Cantonese Jyutping Converter

📖 About This Tool

What makes Cantonese hard is rarely the vocabulary but the tones: the same syllable at a different pitch means a different word. Jyutping marks six tones with numbers and is the most widely used romanisation for learners. This tool turns characters straight into Jyutping, so one glance tells you how to say it.

Matching prefers phrases. It looks for the longest phrase first and falls back to single characters, so a fixed expression like "thank you" is given as a whole rather than as two separate syllables, which is how it is actually said. The library holds common characters and frequent phrases, including characters specific to written Cantonese.

Four toggles cover different needs. Tone names append the tone number in words, which helps while the concept is new. Comparison shows the original beside the romanisation for reading aloud. Hiding the numbers suits anyone who wants only the segmental sounds. One per line puts each phrase on its own row, ready for a vocabulary list.

The side panel shows the size of the library and how much was converted or missed, with a dozen common phrases that convert on a click. Results can be copied or exported to CSV. Note that Cantonese has many characters with more than one reading, and this tool uses the common one. Everything runs locally.

Synonyms are grouped by sense, because most common words carry several: one sense may be formal, another colloquial, another technical, and swapping them without noticing produces a sentence that reads oddly even though each word is correct. Antonyms are listed alongside, which is often the faster way to fix a phrase that has drifted to the wrong register.

Collocations matter more than bare equivalents, so the entries favour words that actually appear next to the head word in real sentences. The library covers a few hundred head words, weighted towards the vocabulary of essays and school writing; a word outside it is reported as not found rather than padded with loose matches. Where a near synonym differs in intensity, the stronger one is listed later. Nothing here replaces a full dictionary, and for formal writing the choice should still be checked against usage in context.

✨ Features

• Whole passages: several lines split and romanised automatically.
• Phrase first: whole expressions before single characters, as actually spoken.
• Six tones: numbers for all six, optionally named in words.
• Comparison: original beside romanisation for reading aloud.
• Common phrases: a dozen frequent expressions at a click.
• Copy and export: results as text or CSV.

🚀 How to Use

1. Type the characters or a Cantonese sentence.
2. Tick the options you want: tone names, comparison, hide numbers, one per line.
3. Press convert and the romanisation appears below.
4. Use the common phrases for a quick trial.
5. Copy or export CSV when you need to keep it.

⚠️ Notes

• Multiple readings: common in Cantonese; the usual one is used, so judge by context.
• Coverage: common characters and frequent phrases; rare ones are reported as missing.
• Literary and colloquial: where the two differ, only one reading is given.
• Mandarin input: Mandarin phrasing may be romanised character by character rather than as idiomatic Cantonese.
• Nothing is saved: refreshing clears the results, so export in time.