Thanks for the reply. The Cantonese readings are good but as you say, it's a Mandarin dictionary so even a simple few examples I tried (e.g. "sofa") give the wrong Chinese characters (as used in Cantonese) and funny readings. I don't know what these "problems" are but presumably a proper Cantonese/English dictionary (albeit with flaws) may still be more useful than a Mandarin dictionary with Cantonese readings.
Cantonese?
- Thread starter beerpotato
- Start date
For English-to-Cantonese at least I can see your point, yes. Flaws are mainly either extreme brevity (just 3 or 4 thousand words) or inaccuracy (we sent a list of headwords from one to our Cantonese consultant and she was baffled by the inclusion of many of them) - the former would probably be a safer bet, might not cover every word but if we can at least provide Cantonese versions of a few thousand common ones we'll be a little better off.
Does a Mandarin dictionary work for Cantonese-to-English ? As an example, I tried looking up "唔該" (thank you in Cantonese) but I can't seem to find a dictionary entry for it (in the dictionaries which I mentioned above I have so perhaps it's in a Chinese-to-Chinese dictionary which I don't have).
I would certainly be interested (and willing to pay) for a Cantonese<==>English dictionary even if it only covers a few thousand words (better than nothing).
I would certainly be interested (and willing to pay) for a Cantonese<==>English dictionary even if it only covers a few thousand words (better than nothing).
No, it would only cover words that are the same in both Cantonese and Mandarin - an awful lot of them are, but slang-y expressions like 唔該 are not. 唔該 is however in our new Cantonese Fangyan dictionary, it's just that it's translated into Mandarin rather than into English.
"唔該" as a slang-y expression ? It's one of the two standard ways to say thank you in Cantonese (thanking someone for a service) with the other way being "多謝" (thanking someone for a gift). Both are not slang in the sense that you'd use both in all settings (formal or otherwise). No Cantonese speaker would ever say in Cantonese the Mandarin expression "謝謝" for thank you.
Anyway, I guess all I'm saying is that there are not an insignificant number of everyday standard words in Cantonese which won't be translated properly if using a Mandarin to English dictionary (e.g. 唔該) or an English to Mandarin dictionary (e.g. sofa). A Cantonese<=>English dictionary (even if small) would definitely be useful.
Anyway, I guess all I'm saying is that there are not an insignificant number of everyday standard words in Cantonese which won't be translated properly if using a Mandarin to English dictionary (e.g. 唔該) or an English to Mandarin dictionary (e.g. sofa). A Cantonese<=>English dictionary (even if small) would definitely be useful.
Sorry, "slang-y" wasn't the right word - I was more referring to the sort of words that vary between dialects; "thank you" is something a lot of different people say in a lot of different ways in a lot of different situations, whereas a word like 飛機 is pretty much the same for everybody.
Wow, Mike...
I finally got around to checking the cantonese language status and was amazed that it's in there now. I haven't been studying regularly....
A thousand thanks. This is the product I've been waiting my whole adult life for. I'm a canadian born chinese so i speak cantonese well enough but could never figure out how to learn the writing on my own.
In the years, I've diverged into Japanese but still couldn't find an EASY program for me to learn to read chinese. I am serious when I say that I've been meaning to do this for the last 20 years!!!!
I've owned your product since the palmpilot days and I am super impressed with your support.
I purchased the cantonese module RIGHT away.
If you can add cantonese to your flashcard module, that would complete my ability to self study out.
Between your handrwiting input, OCR, cantonese speech and flashcards (incoming?); it is finally the package I can use to learn on my own.
Truly, a joyous day and many tahnks again.
I finally got around to checking the cantonese language status and was amazed that it's in there now. I haven't been studying regularly....
A thousand thanks. This is the product I've been waiting my whole adult life for. I'm a canadian born chinese so i speak cantonese well enough but could never figure out how to learn the writing on my own.
In the years, I've diverged into Japanese but still couldn't find an EASY program for me to learn to read chinese. I am serious when I say that I've been meaning to do this for the last 20 years!!!!
I've owned your product since the palmpilot days and I am super impressed with your support.
I purchased the cantonese module RIGHT away.
If you can add cantonese to your flashcard module, that would complete my ability to self study out.
Between your handrwiting input, OCR, cantonese speech and flashcards (incoming?); it is finally the package I can use to learn on my own.
Truly, a joyous day and many tahnks again.
alex_hk90
状元
@kleung21 - thanks! Lots more Cantonese stuff coming.
@alex_hk90 - Android already has an option for Cantonese display (in Settings / General IIRC). Of the four Cantonese features that iOS has and Android doesn't, three of them - Cantonese audio for headwords, a Cantonese-to-Mandarin dictionary and Cantonese search - should be coming in our next major Android update; the fourth, Cantonese text-to-speech for example sentences, is supplied by iOS rather than by Pleco, so there's no way for us to replicate that on Android unless Google decides to add a similar capability to their OS.
@alex_hk90 - Android already has an option for Cantonese display (in Settings / General IIRC). Of the four Cantonese features that iOS has and Android doesn't, three of them - Cantonese audio for headwords, a Cantonese-to-Mandarin dictionary and Cantonese search - should be coming in our next major Android update; the fourth, Cantonese text-to-speech for example sentences, is supplied by iOS rather than by Pleco, so there's no way for us to replicate that on Android unless Google decides to add a similar capability to their OS.
alex_hk90
状元
is this still coming for the current update? maybe I missed it? was really looking forward to it : -)
In general, Cantonese support would be very much appreciated.
hi mike,
first, thank you for your fast reply and keeping up to your promise : -)) the dictionary seems decent, but I still have a few questions before purchasing it
(have bought a bundle before).
1)After learning Mandarin I am now in cantonese study mode (mostly) . would it be possible to show the search results with jyutping pronounciation only (I am getting a bit distracted by the pinyin now). I tried switching romanization off in general and this way it shows the jyutping once I click on a search result but not directly on the search result list next to the character.
2)will it be possible to search for cantonese expressions as well? so for example if I saw a movie and someone was talking about "sikfaan" and I wanted to use pleco to search for it, would I be able to do so? (like searching "chifan" in mandarin). often, hk movies do just not have the corresponding subtitles at all so this function of course would be the ultimate usage for such a dictionary.
(hope you'll get what I wanna say haha)
also thank you for putting in all your efforts to keep cantonese alive!!! : -)
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alex_hk90
状元
Just purchased the Cantonese - Mandarin dictionary - thank you!
The search by Cantonese pronunciation is very useful - much appreciated! The "CAN" icon looks a bit cramped but I'm not sure how else you could distinguish it from the "C" for (Mandarin) Chinese...
@naffl - thanks!
1) No option for that at the moment - we're still a couple of updates away from having Cantonese supported as fully as Mandarin is.
2) Yes - works in both Yale and Jyutping.
@alex_hk90 - thanks! We do need a little more room for CAN, yeah. Or I suppose we could go with GD or YY or something but not sure if those are unambiguous enough...
1) No option for that at the moment - we're still a couple of updates away from having Cantonese supported as fully as Mandarin is.
2) Yes - works in both Yale and Jyutping.
@alex_hk90 - thanks! We do need a little more room for CAN, yeah. Or I suppose we could go with GD or YY or something but not sure if those are unambiguous enough...