ngaau5 faan6咬飯咬饭
Jyutpingngaau5 faan6
Yalengáauh faahn
Definition
To eat rice; to have a meal.
colloquialfooddaily actions
How it's used
Using 咬飯 to mean eating is highly specific to certain regions and is often considered a humorous or slightly rough way to describe the act of chewing food. In standard daily conversation, 食飯 is the universal and neutral term for having a meal. Learners should stick to 食飯 to avoid sounding like they are using obscure regional slang.
Related words
Common mistake
Do not use 咬飯 in formal settings or when speaking to strangers, as it sounds unrefined and can be misinterpreted as literally chewing food rather than having a meal. Stick to the standard 食飯 for all general contexts.
Grammar color guide
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Grammar guides
- Directional complementsThe small words added after a verb to show direction of movement, like up, down, out, in, and back. Common in everyday Cantonese.
- DemonstrativesThis and that with 呢 and 嗰, the personal pronouns, and how 哋 turns I, you, and he into we, you all, and they.
- Resultative complementsSticking a result word onto a verb to show how it turned out, like eat until full or look and find. A productive everyday pattern.
