How to read Jyutping: Cantonese letters and tone numbers

A quick reference with words you can hear

你好 — nei5 hou2 — hello. Two written syllables, two tone numbers: 5 and 2. The numbers stay attached to the syllables; you do not say “five” or “two.”

早晨 — zou2 san4 — good morning. Read each spelling as one syllable, with its tone at the end.

唔該 — m4 goi1 — thanks / excuse me / please. The m4 is a whole syllable. It is not a spelling mistake or a missing vowel.

Read the ending before you move on

聽日見 is ting1 jat6 gin3, “see you tomorrow.” Notice the different endings: -ng, -t and -n. Follow each written syllable in the complete recording; the letters after the vowel are part of its sound.

The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong’s scheme lists the beginnings, vowels and endings. Jyutping has its own letter-to-sound rules, so an English sound-alike or a Mandarin Pinyin reading can lead you astray.

What do the numbers mean?

Jyutping uses six tone numbers, 1–6. They describe pitch, not loudness or stress. Write them as ordinary digits after the syllable, as in goi1. The next guide compares all six patterns using familiar recorded phrases.

Try it with one short phrase

Open hello below. Listen once, follow nei5 hou2 on the next replay, then cover the spelling and say it. Check one sound at a time. You can begin with a few useful phrases before learning the whole spelling chart.