← Cantonese Dictionary
Jyutping Converter
Paste Chinese text, get Jyutping above every character. Traditional or
simplified, free, instant, no signup. Each word links to its dictionary entry,
and everything runs in your browser.
How to use
- Paste Chinese text above. The Jyutping updates as you type (first 5,000 characters).
- Choose Jyutping above characters to read along, or Plain Jyutping text and press copy to paste the Jyutping elsewhere.
- Click any word to open its dictionary entry, with meanings, Mandarin pinyin and related words. For example 你好, 唔該 and 香港.
- Check the list under the result when a character has several readings and the shown one does not fit your sentence.
How the converter reads your text
At each position the converter looks for the longest word it knows, up to
four characters, and reads the whole word. That is why 銀行
comes out as ngan4 hong4 and not with the haang4 of walking.
Characters that are not Chinese, such as English words, numbers and punctuation,
pass through unchanged, and so do Chinese characters the word list does not
have.
Jyutping in one minute
Jyutping spells each Cantonese syllable with letters and a tone number from
1 to 6. A few letters differ from English or pinyin habits: j is the
y of "yes", and z and c are the unaspirated and
aspirated "ts" sounds. The tone is the part that changes the word. The same
syllable si in six tones:
| Tone | Contour | Syllable | Character |
|---|
| 1 | high level | si1 | 詩 |
| 2 | high rising | si2 | 史 |
| 3 | mid level | si3 | 試 |
| 4 | low falling | si4 | 時 |
| 5 | low rising | si5 | 市 |
| 6 | low level | si6 | 事 |
Honest limits
- It is a dictionary lookup, not a reader. It does not understand
the sentence, so a character used in an unusual way can get the wrong reading.
The other readings are listed under the result for that reason.
- One reading per word. When a word has several readings, the
converter shows the one with the most meanings in the dictionary, plus a few
corrections for very common words such as 嘅 (ge3).
- Names and new words may split into single characters. A name
the dictionary does not have is read character by character.
- Cantonese readings only. The output is Jyutping, even for text
written in standard written Chinese. It does not turn Mandarin sentences into
spoken Cantonese; for that see the Mandarin to Cantonese guides.
FAQ
- How do I convert Chinese characters to Jyutping?
- Paste them above. Jyutping appears over every character as you type.
- Does it work with simplified Chinese?
- Yes. Traditional and simplified spellings match the same words, and you can mix them.
- Why does a character have more than one reading?
- Many characters are read differently in different words. Whole words are matched first; a lone character shows its most common reading and lists the others.
- What is Jyutping?
- The Cantonese romanisation published by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong in 1993: letters plus a tone number from 1 to 6.
- How accurate is it?
- Right for the words it knows, but it cannot read context. Check the other readings when something looks off.
- Is my text uploaded anywhere?
- No. The word list downloads once and the conversion runs locally.
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Readings and meanings: CC-Canto and CC-CEDICT, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.