cau1 jin1抽煙抽烟
Jyutpingcau1 jin1
Yalechāu yīn
Definition
To smoke cigarettes.
colloquialdaily actionshealth
How it's used
Cantonese speakers almost exclusively use 食煙 instead of 抽煙. 抽煙 is considered a Mandarin-influenced term and sounds unnatural or overly formal in a Hong Kong context. Using 食煙 is the standard way to describe the act of smoking, regardless of whether it is a cigarette or other tobacco products.
Related words
Common mistake
Avoid using 抽煙 in casual conversation as it marks you as a non-native speaker. Stick to 食煙 to sound like a local.
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Classifier
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Connector
Grammar guides
- In 30 secondsThe whole language at a glance. No tenses, no plurals, six tones, sentence particles. Read this before you dive into any specific topic.
- ParticlesSentence particles add tone, emotion, and nuance. Learn the most common particles in Cantonese and how to use them.
- Possession (嘅)How to say my, your, and his, and how to link a describing word to a noun, all with the little word 嘅 (ge3).
