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English
English

Cantonese
Cantonese



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English vs Cantonese

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Countries

Countries

Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Cameroon, Canada, Dominica, Fiji, Ghana, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Malta, Mauritius, Micronesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somaliland, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United Kingdom, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Hong Kong, Macau

Total No. Of Countries

332
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guyana, Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, United States of America
China, Guangdong

Second Language

India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore
Not spoken in any of the countries

Speaking Continents

Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America
Asia

Minority Language

South Africa
Hawaii

Regulated By

-
Civil Service Bureau, Government of Hong Kong, Official Language Division

Interesting Facts

  • Most of the English words begin with the letter S than any other letter.
  • English is third most commonly spoken language in the world.
  • Cantonese have lot of slangs, many of them include words that do not make sense at all and some also have English in them.
  • Even though Cantonese and Mandarin are dialects of Chinese, Cantonese has 8 tones instead of Mandarin's 4.

Similar To

Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and German Languages
Chinese Language

Derived From

Latin
-

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

2628
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

58
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

2120
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Latin
Chinese Characters and derivatives

Writing Direction

Left-To-Right, Horizontal
Left-To-Right, Horizontal, Top-To-Bottom

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

710
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

6 weeks88 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

Hello
您好

Thank You

Thank you
谢谢

How Are You?

How are you?
你好吗?

Good Night

Good Night
晚安

Good Evening

Good Evening
晚上好

Good Afternoon

Good Afternoon
下午好

Good Morning

Good Morning
早上好

Please

Please

Sorry

Sorry
遗憾

Bye

Bye
再见

I Love You

I love you
我爱你

Excuse Me

Excuse Me
原谅我

Dialects

Dialect 1

American English
Guangzhou

Where They Speak

United States of America
outside mainland China

How Many People Speak

225,000,000.0071,000,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Hiberno-English
Xiguan

Where They Speak

Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom
Hong Kong

How Many People Speak

4,500,000.0071,000,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Welsh English
Hong Kong

Where They Speak

United Kingdom
Hong Kong

How Many People Speak

2,500,000.0070,000,000.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

1883
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

1,200.00 million60.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

5.43 %16.00 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

400.00 million52.00 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

400.00 million71.00 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

English
Kwang Tung Wa

Alternative Names

English
Guangfu, Metropolitan Cantonese

French Name

anglais
cantonais

German Name

Englisch
Kantonesisch

Pronunciation

/ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/
[kʰɐn˧˥tʰœːn˧˥sɨ˧˥]

Ethnicity

English people
Han Chinese

History

Origin

5th Century AD
17th century

Language Family

Indo-European Family
Sino-Tibetan Family

Subgroup

-
-

Branch

-
-

Language Forms

Early Forms

Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English and English
No early forms

Standard Forms

Standard English
Standard Cantonese

Language Position

31
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Signed English
Signed Cantonese

Scope

Individual
-

Code

ISO 639 1

en
No data available

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

eng
yue

ISO 639 2/B

eng
yue

ISO 639 3

eng
No data available

ISO 639 6

engs
yue

Glottocode

stan1293
cant1236

Linguasphere

52-ABA
No data available

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
-

Language Linguistic Typology

Subject-Verb-Object
-

Language Morphological Typology

Analytic, Fusional, Isolating, Synthetic
-

English vs Cantonese Speaking Countries

There are plenty of languages spoken around the world. Every country has its own official language. Compare English vs Cantonese speaking countries, so that you will have total count of countries that speak English or Cantonese language.

  • English is spoken as a national language in: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guyana, Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, United States of America.
  • Cantonese is spoken as a national language in: China, Guangdong.

You will also get to know the continents where English and Cantonese speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of English language is 3 and position of Cantonese language is 1. Find all the information about these languages on English and Cantonese.

English and Cantonese Language History

Comparison of English vs Cantonese language history gives us differences between origin of English and Cantonese language. History of English language states that this language originated in 5th Century AD whereas history of Cantonese language states that this language originated in 17th century. Family of the language also forms a part of history of that language. More on language families of these languages can be found out on English and Cantonese Language History.

English and Cantonese Greetings

People around the world use different languages to interact with each other. Even if we cannot communicate fluently in any language, it will always be beneficial to know about some of the common greetings or phrases from that language. This is where English and Cantonese greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in English and Cantonese language. English word for "Hello" is Hello or Cantonese word for "Thank You" is 谢谢. Find more of such common English Greetings and Cantonese Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.

English vs Cantonese Difficulty

The English vs Cantonese difficulty level basically depends on the number of English Alphabets and Cantonese Alphabets. Also the number of vowels and consonants in the language plays an important role in deciding the difficulty level of that language. The important points to be considered when we compare English and Cantonese are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in English and Cantonese, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn English is 6 weeks while to learn Cantonese time required is 88 weeks.