hou2 hek3好吃
Jyutpinghou2 hek3
Yalehóu hek
Definition
Tasty; delicious.
colloquialfood
How it's used
Cantonese speakers almost exclusively use 好食 for food and drink, whereas the Mandarin term 好吃 is rarely heard in natural conversation. It is a versatile adjective that can describe anything from a simple snack to a gourmet meal. When you want to emphasize that something is exceptionally good, you can add 㗎 or 呀 to the end of the sentence to sound more natural.
Related words
Common phrases
incredibly delicious
both tasty and cheap
Common mistake
Avoid using 好吃 in spoken Cantonese, as it sounds like a direct translation from Mandarin and will mark you as a non-native speaker. Stick to 好食 for all food-related contexts.
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).
