Does Cantonese Have 6 or 9 Tones? Cantonese Tones Explained!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_KkkYM8VfI

Cantonese Tones Explained in 8 Minutes

Table of contents

• Part I: What are tones in Cantonese?

• Part II: Does Cantonese have six or nine tones?

• Part III: The 6 tones + how Jyutping represents tones

• Recap and what to learn next

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Are you confused – or slightly intimidated – by Cantonese tones?

You might've heard that Cantonese has six tones.

Or is it nine?

And maybe you’re still wondering what “tones” even means in the first place.

Let’s clear it all up properly.

By the end of this article, you’ll understand:

• What tones actually are in Cantonese

• Why some people say six and others say nine

• How the tones sound in real life

• How they’re written using Jyutping – the standard Cantonese romanisation system

If tones have been your biggest mental block with Cantonese, this will make them feel much more manageable.

Part I – What are tones in Cantonese?

Cantonese is a tonal language.

That means pitch changes meaning.

"Pitch" simply mean how high or low your voice sounds when you pronounce a syllable.

• If your voice stays high and steady – that’s one pitch pattern.

• If it rises – that’s another.

• If it starts low and rises – that’s different again.

In English, we also change pitch. But we usually do it to show emotion, surprise or emphasis.

For example:

“You did that.” (neutral)

“You did that?” (surprised)

In English, the pitch change changes the feeling.

In Cantonese, the pitch change changes the word itself.

Each Chinese character – when pronounced in Cantonese – has its own pitch pattern. That pitch pattern is its tone. And it’s not optional.

Let’s take a very common everyday word:

食 – sik6 – “to eat”

If you change the tone and pronounce it as sik1, it becomes:

識 – “to know”

Same consonants. Same vowel.

Different tone.

Completely different meaning.

And here’s the mind-bending part: there are actually 26 other characters that share the exact pronunciation “sik1”!!

識 式 色 適 釋 飾 惜 析 息 昔

席 碩 攝 錫 奭 蜥 螫 軾 嗇 穡

熄 殖 湜 拭 舄 媳 襫

A fun YouTube short showcasing Cantonese tones!

This abundance of homophones is one reason why learning Chinese characters is so helpful. But that’s a discussion for another day.

The key takeaway here:

Tones in Cantonese are lexical.

They distinguish vocabulary.

If you pronounce the consonants and vowels perfectly but get the tone wrong, you may end up saying a completely different word.

So now the big question:

How many tones are there? Six or nine?

Part II – Six tones or nine tones?

This is where learners often get confused.

You’ll hear some people confidently say: “Cantonese has nine tones.”

Others will insist: “No, it has SIX!”

So which is correct?

The practical answer (and good news, frankly!) for learners is: six.

Historically, Cantonese was characterised as having nine tones. Modern linguists, however, describe it as having six distinct pitch patterns.

So where did the extra three come from?

They’re what are historically called entering tones.

That sounds technical – but it’s actually simple.

Entering tones are syllables that end in -p, -t, or -k.

For example:

• sik1 識

• sap1 十

• sit3 舌

• sik6 食

Notice how they all end in a stop sound – p, t, or k.

When you say them, your voice gets cut off quickly:

sik.

sap.

sit.

(If you want to hear these words pronounced by a nativfe speaker, I highly recommend that you watch my video!)

They’re short and clipped.

Historically, these were counted as separate tones. That’s how people arrived at nine.

But here’s the key point:

They don’t introduce new pitch shapes.

Take:

• sik1 識

• si1 詩

Both use the same high, level pitch.

The only difference is that sik1 ends in -k, so it sounds shorter.

Same pitch contour. Different ending.

Modern analysis therefore says: we don’t need to count those separately. They follow the same six pitch categories. They’re just shorter because of the final consonant.

So:

• If someone says nine – they’re using the traditional historical framework.

• If someone says six – they’re describing the actual pitch system learners need to master.

From a learner’s perspective?

Six is better than nine, wouldn't you agree? 😅

Part III – The six Cantonese tones (with examples)

Cantonese has six main tones:

1. Tone 1 – high and level

2. Tone 2 – high and rising

3. Tone 3 – mid and level

4. Tone 4 – low and falling

5. Tone 5 – low and rising

6. Tone 6 – low and level

All six Cantonese tones

Let’s use a classic example: the syllable “si”.

Same consonant. Same vowel. Different tones.

• si1 詩 – poem

• si2 史 – history

• si3 試 – to try

• si4 時 – time

• si5 市 – market

• si6 事 – matter

Six completely different meanings.

The only variable is the pitch pattern, aka "tone".

That's why it's so important to master tones when learning Cantonese!

How tones are written in Jyutping

If you’re learning Cantonese seriously, you’ll come across Jyutping.

Jyutping is the romanisation system most commonly used for Cantonese. It writes Cantonese using the Latin alphabet plus tone numbers.

Unlike Mandarin – which uses accent marks:

mā 媽 – first tone – “mother”

Jyutping uses numbers:

• si1

• si2

• si3

• si4

• si5

• si6

The number corresponds directly to the tone category.

And this is important:

The tone number is not optional.

It’s part of the spelling.

In Cantonese, tone is inextricably linked to the word itself.

Recap – and what to learn next

Let’s recap:

• Tones in Cantonese change the meaning of words.

• Historically, people counted nine tones.

• Modern analysis recognises six core pitch categories.

• Jyutping represents tones clearly using numbers.

If tones felt intimidating before, I hope they now feel a bit more manageable!

And if you’re still wondering how Cantonese relates to Mandarin – or how both relate to Simplified and Traditional Chinese – I’ve created a full explainer playlist that walks through all of that step by step.

Thanks for reading!