jau3幼
Jyutpingjau3
Yaleyau
Definition
Young, underage, or not yet fully grown.
colloquialpeople
How it's used
While 幼 technically means young, it is rarely used as a standalone adjective in modern spoken Cantonese to describe a child. It is almost exclusively found in compound words like 年幼 or 幼兒. For describing a young child, native speakers prefer using 細個 or 仲細.
Examples
He was very young when he was little and didn't know anything.
You are so young, yet you are learning to drink alcohol?
Related words
Common mistake
Do not confuse this with 幼 meaning thin or fine, such as in 幼線 or 幼沙. Using 幼 to describe a person's age in a casual conversation can sound overly formal or even literary.
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Classifier
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Grammar guides
- LocationHow to say where something is using 喺 (hai2), place words like 度, and the common coverbs that work like English prepositions.
- Serial verbsStringing two or more verbs together without any joining word, like go to the shop buy things. Extremely common in Cantonese.
- 將 disposalHow to move the object in front of the verb with 將, to focus on what happens to it. Common in instructions and writing.
