Mandarin vs Cantonese: What’s the Difference? (Comparison Chart)

Learn Mandarin or Cantonese?

This has been quite a comprehensive guide to Mandarin vs Cantonese in plain language. Now, it all boils down to this question: which should you learn – Mandarin or Cantonese?

There’s a lot to consider when deciding whether to learn Mandarin vs Cantonese (or whether to learn one after learning the other) from a learner’s perspective, but for nearly all people we’d recommend learning Mandarin, first in spoken form, and later in characters.

Reasons for Learning Mandarin Over Cantonese

Here are the pros of learning Mandarin over Cantonese (and cons of learning Cantonese over Mandarin).

1. Mandarin is MUCH more widely spoken than Cantonese

Mandarin is the official language of China (PRC) and Taiwan. If you speak fluent Mandarin, you are well-equipped with the knowledge to engage in conversation with people in any part of the country.

Mandarin is also one of the four official languages of Singapore and one of the most spoken foreign languages in many East Asia and Southeast Asia countries (e.g. Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia).

By contrast, Cantonese is spoken predominantly in Hong Kong, Macao, and two southern provinces of Mainland China. Even in Hong Kong, there is a rising educational preference for Mandarin (the most sought-after preschools in Hong Kong nowadays are taught in English or Mandarin, rather than Cantonese). And if you go to Guangzhou or Shenzhen, you can expect any educated people there to speak Mandarin fluently.

2. Mandarin is easier than Cantonese.

This is something generally agreed by the language learning community. Overall, Mandarin is slightly easier than Cantonese for two reasons.

First, Mandarin pronunciation is relatively easier – there are “only” four tones. Once you reach the later stages, the accent isn’t really a big deal. There are many tone variations in Mandarin dialects. As long as you can string a coherent sentence together and say it fluently, you may disguise yourself as a (small-town) native speaker in phone conversations.

Cantonese pronunciation is, of course, more difficult from the get-go with 6 tones (or 9 if you count in the 3 additional entering tones). The real difficulty with Cantonese is in trying to sound like a native speaker. Getting accent and sentence intonation to a native-like level is no easy task.

Secondly, Mandarin mainly uses simplified Chinese characters (in Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia). As the name indicates, simplified characters, with fewer strokes, are easier to remember for new learners and take less effort to write.

3. Mandarin is more standardized than Cantonese.  

Mandarin has a standardized romanization system used officially in school education while Cantonese has not.

Any educated Mandarin speakers can write Chinese words in Pinyin effortlessly and tell you what tone a word is, but it would be rather unusual to find a Cantonese speaker outside of the language teachers who had any clue how to write a Cantonese word in Jyutping or Yale at all, or who could tell you what tone it is.  

Besides, Mandarin is always written in standard written Chinese. But there is no standardization to written vernacular Cantonese. In fact “written” Cantonese wasn’t really a thing until the introduction of electronic communication, so you will see the characters vary a lot depending on who is writing.

4. Mandarin has many more language-learning resources than Cantonese.

As Mandarin is spoken by so many more people, including numerous second language learners across the globe, finding resources, courses, and teachers online and offline is much, much easier. You can check out our Mandarin learning resources page for a starting point.

In contrast, the number of quality online and offline resources for studying Cantonese is rather limited. There are very few options – whether it’s just looking words up, flashcards, or character recognition apps. For self-paced learners, this lack of resources is a huge disadvantage.

Reasons for Learning Cantonese Over Mandarin

“So, does this mean I should write off Cantonese completely then?”, you asked.

Well, not quite. Many people have told us learning Cantonese is the best idea they’ve had in their lives. So, let’s take a look at four compelling reasons why some of you might still want to learn Cantonese over Mandarin.

1. Cantonese is a really beautiful language. 

Cantonese is an extremely rich and colorful language, more so than Mandarin. It is peppered with slang, colloquialisms, play on words (and tones), jokes, and good-natured ribbing (this is subjective, but other people’s subjective opinions agree with ours). Mandarin isn’t boring, but Cantonese is the clear winner here.

Plus, it’s closer to the old/ancient Chinese. If you love the history of Chinese and want to connect with the roots of the language itself, then Cantonese would be the best option – you’ll love the feeling of reading classical Chinese poetry in Cantonese!

2. Learning Cantonese gives you access to amazing Cantonese pop culture.

Have you heard of Bruce Lee? Jackie Chan? Anita Mui? Well, they all came from Hong Kong!

Hong Kong has one of the largest and most dynamic entertainment industries in the world. If you enjoy Hong Kong movies and Cantopop, learning Cantonese will allow you to understand the media in its native form. Or, you’ll be missing out on a lot of the interesting things that got lost in translation (sadly so).

3. Knowing Cantonese helps you communicate with overseas Chinese.

Although there are a lot more Mandarin speakers than there are Cantonese speakers in terms of sheer numbers, you can hear Cantonese spoken just about everywhere in the world.

It’s by far the most widely spoken language among Chinese communities in the USA, Canada, the UK, and Australia, as well as Europe and Southeast Asia. So if you frequent Chinatown, you’ll get a lot of mileage out of speaking Cantonese.

4. Learning Cantonese, even a little bit, goes a long way. 

Speaking Cantonese is a matter of familiarity and regional pride for its native speakers. The best thing about learning Cantonese is that like with any “minority” language, learning a little Cantonese goes a long way. People respond with much more familiarity and happiness, particularly as you talk to old people. 

So the effort to learn a couple of hundred words and phrases will get you out-sized results if you plan to live in Hong Kong, Macao, or Guangzhou for an extended period.

Final Thoughts

Something else, which we haven’t discussed above, however, is motivation. 

If you’re going to dedicate years of your life to learning Mandarin or Cantonese, you better enjoy it and keep internally motivated – even on your off days. Otherwise, it’ll be hard slogging through the material.

Just as it’s important to consider all of the above factors, it matters a great deal to listen to your heart. Whichever language you pick – be it Mandarin or Cantonese, be sure that you can see yourself really trying to learn it for the long run.