In spoken Mandarin, when discussing one's family, it's more common to use expressions like "Wǒmen jiā 我们家" (literally: our family) or "nǐmen jiā 你們家" (literally: your family) instead of "wǒ jiā 我家" (my family) or "nǐ jiā 你家"(your family). In Cantonese, both "我屋企" (my family) and "我哋屋企" (our family) are considered suitable expressions for referring to one's family, whereas the only acceptable term in Mandarin is "我们家".
In Mandarin, the measure word "kǒu 口" counts the number of individuals. Typically, it is utilized to specify the number of people within a household.
Although it is necessary to include a quantifier before the object when expressing the possessive meaning of "our puppy" in Cantonese "我哋隻狗仔," the quantifier is not required in Mandarin.
"liǎng 两" means two. Although "两" and “二” both means two, they are used in distinct occasions. In Mandarin, we generally use "两" instead of "二" before a quantifier, which is consistent with Cantonese. For example:
It is important to note that, when expressing amounts in units of hundreds, thousands, ten thousands or larger, Mandarin commonly uses "liǎng" before the unit, which is different from Cantonese. For example:
The expression "zuò shénme gōngzuò 做什么工作？" can be used to ask about someone’s profession. For example, "Nǐ bàba māma zuò shénme gōngzuò? 你爸爸妈妈做什么工作？" (What do your mum and dad do?).
In response, one can use the verb "shì 是" plus one’s profession, as seen below:
"zhēn 真" (really) is an adverb used to emphasise the degree of an adjective or adverb, just as “zan1 hai6 真係” in Cantonese. Please note that, unlike in Cantonese where the degree adverb "好" is added between "真係" and adjectives, in Mandarin, "真" does not require any degree adverb between it and the following adjective.
Here are some examples:
