Cantonese reading · Jyutping
Read any Cantonese text with Jyutping
Bring a text you want to read, or a YouTube video with Cantonese subtitles. taihaa puts Jyutping above the characters, lets you fix a word break with Split, gives you an English translation for any word you tap, and keeps the words you save with their sentence for review.
我哋今日睇一篇新文章。
ngo5 dei6 gam1 jat6 tai2 jat1 pin1 san1 man4 zoeng1 · We are reading a new article today.
我哋
ngo5 dei6
we
今日
gam1 jat6
today
睇
tai2
look; read; watch
一篇
jat1 pin1
one (article)
新
san1
new
文章
man4 zoeng1
article
Paste, import or open a lesson
Paste a passage, upload a .txt, PDF or EPUB, import a public web page, or open a Cantonese lesson from the library. A YouTube link with subtitles becomes a video lesson too: 3 new ones a week on the free plan. If the video has no subtitles, paste a transcript. Traditional and Simplified characters both work.
YouTube subtitles, with Jyutping
Creator captions are used when they exist. Otherwise taihaa uses auto-generated captions, which are often wrong. Choose Cantonese if both Mandarin and Cantonese are offered, so the line gets Jyutping rather than pinyin.
Split a compound or a character
Split (Fix word split) sits in the word panel. Tap between characters to break a compound into characters or join characters into one word. The change is saved on that lesson for you. Reset returns the automatic split.
Jyutping above every word
The text is split into words and each syllable gets its Jyutping with a tone number from 1 to 6. Turn Jyutping off when you want to try a line from the characters alone.
Characters with more than one reading
Some characters change reading with the word they sit in: 行 is haang4 in 行路 (walk) and hong4 in 銀行 (bank). Readings follow the word, and you can tap it to check.
Tap for a translation, save with the sentence
Tap a word to see its English translation and Jyutping. Save it and the sentence comes with it, so review shows the word where you found it.
Hear it in a Cantonese voice
Words and sentences play in a natural Cantonese voice, 5 plays a day on the free plan. taihaa never uses a Mandarin voice as a stand-in for Cantonese.
Good to know
- Jyutping is generated automatically. Treat it as a reading aid and check a word when a reading looks off.
- English is the base language for translations. Edit a suggestion before you save it if it does not fit the sentence.
- Cantonese is its own target language, separate from Mandarin. The two vocabularies are never mixed.