hat1 tou2乞討乞讨
Jyutpinghat1 tou2
Yalehāt tóu
Definition
To beg; to ask for alms or charity.
writtenpeoplemoney
How it's used
乞討 is a formal or literary term that is rarely used in casual daily speech. In everyday Hong Kong Cantonese, people typically use 乞食 or 攞錢嚟買嘢食 to describe the act of begging. Using 乞討 in a normal conversation can sound overly dramatic or like you are reading from a news report.
Examples
He once tried begging on the streets to make a living.
Related words
Common phrases
to beg for a living
Common mistake
Do not confuse 乞討 with 乞兒, which is the noun for a beggar. Using the verb 乞討 to describe a person is grammatically incorrect.
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
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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).
