Typing Cantonese Characters

Rationale:

When I first started learning Cantonese, I couldn’t find any decent information on the Internet about how to type Cantonese characters so I gradually made my own list of commonly used Cantonese characters. You can see it below. Since that time, some easier methods of entering Cantonese have emerged. I’ve described them below too.

Cantonese Input Methods (IME) – How to Type Cantonese:

Here are some of the ways you can type Cantonese-specific characters on your computer:

• If you know how to speak Mandarin and how to write pinyin, or are willing to learn, then ...
  • You can use the Chinese (PRC) IME (freely available from Microsoft), but around 60% of all Cantonese-specific characters will still not be typeable.
  • You can use the Chinese (Taiwanese) IME (freely available from Microsoft), but around 25% of all Cantonese-specific characters will still not be typeable.

• If you’re writing an HTML page ...
  • You can copy and paste the characters or Unicode values from the table below, but I may not have listed all the characters you need. (If you want me to add some, send me a message by clicking the “Contact Us” link above.)

• If you know how to write Chinese characters and how to use Wubi, or are willing to learn, then ...
  • You can use the Wubi IME (五笔字型输入法) (freely available from wangma.com.cn), and most if not all Cantonese-specific characters will be typeable!

• If you know how to write Cantonese words using the Sidney Lau Cantonese Romanization System or Jyutping or Yale, or are willing to learn, then ...
  • You can use a Cantonese IME such as CPIME (freely available from cpime.hk), and most if not all Cantonese-specific characters will be typeable! (Although the Sidney Lau Cantonese Romanization System implemented in CPIME version 6.2.5 has at least 3 errors that I know of.  i.e. The romanization is incorrect for some sounds. It’s not a huge problem though.)

Common Cantonese Characters:

Each row of the table below shows:

• a Cantonese-specific Character, or a standard Chinese character which has a different meaning in Cantonese,
• its Cantonese Pronunciation (using the Sidney Lau Cantonese Romanization System),
• the way to type the character using the Chinese (Taiwanese) IME (freely available from Microsoft),
• the way to type the character using the Chinese (PRC) IME (freely available from Microsoft),
• the way to type the character using Wubi IME (五笔字型输入法) (freely available from wangma.com.cn),
• the Unicode value of the character (which can be used in HTML, for example “呃” = “呃”),
• and the English Meaning(s) of the Cantonese character.

Blank table entries are ones that either cannot be done in the given method, or I haven’t worked out a way to do it.