zik6 gun3籍貫籍贯
Jyutpingzik6 gun3
Yalejihk gun
Definition
One's ancestral home; the native place or hometown of one's ancestors.
neutralpeopleother
How it's used
This term is almost exclusively used in formal contexts like filling out official government forms, passport applications, or legal documents. It refers specifically to the ancestral home recorded in family registers rather than where a person was born or currently lives. In casual daily conversation, people rarely use this word, preferring to ask about where someone's family is from using simpler phrasing.
Examples
Do you know where your family's ancestral home is?
My ancestral home is in Guangdong, but I was born in Hong Kong.
Related words
Common phrases
register ancestral home
Common mistake
Learners often confuse this with the place where they were born or grew up. It is important to remember that this refers to ancestral roots, which might be a place the speaker has never even visited.
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.
