Cantopop lyrics

[guest]

Hello,

Can Cantonese speakers easily understand music that uses Cantonese words but Mandarin grammar? Can a Cantonese singer assume that a Cantonese-speaking audience will understand the song?

For example, it seems that Cantonese songs use words like: ta, si, bat, dik, kap... instead of kui, hai, m, ge, bei respectively...

[Guest]

The Cantonese learned in schools is not the colloquial (spoken) Cantonese so yes, they will use what you called the "Mandarin grammar", or standard. Most Cantonese songs use the standard rather than the colloquial, because a) it's easier to understand, b) a lot of the spoken Cantonese words do not have written equivalents, and c) it sounds better. Some artists use the colloquial, but they may use a slang which would be hard to understand for those who don't know it. So yes, ta will be used instead of kui, si instead of hai, etc..

[Guest]

Also, Cantonese don't write the way we speak so we'll use the standard for any and all writing (like a song or letter) but we won't pronounce it in the standard.

[timven1992]

May be they don't know how to write in correct charicter in Cantonese
Like Lae mai hai dou yin yer你咪喺到衒野
Have you even seen this~~>衒????