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Mandarin vs Cantonese: the differences and which one to learn

What is each one?

When people say “Chinese”, they almost always mean Standard Mandarin, which in China is called 普通话 pǔtōnghuà, “common language”: the law makes it the country's common language and the basic language of schools. Cantonese, in Chinese 粤语 Yuèyǔ or 广东话 Guǎngdōnghuà, is a different Sinitic language. It's sometimes called a “dialect”, but Brigham Young University compares the distance between the two to the distance between French and Romanian.

Where is each one spoken?

Can they understand each other?

Not when they speak. The sounds, the tones and many everyday words are different:

The Cantonese words are in traditional characters, as they're written in Hong Kong, and in Jyutping, the romanization of the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong. The number at the end of each syllable is the tone.

In writing, yes (mostly)

Formal writing uses standard written Chinese, which follows Mandarin grammar. In Hong Kong, it's written in traditional characters and read aloud in Cantonese, but someone who knows Mandarin can generally understand it (we compare the two writing systems in traditional vs simplified Chinese).

Cantonese can also be written the way it's spoken, with characters that standard Chinese doesn't use: 佢 keoi5 (he, she), 嘅 ge3 (possession, like Mandarin 的) or 咗 zo2 (a completed action, like 了 le). You see it in ads, comics, chats and subtitles, and people who only know Mandarin struggle to understand it.

Tones, sounds and romanization

Mandarin has four tones and a neutral tone (we explain them in the 4 Mandarin tones). Cantonese has six, which Jyutping numbers from 1 to 6: 夫 fu1 (man, husband) and 父 fu6 (father) differ only in their tone. The “nine tones” many people talk about are the traditional count, which counts syllables ending in p, t or k separately; linguists today describe six.

Those endings don't exist in Mandarin: ten (十) is shí in Mandarin and sap6 in Cantonese; six (六) is liù and luk6.

Which exam certifies each one?

The HSK, China's official exam for non-native speakers, tests Standard Mandarin in simplified characters. If you learn Cantonese, the HSK won't certify it.

Which one should you learn?

For almost everyone, Mandarin: far more people speak it, it's used in mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore, and it's the language of the HSK. Even in Hong Kong, 54.2% of people aged 5 and over said in the 2021 census that they could speak Putonghua.

Neither one is easy: the US Foreign Service Institute puts both in its hardest category for native English speakers, with 88 weeks of classes to reach a professional level (we go into it in is Chinese hard to learn?). And if you want to learn the other one later, you won't start from scratch: formal written Chinese is largely the same.

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Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese?

They're two different Chinese languages: they share much of their writing, but their speakers can't understand each other when they talk. Mandarin is the common language of China and Taiwan, and one of Singapore's official languages; Cantonese is spoken mainly in southern China, Hong Kong and Macau.

Can Mandarin speakers understand Cantonese?

Not when it's spoken, unless they've learned it. They can generally understand a formal text in standard written Chinese, but not Cantonese written the way it's spoken.

Do people in Hong Kong speak Mandarin?

The everyday language is Cantonese: in the 2021 census, 88.2% of people aged 5 and over usually spoke it, and 2.3% usually spoke Putonghua. Even so, 54.2% said they could speak Putonghua.

Which is harder, Mandarin or Cantonese?

The US State Department puts both in its hardest category for English speakers, with 88 weeks of classes. Cantonese has more tones, and its spoken form is further from standard written Chinese.

Is traditional Chinese the same as Cantonese?

No. Traditional Chinese is a way of writing the characters; Cantonese is a spoken language. In Taiwan, people speak Mandarin and write in traditional characters, just as in Hong Kong, where people speak Cantonese.

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