M goi

Cantonese has two phrases for thank you:

• M ('mm') goi (lit: no need) - commonly used for services. You would say this to wait staff or when you go to a store to buy things.
• Dor tse - used when you receive physical things. A storeclerk would say Dor tse to you when you hand over money.

There are many gray areas with having two words for thank you. With practice you'll be able to figure out when to use either word. However, if you find yourself tongue tied, just use M goi.

Other polite vocabulary:

• Ng sai [haak hay] - Don't mention it
• Ng ho yi C / M goi - Excuse me
• Dui ('doy') ng jui ('jew') - Sorry

To pronounce the single capital letters in my transliteration treat them just like English letters:

• C - say 'sea'
• K - say 'kay'
• E - say 'ee'

and so on. The exception is M which is pronounced Mm.