ng5午
Jyutpingng5
Yaleńgh
Definition
Noon; midday; the time of day when the sun is at its highest point.
neutraltime
How it's used
Functions primarily as a bound morpheme in modern Cantonese rather than a standalone noun. It appears almost exclusively in compound words related to time, such as 午飯 or 午餐. Speakers rarely use it alone to refer to noon, preferring the more common term 中午.
Examples
Have you eaten lunch yet?
He always eats after lunchtime.
Related words
Common mistake
Avoid using it as a standalone word for noon in casual speech, as it sounds overly formal or literary. Use 中午 instead for daily communication.
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).
