明顯 / 明显
ming⁴ hin²
The English phrase 'obvious' is translated into Cantonese as 明顯 / 明显 (ming⁴ hin²).
明顯 / 明显 is used to describe something that is easily discovered or understood, or is self-explanatory. In spoken Cantonese, you can say 好明顯 (hou² ming⁴ hin²) to mean 'very obvious'.
Meaning: easily discovered or understood, self-explanatory (adj)
What does it mean word for word?
The word 明顯 / 明显 is composed of the characters 明 (ming⁴), meaning 'bright' or 'clear' and 顯 (hin²), meaning 'to show' or 'to manifest'.
How do you pronounce it?
The romanization is ming⁴ hin².
Did you know?
- In Cantonese, if something is 'obvious' in a way that is embarrassingly transparent, speakers might use 露餡 (lou⁶ haan¹), which literally means 'the filling of the dumpling has leaked out'.
- The character 明 in 明顯 is composed of the radicals for 'sun' and 'moon', symbolizing the ultimate source of light and clarity.
- The character 明 is so central to the idea of 'obvious' that it also serves as the word for 'tomorrow', because tomorrow is the 'next bright day'.
Examples in context
- 呢個結果顯而易見，我哋需要更多努力。The result is obvious, we need more effort.
- 佢做嘅嘢明顯而不需要多講。What he did is obviously self-explanatory.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “obvious” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
