Cantonese Plural
Learning the Cantonese Plural is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you master it the more you get closer to mastering the Cantonese language. But first we need to know what the role of Plural is in the structure of the grammar in Cantonese.
Cantonese Plurals are grammatical numbers, typically referring to more than one of the referent in the real world. In the English language, singular and plural are the only grammatical numbers. Here are some examples:
| English Plural | Cantonese Plural |
| Plural | 眾數 |
| my book | 我的書 |
| my books | 我的書 |
| our daughter | 我們的女兒 |
| our daughters | 我們的女兒 |
| I'm cold | 我覺得很冷 |
| we're cold | 我們覺得很冷 |
| his chickens | 他的雞 |
| their chicken | 他們的雞 |
As you can see from the example above, the structure of the Plural in Cantonese has a logical pattern. Locate the Plural above and see how it works with the rest of the sentence in Yue.
List of Plurals in Cantonese
Below is a list of the Plurals and Singulars in Cantonese placed in a table. Memorizing this table will help you add very useful and important words to your Cantonese vocabulary.
| English Plural | Cantonese Plural |
| alligator | 短吻鱷 |
| alligators | 短吻鱷 |
| bear | 熊 |
| bears | 熊 |
| bird | 鳥 |
| birds | 鳥 |
| bull | 公牛 |
| bulls | 公牛 |
| cat | 貓 |
| cats | 貓 |
| cow | 牛 |
| cows | 牛 |
| deer | 鹿 |
| many deer | 很多鹿 |
| dog | 狗 |
| dogs | 狗 |
| donkey | 驢 |
| donkeys | 驢 |
| eagle | 鷹 |
| eagles | 鷹 |
| elephant | 象 |
| elephants | 象 |
| giraffe | 長頸鹿 |
| giraffes | 長頸鹿 |
| goat | 羊 |
| goats | 羊 |
| horse | 馬 |
| horses | 馬 |
| lion | 獅子 |
| lions | 獅子 |
| monkey | 子 |
| monkeys | 子 |
| mouse | 老鼠 |
| mice | 老鼠 |
| rabbit | 兔 |
| rabbits | 兔 |
| snake | 蛇 |
| snakes | 蛇 |
| tiger | 老虎 |
| tigers | 老虎 |
| wolf | 狼 |
| wolves | 狼 |
Plural and Singular have a very important role in Cantonese, therefore they need very special attention. Once you're done with the Yue Plural, you might want to check the rest of our Cantonese lessons here: Learn Cantonese. Don't forget to bookmark this page.