je6 siu1夜宵
Jyutpingje6 siu1
Yaleyeh sīu
Definition
Supper or late-night snack eaten after dinner.
colloquialfooddaily actions
How it's used
While both 夜宵 and 消夜 are widely understood, 消夜 is significantly more common in everyday spoken Cantonese. The term often implies a social activity rather than just a meal, frequently involving a trip to a local dai pai dong or a fast food restaurant late at night.
Measure word
caan1餐chānExamples
Shall we go out for a midnight snack tonight?
He always likes to have a midnight snack before going to sleep.
Related words
Common mistake
Learners often confuse the order of the characters, but remember that 消夜 is the standard colloquial form, whereas 夜宵 is more commonly seen in written contexts or formal menus.
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Classifier
Particle
Connector
Grammar guides
- QuestionsFrom yes or no questions to asking who, what, where, and when. The patterns you need to ask questions naturally in Cantonese.
- ClassifiersCantonese puts a classifier between a number and a noun, and a bare classifier on its own can mean the. Learn the common ones and how to use them.
- ComparisonsHow to say bigger than, the most, the same as, and not as good as. Cantonese uses 過 where Mandarin uses 比, and that catches a lot of learners out.
