Cantonese is considered to be a conservative dialect because its sound system has preserved the final consonants and tones of the Tang Dynasty literary standard.

Syllable structure
The syllable structure in Cantonese is Optional Initial Consonant + Vowel (accompanied by tone) + Optional Final Consonant (/n/, /ng/, /m/, /p/, /t/, /k/).

Vowels
Cantonese has 7 vowel phonemes, i.e., sounds that make a difference in word meaning. These vowels can be short or long. Vowel length distinguishes word meaning.

Consonants
Cantonese has 19 consonant phonemes. The consonant system has the following features:

• Cantonese does not have a contrast between voiceless and voiced obstruents such as between /p-b/, /t-d/, /k-g/. Instead, there is a contrast between voiceless unaspirated and voiceless aspirated obstruents, e.g., /p-p/, /t-t/, / k-k/.
• Only /p/, /t/, /k/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ can appear at the end of syllables.
• // = ng in song. It can appear at the beginning of syllables, e.g., nga 'tooth' (compare to Mandarin yá).
• The nasal consonants /m/ and /ŋ/ are syllable forming, e.g., m means 'not' (compare to Mandarin bù), ng means 'five' (compare to Mandarin wù).

xxx	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Stops	p - p	x	t - t	x	k - k	q - q	x
Fricatives	xx	f	s	x	x	x	h
Affricates	xxx	xx	ts - ts	x	xxx	x	x
Nasals	m	xx	n	x	ŋ	xx	x
Lateral approximant	xxxx	xx	l	x	xxx	xx	xxx
Semi-vowels	w	x	xx	j	x	xx	xxx

Tone
Every syllable in Cantonese has a pitch that is an integral part of the pronunciation of that syllable. Pitch distinguishes one syllable from another. Cantonese has a more complex tonal system than Mandarin with six to nine tones, the number depending on the system of classification. One of the systems lists three level and three contour (rising or falling) tones.

Click here tp hear the six tones in Cantonese.

Cantonese, like all other Chinese languages, is predominantly an isolating language, meaning that for the most part, words have only one grammatical form. Grammatical functions are expressed through word order, particles, prepositions, and discourse, rather than by suffixes attached to nouns or verbs, such as in Indo-European languages. Because of the lack of inflections, Chinese grammar may appear quite simple compared to that of Indo-European languages, however, Chinese syntax makes up in complexity for the relative simplicity of its morphology.

Noun phrase

• Number and gender are not marked grammatically, except in pronouns and polysyllabic nouns referring to people. Otherwise, they are understood through context.
• Cantonese nouns require classifiers when counted. Hence one must say 'two head cow', not 'two cows'. Each noun has one classifier. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of classifiers that must be memorized for various classes of nouns, e.g., round objects, flat objects, book-like objects, animate beings, etc.

Verb phrase

• Tenses are not marked grammatically, rather they are indicated by adverbs of time, e.g., "yesterday", "today", "now".
• Aspect is marked by particles that indicate completion of an action or change of state.
• Mood is marked by modal particles.

Syntax
Like Mandarin, Cantonese is a topic-prominent language. This means that the topic of the sentence (defined as "old" or "known" information) precedes "new"or "added" information. There are a few syntactical differences between the two diaIects. For instance, in Cantonese, direct objects precede indirect objects, and certain adverbs precede verbs, while the opposite is true in Mandarin.

Cantonese shares most of its vocabulary with Mandarin and other Chinese languages, but the number of English loanwords in Cantonese, especially in Hong Kong, is much greater than that in Mandarin.

Below are the numbers 0-10 in Cantonese (in comparison to Mandarin).