nin4 gou1年糕
Jyutpingnin4 gou1
Yalenìhn gōu
Definition
New Year rice cake; a sweet cake made from glutinous rice flour and brown sugar, commonly eaten during Lunar New Year.
colloquialfoodfestival
How it's used
Traditionally, the measure word 底 is used specifically for a whole, round cake as it is steamed in a basin. When serving or eating, you would refer to a slice or piece as 嚿 or 塊. It is almost exclusively associated with the Lunar New Year period and is rarely consumed outside of that season.
Measure word
dai2底dáiExamples
How many batches of New Year cake did you buy to bring home this year?
You must use low heat to pan-fry New Year cake, otherwise it burns very easily.
Related words
Common mistake
Learners often mistake the measure word for generic items like 個, but using 底 shows you understand the traditional way these cakes are prepared and sold in round containers.
Grammar color guide
Noun
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Adjective
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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).
