Do Cantonese and Mandarin sound different?

While they are both tonal languages (where different tones give different meanings to the same sound), the number of tones is different. Mandarin has only four tones per sound, while Cantonese has at least six (and can have up to nine). Mandarin and Cantonese even have different vowels and consonants.

Is Mandarin better than Cantonese?

So it seems as though Mandarin is more practical than Cantonese. That’s not to say that learning Cantonese is a waste of time, and for some people, it may be the better choice, but for most people wanting to speak “Chinese”, Mandarin is the way to go.

Why does Cantonese sound so harsh?

Cantonese people talk loudly. Cantonese just sounds more forceful by nature because of its sounds and usage patterns. It’s explosive and clipped by nature; it’s a very expressive language. Mandarin is like classical music, gliding up and down in flow, while Cantonese is like rap music, in your face, dynamic and brash.

Why does Mandarin sound so harsh?

So why does Chinese sound so aggressive? The reason of this comes from the fact of Chinese tones. When the pitch is high and flat, the speaker sounds high voiced, although in English, people also talk with flat tone, but that tone can be low, so Chinese people sound like they raise their voice very easily.

Which language is easier to learn Mandarin or Cantonese?

Cantonese is my mother tongue, so I find it the easiest to speak. Having learnt a language with 9 tones first made it much easier to speak Mandarin and Japanese as they both have less tones. Therefore, pronunciation of Cantonese is probably the hardest to learn accurately.

Is Cantonese the same as Mandarin?

Cantonese and Mandarin are dialects of the Chinese language and are both spoken in China. They share the same base alphabet, but as a spoken language they are distinct and not mutually intelligible.

How different is Cantonese from Mandarin?

Both the Mandarin and Cantonese dialects are tonal languages where one word has many meanings depending on the pronunciation and intonation. Cantonese has nine tones, whereas Mandarin has just five. Cracking the tones are said to be the hardest part of learning Chinese.

What is the difference between Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese?

Mandarin and Cantonese are two dialects of the Chinese language. Although they share a common alphabet, the spoken language is distinctly different from one another and mutually intelligible. The main difference between Mandarin and Cantonese is that Mandarin is spoken by a larger number of people and is the main language of China.