pronunciation of cantonese words?

[trayseeleeaung]

well. im kinda confused. when you say you in cantonese. do you say lei or nei. i say lei, and my mom and family says lei. my mom says lei is correct and nei is just some people's twist on it, usuallly people who speak mandarin and adopted cantonese or just people who somehow developed it. same with the word for difficult, laan. i say laan but ive never seen anyone say naan. but apparently thats how its put on the lyrics website. and they say nei on the website too. so whats up with that?

[WinterSnow]

i have no idea... but i say lei,, and it just sounds more right.....lol...

[stupid_mui]

LOL.lei is the correct one..cuz i use the NJ star communicator thing..and yea.( :
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[trayseeleeaung]

so im guessing the correct way to say you in cantonse is lei. if so, then why do the lyrics on the site say nei. i think we need to correct this so people are actually singing cantonese not gibberish.

[laiginghou]

i'm not sure, but I think "nei" is the correct way to say it, if you are reading chinese characters, but most hong kong people just say "lei, but I have heard people say "nei" and "naai" as in milk as opposed to "laai." Also in songs, they do say "nei"

[trayseeleeaung]

well my parents say lei is right and we're not from hong kong, we're from guangzhou and the only time we've been to hongkong is to take the bus up to guangzhou. so i dunnoooooo................

[Local]

i say lei O_O and i think they sound similar, no one would realise if you say nei. ><'

[ballzer]

Local wrote:

i say lei O_O and i think they sound similar, no one would realise if you say nei. ><'

I agree with Local. No one would tell the difference.
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[WhiteLotus]

normally we say 'lei' but in written form for 'you' in cantonese reading, it's pronounce as 'nei'..
kind of like 'laan' and 'naan' for difficult.

ex: we don't really say 'nui' for girls, do we? cuz normally we say 'lui' for girls.
and in reading or written in chinese form of cantonese, we pronouce it as 'nui'..

that's why in music u hear 'nei' (cuz they sing as the written chinese) and normal talking the right way is 'lei'.

btw, that's why sometimes when u listen to song. there is some words that we don't used in normal speaking.
words like: come, who, etc.. r said differently in music than regular speaking.

[TVBobsessed]

hey i cant vote.. anyways i asked my HK friend before asking her ot translate i said 'lei' but she said it should be 'nei' now i use 'nei' i seems correct in this way to me
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.:PurE:.