faan1 ke2蕃茄
Jyutpingfaan1 ke2
Yalefāan ké
Definition
Tomato.
colloquialfood
How it's used
Pronunciation often varies between the standard reading and the colloquial variant where the first character is pronounced as faan1. While the written form remains consistent, you will frequently hear locals refer to it simply as faan1 ke2 in casual speech. It is almost exclusively treated as a cooking ingredient rather than a fruit eaten raw on its own.
Measure word
go3個goExamples
I want to buy a few tomatoes to take home for cooking noodles.
Do you eat scrambled eggs with tomato?
Related words
Common mistake
Beginners sometimes confuse the pronunciation with the Mandarin version, but in Cantonese, the emphasis is on the specific tone of the first syllable. Ensure you do not use the Mandarin-style classifier for vegetables, as individual tomatoes are counted with 個 or 隻.
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Classifier
Particle
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).
