Space is seriously cool to learn about. As a kid, I loved learning about the different planets in our solar system and still feel personally offended at Pluto’s fall from planet status (anyone else?) However, I didn’t realise that the planets are even cooler in Cantonese! Let me tell you how.
How the Planets got their Names
At first, I thought it would be difficult to learn the planets in Cantonese, being so used to their English names, but turns out their Chinese names are surprisingly simple. The first five planets (excluding planet Earth), were named after the five elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, Metal. Chinese astronomers assigned the planets these elements based on the colour they appeared from Earth. So we got:
- 水星 seoi2 sing1 = water planet = Mercury
- 金星 gam1 sing1 = metal planet = Venus
- 火星 fo2 sing1 = fire planet = Mars
- 木星 muk6 sing1 = wood planet = Jupiter
- 土星 tou2 sing1 = earth/soil planet = Saturn
For our own planet, it seems Chinese astronomers used the same logic as Western ones so planet Earth is:
- 地球 dei6 kau4 = dirt ball = Earth
Now, for the final two planets in the solar system (sorry Pluto), Chinese astronomers didn’t discover them and therefore, didn’t get to decide their names. Instead, we follow the Western convention of naming these planets after Greek/Roman gods.
- 天王星 tin1 wong4 sing1 = sky king planet = Uranus
- 海王星 hoi2 wong4 sing1 = sea king planet = Neptune
Activity Sheets (Colouring and Writing Practise)
To practise the names of the planets, I’ve created some planet-themed activity sheets, which feature a picture of each planet to colour in and space to practise writing their names.
To create the writing practise sheets, I used Chinese Worksheet Generator, which creates printable writing sheets based on your own vocabulary lists. It is catered towards Mandarin learners but before creating the pdf, you can edit entries so I changed all the generated pinyin into jyutping. You can change the colour of the strokes in the stroke order section and you can choose what grid/template is used. I selected the trace option as AJ is still little but the grid option would be great for older children.
If your little ones use these activity sheets, I would love to see them. Share them to @mamabearcantonese on Instagram. And if you have a suggested topic for my next video and activity sheets, let me know below!
P.S. You can support Mama Bear Cantonese on Patreon. From £1 a month, you can access editable versions of all my resources as well as bonus content. Your generosity will help cover this site’s running costs. 多謝 do1 ze6!
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