syun1飧
Jyutpingsyun1
Yalesyūn
Definition
Supper; dinner; cooked rice or food.
- literarysupper; dinner
- literarycooked rice; cooked food
datedfood
How it's used
This character is almost exclusively used in formal, literary, or archaic contexts when referring to an evening meal. In everyday spoken Cantonese, people use 晚飯 or 宵夜 instead. Using this term in casual conversation will sound extremely pretentious or like you are quoting classical poetry.
Examples
Related words
Common phrases
dinner
Common mistake
Do not confuse this with 飧 as a verb meaning to eat, which is highly literary and never used in speech. Learners often mistake it for a common word due to its visual similarity to 食, but it is effectively absent from modern colloquial vocabulary.
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Classifier
Particle
Connector
Grammar guides
- LocationHow to say where something is using 喺 (hai2), place words like 度, and the common coverbs that work like English prepositions.
- Serial verbsStringing two or more verbs together without any joining word, like go to the shop buy things. Extremely common in Cantonese.
- 將 disposalHow to move the object in front of the verb with 將, to focus on what happens to it. Common in instructions and writing.
