 夾 ip 接 aap 插 at 七 it 節 ot 割 ut 闊 eot 略 yut 絕 aat 察 ak 測 ek 劇 ik 即 ok 各 uk 福 oek 律 aak 策

*For the final stops, do not release the closure in your oral cavity at the end of the syllable (no “air puff” at the end). This kind of syllable is often produced abruptly than the other kinds.

Listen and compare: caa3 – caap3 – caat3 – caak3

(4) Rhymes consisted of only a syllabic nasal sound

m 唔 ng 吳

Some difficult vowels:

1. <yu> is equivalent to <ü> in Mandarin Chinese. It is similar to the vowel in the French word “sur”. To produce this sound, round your lips when you pronounce <i>, while keep your tongue stable.

Listen: jyu4, zyu6, nyun5, kyut3

2. <eo> and <oe> are two rounded vowels. To produce them, round your lips when you pronounce the second vowel in “Emma”, while keep your tongue stable. <oe> is longer than <eo>.

Listen and compare: hoe1, soeng2, coek3 – geoi1, ceon2, leot6

3. <aa> is a long vowel. <aa-> is longer than its <a-> counterpart. For example, <aai> is longer than <ai>, <aam> is longer than <am>.

Listen and compare: lai6 – laai6, cau2 – caau2
Listen and compare: zam1 – zaam1, man5 – maan5, wang4 – waang4