gan2饉馑
Jyutpinggan2
Yalegán
Definition
Crop failure; a poor harvest.
writtenfoodother
How it's used
Functions primarily as a bound morpheme in formal or literary contexts rather than as a standalone verb or noun in daily speech. It is almost exclusively encountered within the compound 飢饉 to describe severe food shortages or widespread starvation. Using it outside of this specific collocation will sound unnatural or archaic to native speakers.
Examples
There was a famine that year, and many people had no food to eat.
Why did a famine occur in that place?
Related words
Common mistake
Learners often mistake it for a common verb like 餓, but it refers specifically to the societal event of crop failure rather than the personal sensation of hunger.
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Classifier
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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).
