Key takeaways
- Jyutping is the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong's Cantonese romanisation scheme, designed in 1993.
- It uses only letters and ASCII digits: z is /ts/, c is /tsʰ/, j is the y sound, and tone numbers 1 to 6 follow each syllable.
- The LSHK asks for tone numbers as ordinary digits, not superscripts.
- Jyutping writes /ɵ/ as eo and /œː/ as oe, where Yale uses eu for both.
- The LSHK example fu1, fu2, fu3, fu4, fu5, fu6 shows one syllable across all six tone numbers.
Most Cantonese learning materials print a line of Latin letters and numbers under the characters, something like nei5 hou2. That is Jyutping, and once you know what each letter stands for and what the digit does, you can pronounce a word you have never heard. This guide decodes the spelling: the initials that trip English readers up, the vowels written with two letters, and the tone numbers. It does not try to teach the tones themselves; Cantonese tones explained covers how they sound.
Who made Jyutping and what it is for
The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK) designed and proposed the scheme in 1993; its full name is the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme. The LSHK describes it as based solely on alphanumeric characters, without diacritics, and usable as a computer input method. Wikipedia explains that the name Jyutping is itself a contraction in Jyutping, from jyut6 jyu5 (粵語, Cantonese) and ping3 jam1 (拼音, phonetic spelling), and records a 2018 update that added two finals.
Initials: the letters that do not mean what English expects
Most initials work as an English reader would guess: b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, h, s and w. Four need attention:
| Jyutping | Sound (IPA) | Example | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| z | /ts/ | 渣 | the ts in "cats" |
| c | /tsʰ/ | 叉 | the same with a puff of air |
| j | /j/ | 也 | the y in "yes", never the English j |
| ng | /ŋ/ | 牙 | the ng of "sing", at the start of a word |
There are also two rounded initials, gw and kw, as in 瓜 and 誇. And b, d, g are unaspirated /p t k/ while p, t, k are aspirated, so the contrast is about breath rather than voicing. Wikipedia notes that Jyutping departed from earlier systems by introducing z and c and by replacing y with j. When a syllable has no initial consonant, the LSHK says nothing is written: 呀 is just aa.
Finals: aa versus a, eo versus oe, and yu
The vowel letters hold most of the subtlety:
- aa is long /aː/, as in 三; a is the short /ɐ/, as in 心. The doubled letter is a different vowel, not a spelling variant.
- oe is /œː/, as in 鋸 and 商; eo is /ɵ/, as in 詢 and 需.
- yu is /yː/, the rounded vowel in 書. Wikipedia notes that if no consonant precedes yu, Jyutping adds j, giving spellings such as jyut6.
- m and ng can stand alone as syllables, as in 唔 and 吳.
Finals can end in i, u, m, n, ng, p, t or k. The last three are unreleased stops, which matters for tone numbering below.
Tone numbers: digits at the end, never superscript
Each syllable ends with a digit from 1 to 6. The LSHK gives a compact demonstration with one syllable:
| Jyutping | Character | Tone number |
|---|---|---|
| fu1 | 夫 | 1 |
| fu2 | 虎 | 2 |
| fu3 | 副 | 3 |
| fu4 | 扶 | 4 |
| fu5 | 婦 | 5 |
| fu6 | 父 | 6 |
Wikipedia explains that Cantonese has nine tones in six contours, but the three "entering" tones occur only in syllables ending in p, t or k, so Jyutping writes them with 1, 3 and 6 rather than giving them numbers of their own: 識 is sik1, 錫 is sek3, 食 is sik6. The LSHK also asks that tone numbers be written as plain ASCII digits rather than as superscripts or subscripts, saying that styling makes the tone less legible. Bold, italics or colour are acceptable.
A worked example: decoding three phrases
Take three examples Wikipedia gives:
- nei5 hou2 (你好): n + ei, tone 5; h + ou, tone 2. Two syllables, two digits.
- jyut6 jyu5 (粵語): the j is the y sound; yu is the rounded vowel; -t is an unreleased stop, which is why the first syllable carries 6 rather than the 9 that ILE romanisation would use for this entering tone.
- gwong2 zau1 waa2 (廣州話, the Guangzhou speech): rounded gw, the ts-like z, and long aa.
Count the digits and you have counted the syllables: 2 + 2 + 3 = 7 tone numbers for seven characters, one per syllable.
How Jyutping compares with Yale
Wikipedia lists Yale and Jyutping as sharing most initials, vowels and codas, but differing in a handful of places:
| Sound | Jyutping | Yale |
|---|---|---|
| /j/ | j | y |
| /ts/ | z | j |
| /tsʰ/ | c | ch |
| /ɵ/ and /œː/ | eo, oe | eu for both |
| tone | numbers only | tone marks plus h (numbers also possible) |
The trap is j: in Jyutping it is the y sound, in Yale it is the ts sound. If a textbook and a dictionary disagree, check which system each uses before you trust either. Learn Cantonese for beginners makes the same case for choosing one system and staying with it.
Typing Cantonese with Jyutping
Because Jyutping uses only letters and digits, it doubles as an input method: you type the romanisation and choose from the matching characters. Wikipedia lists Gboard among the keyboard tools that support Jyutping input on Android and iOS.
Studying with Jyutping in the app
Learn Cantonese for Beginners shows traditional characters and Jyutping together from the first lesson, and works through initials, finals, syllables and tone contrasts before conversation. It does not teach Mandarin or simplified characters. It is one of our language-learning apps. For how Jyutping sits alongside written Cantonese and Standard Written Chinese, see spoken vs written Cantonese.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
What is Jyutping?
How do you pronounce z, c and j in Jyutping?
What do the numbers in Jyutping mean?
How is Jyutping different from Yale romanisation?
Sources
- Jyutping Cantonese Romanization Scheme (opens in a new tab)The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong — accessed
- Jyutping (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
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