sik6 je5食嘢
Jyutpingsik6 je5
Yalesihk yéh
Definition
To eat; to have a meal.
colloquialfooddaily actions
How it's used
This is the most common way to refer to eating in daily life, functioning as a versatile verb phrase. While 食 refers specifically to the act of eating, adding 嘢 turns it into a general activity that can cover anything from a full meal to a quick snack. It is preferred over the more formal 進食 or 用餐 in almost all social situations.
Examples
Where should we go to eat?
Related words
Common mistake
Do not use this to mean eating a specific food item. If you want to say eat rice or eat noodles, you must drop the 嘢 and say 食飯 or 食麵 instead.
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).
