Hello, guys. Welcome back to Dope Chinese. 我係你哋嘅老师Gloria~

I finally 辞咗职喇 [ci4 zo2 zik1 laa3]!I will have more time to make videos and have classes with your guys now.

Today, we are going to learn a Cantonese word 玩, which has three pronunciations so that you’re probably pronouncing it wrong.

Please promise me to watch this video until the end and subscribe my channel to learn more Dope Chinese with me.

This character 玩 has three pronunciations.(waan2)(wun6)(waan4)

You must have learnt the first pronunciations from the popular and classic song sung by 阿Sam,许冠杰. His songs reminds me of my entire childhood and my dad.

#1 [waan2]

It is often used to mean play,玩电话[waan2 din6 waa2](play phone)玩游戏[waan2 jau4 hei3](play games)and also in this song, it mentions 贪玩[taam1 waan2] (playful) and 好玩[hou2 waan2](interesting/fun).

For example, your girlfriend reminds you not to play phone all the time,

Then she would say:

[mai5 jat6 jat6 waan2 din6 waa2 laa3, teng1 haa6 ngo5 gong2 je5 hou2 m4 hou2]

咪日日玩电话喇,听下我讲嘢好唔好?

Don’t always play your phone. Could you listen to me a little bit?

Then you could tell her,

ni1 zek3 hou2 hou2 waan2 aa3, jat1 cai4 waan2 laa3!

呢只game好好玩呀,一齐玩喇!

This game is fun. Let’s play together.

If I were your girlfriend, maybe I will be mad and say,

ngo5 dei6 waan2 jyun4 laa3! m4 hou2 zoi3 lai4 wan2 ngo5 aa3!

我哋玩完喇!唔好再嚟搵我呀!

We are done! Please don’t come to me any more.

玩完[waan2 jyun4] means something is done and finished,or, game over.

What’s more, it also means “tease or trifle with” like 玩女人 [waan2 neoi5 jan4](womanize) and 玩嘢[waan2 je5](play a trick)We must watch this on the Cantoense movies before.

小喇叭,朱西你係咪想玩嘢呀你呀

nei5 tung4 ngo5 sing2 sing2 ding6 ding6 aa3! mai5 waan2 je5 aa3!

你同我醒醒定定呀!咪玩嘢!

Be careful for me. Don’t play a trick!

#2 [wun6]

It has the meaning of toy since the character is originated from 玉 jade. Lots of Chinese antique is kind of ancient toy made by jade. So we call them 古玩[waan2] It is the second tone because of the sound change.

The other common word is 玩具。This song is also my favorite-玩玩具.

#3 [waan4]

The last one is not so common. But if you watch some Cantonese ancient TV shows, sometimes you could hear this one 玩笑 [waan4 siu3]

It means jokes.

nei5 dim2 ho2 ji5 lo2 ni1 di1 je5 lai4 hoi1 waan2 siu3 gaa3?

你点可以攞呢啲嘢嚟开玩笑架?

How could you play a joke with these?

开玩笑 means play a joke. But we usually use 讲笑 which literally means “tell a joke”

mai5 nau1 laa3, ngo5 gong2 siu3 zaa3!

咪嬲喇,我讲笑咋!

Don’t be mad. I am just kidding!

Hope you enjoy today’s video and there is no more confusion on “play” in Cantonese. See you guys soon!