買嘢 / 买嘢
maai⁵ je⁵
The Cantonese phrase for shopping is 買嘢 / 买嘢 (maai⁵ je⁵). Wiktionary also lists 購物 / 购物 (kau³ mat⁶ / gau³ mat⁶).
Meaning: activity of buying (noun)
Ways to say it
| Cantonese | Romanization (Wiktionary) |
|---|---|
| 買嘢 / 买嘢 | maai⁵ je⁵ |
| 購物 / 购物 | kau³ mat⁶ / gau³ mat⁶ |
The term refers to the activity of buying. You can say 去買嘢 to mean 'go shopping' by adding the verb 去 (to go) before the phrase.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase 買嘢 is composed of the verb 買 (to buy) and the noun 嘢 (things/stuff).
Which one should you use?
買嘢 is the common, everyday way to say 'shopping' in spoken Cantonese. In contrast, 購物 / 购物 is a more formal, written term for 'shopping' often used in advertisements, signs or news.
How do you pronounce it?
maai⁵ je⁵
Did you know?
- If a shopper is looking for a bargain, they might use the term 掃貨, which literally means 'sweeping the goods'.
- In Hong Kong, the act of window shopping is called 行街, which literally means 'walking the street'.
- The word 嘢 is a quintessential Cantonese feature that does not exist in standard written Chinese, making it a 'secret' marker of the dialect.
Examples in context
- 今日我地去血拼啦！Today, let's go for some serious shopping!
- 我好鍾意去shopping，你呢？I really like to go shopping, how about you?
Sources
- Wiktionary, “shopping” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
