zing3 jan4證人证人
Jyutpingzing3 jan4
Yalejing yàhn
Definition
Witness; a person who has personal knowledge of an event and can testify about it.
neutralpeopleother
How it's used
Focuses primarily on legal or formal contexts where someone provides testimony regarding an event. While it appears in everyday speech when discussing crimes or accidents, it is not used for casual observation of daily life events where one might instead use terms like 見證人 for someone who witnesses a marriage or agreement.
Measure word
go3個goExamples
He is the only witness to this case.
Were you a witness at the scene back then?
Related words
Common mistake
Learners often confuse this with 見證人, which specifically refers to a witness for a contract, wedding, or formal ceremony, whereas 證人 is almost exclusively used for legal or investigative contexts.
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.
