Bite 14 - Transportation

When we leave the house for anything, the first question is how we can get to our final destination. Someone might drive a car, ride on a bus, or just walk. How do we phrase these in modern Cantonese?

交     通    工    具
gaau1 tung1 gung1 geoi6

Transportations

搭
daap3

ride on (a transport)

Doesn’t seem very concrete right? Example!

搭     巴   士
daap3 baa1 si6

Take the bus

Fun fact: 巴士 is a loan word from English.

Of course, moving around involves both getting on and getting off a tansportation…

上
soeng5

get in / on (any transport)

Usage:

上      車
soeng5 ce1

Get on a ground vehicle

Whether it is the underground, tram, taxi, car or bus, we describe getting on one of such ground transport as “上車”.

How about “上”-ing a particular transport? It is a little bit more complicated and we will talk about it later. For now, let’s settle with “上車”.

落
lok6

get off (any transport)

落    車
lok6 ce1

get off a ground vehicle

The same goes for 落 - 落車 basically means getting off any ground transport.

These are the 3 verbs (搭, 上, 落) to use when taking transportation. Easy, right? I know you can do this.

Here is an extra verb for the transportation that most of us are born with - our foot! How do we say that?

行
haang4

walk (verb)

It is only the action though. To describe the way of transport:

行      路
haang4 lou6

walking (travel)

In the next bite, we will talk about other transports and a rather curious slang in Hong Kong that means walking. See you!