tou4 jing4徒刑
Jyutpingtou4 jing4
Yaletòuh yìhng
Definition
A prison sentence; imprisonment, which can be fixed-term or life imprisonment.
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How it's used
This term is primarily used in formal legal contexts or news reports regarding court proceedings. It is rarely used in casual daily conversation where people would instead use 坐監 or 坐牢 to describe the act of being imprisoned. When discussing specific durations, it is almost always paired with terms like 有期 or 終身.
Examples
He was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment for breaking the law.
The judge sentenced him to life imprisonment; that is really heavy.
Related words
Common mistake
Do not use this word to describe the act of going to jail in a casual sense. Saying someone is undergoing 徒刑 sounds like you are reading a formal police report rather than talking to a friend.
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Classifier
Particle
Connector
Grammar guides
- QuestionsFrom yes or no questions to asking who, what, where, and when. The patterns you need to ask questions naturally in Cantonese.
- ClassifiersCantonese puts a classifier between a number and a noun, and a bare classifier on its own can mean the. Learn the common ones and how to use them.
- ComparisonsHow to say bigger than, the most, the same as, and not as good as. Cantonese uses 過 where Mandarin uses 比, and that catches a lot of learners out.
