siu2 hek3小吃
Jyutpingsiu2 hek3
Yalesíu hek
Definition
Snack or light refreshment.
colloquialfood
How it's used
Cantonese speakers almost exclusively use 小食 instead of 小吃 to refer to snacks. While 小吃 is understood, it sounds like a direct translation from Mandarin and feels unnatural in daily conversation. Use 小食 for everything from street food to light bites between meals.
Measure word
fan2份fánRelated words
Common mistake
Avoid using 小吃 in casual speech as it marks you as a non-native speaker. Stick to 小食 to sound like a local.
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).
