zing1 lau6蒸餾蒸馏
Jyutpingzing1 lau6
Yalejīng lauh
Definition
To distill.
neutraldaily actionsfood
How it's used
Primarily used in scientific or industrial contexts, this term is rarely applied to everyday cooking or home activities. When people talk about drinking water in Hong Kong, they almost exclusively use the compound 蒸餾水 rather than using the verb form in isolation. It carries a formal tone that contrasts with the casual nature of most spoken Cantonese verbs.
Examples
This water needs to be distilled before it is safe to drink.
Do you know how to distill seawater?
Related words
Common mistake
Learners often confuse this with 煲滾, which simply means to boil water. Distillation requires the specific process of capturing and cooling the steam to produce pure liquid, whereas boiling just heats the water.
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.
