糖
tong⁴
The English word sugar is translated into Cantonese as 糖 (tong⁴).
糖 refers to the sucrose from sugar cane or sugar beet used to sweeten food and drink. In colloquial speech, the phrase 落糖 is used to mean adding sugar to something, utilizing the verb 落 (lok6), which literally means to drop or fall.
Meaning: sucrose from sugar cane or sugar beet used to sweeten food and drink (noun)
How do you pronounce it?
tong⁴
Did you know?
- The term 糖人 refers to traditional folk art figures sculpted from boiled maltose sugar, a craft often seen at temple fairs.
- In traditional Cantonese medicine, different types of 糖, such as rock sugar, are treated as functional ingredients with different cooling or heating properties for the body.
- The term 糖 is a component in many Cantonese words for specific types of sweets, such as 糖水 (sugar water), which refers to a wide variety of sweet Cantonese desserts.
Examples in context
- 我飲咖啡唔落糖。I don't put sugar in my coffee.Tatoeba #700946 by nickyeow, translation #253439 by CK
- 我哋飲茶會落糖。We drink our tea with sugar.Tatoeba #855946 by nickyeow, translation #490841 by CM
- 佢飲咖啡唔鍾意落糖。He likes coffee without sugar.Tatoeba #435712 by nickyeow, translation #296685 by CK
- 12 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
At a cafe, a woman asks for sugar for her tea.
- 子健 Tsz Kin雅婷，妳想要啲咩？Ngaa5 Ting4, nei5 soeng2 jiu3 di1 me1?Agatha, what do you want?
- 雅婷 Nga Ting我想加少少糖。Ngo5 soeng2 gaa1 siu2 siu2 taang4.I want to add a little sugar.
- 子健 Tsz Kin好呀，喺呢度。Hou2 aa3, hai2 ni1 dou6.Okay, it is right here.
- 雅婷 Nga Ting多謝子健。Do1 ze6 Zi2 Gin3.Thanks, Tsz Kin.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “sugar” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
