gun1 waa6官話官话
Jyutpinggun1 waa6
Yalegūn wah
Definition
Mandarin; the group of Sinitic languages that includes Putonghua, Beijing dialect, and Sichuanese.
neutralcommunication
How it's used
Refers to the broad linguistic category of Northern Chinese dialects rather than the standardized language used in schools. While it is technically the linguistic term for the Mandarin group, locals rarely use this word in casual conversation to describe the language spoken in mainland China, preferring terms like 普通話 or 國語.
Examples
He speaks Mandarin more often than Cantonese in his daily life.
Related words
Common mistake
Do not confuse this with the historical term for the official language used by imperial bureaucrats, which is also called 官話. Using it to describe modern standard Chinese can sound overly academic or slightly archaic to a native speaker.
Grammar color guide
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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).
