42.2 Weight
We can use the following units to indicate the weight of food or drinks. It’s common for Hong Kong Cantonese speakers to refer to some of these units in English.
斤 gan1 and 両 loeng2 are units used in East and Southeast Asia and their actual values differ from place to place. The values listed above are the values used in Hong Kong. Also, don’t mix up 斤 gan1 and 公斤 gung1 gan1. They are different units.
The units above are measurement unit classifiers. To say a weight, we put a measurement unit classifier after the number. Note that we use 兩 loeng5 for ‘two’.
We can also put a decimal number before the measurement unit classifier.
To mean ‘half a catty, half a pound, etc.’, we put the word 半 bun3 (‘half’) before the measurement unit classifier.
To mean ‘one and a half catties, two and a half pounds, etc.’, we put 半 bun3 after the measurement unit classifier.
When we put 半 bun3 after the measurement unit classifier, we can optionally omit the number 一 jat1 if the measurement unit classifier has only one syllable (e.g., 斤 gan1, 磅 bong6).
Note that we don’t omit the number 一 jat1 if the measurement unit classifier has more than one syllable (e.g., 公斤 gung1 gan1).
❌ 公斤半
gung1 gan1 bun3
✔️ 一公斤半
jat1 gung1 gan1 bun3
one and a half kilograms
We can use multiple measurement unit classifiers together. We say from the largest unit to the smallest unit.
To indicate an item of a specific weight (e.g., half a catty of an item), we put the item after the weight.
Note that if the weight ends with 半 bun3, we put the item after 半 bun3.
To indicate the weight of an item, we can put the weight after the item to form a sentence. Note that we don’t need to add a verb between the item and the weight. It is a sentence structure that has a predicate without a verb (see Grammar and Vocabulary 12.4).
We often omit the noun of the item if it is obvious in the context.
When we are weighing something, we sometimes replace the item with the word 呢度 ni1 dou6 (‘here’).
To ask for the weight of an item, we can put the question word 幾重 gei2 cung5 (‘how heavy’) after the item. Note that we don’t say 幾多重 gei2 do1 cung5.