The basis and regularity properties of the generalized trigonometric functions
sin
p
,
q
and
cos
p
,
q
are investigated. Upper bounds for the Fourier coefficients of these functions are given. Conditions are obtained under which the functions
cos
p
,
q
generate a basis of every Lebesgue space
L
r
(0,1) with
1
<
r
<
∞
; when
q
is the conjugate of
p
, it is sufficient to require that
p
∈[
p
1
,
p
2
], where
p
1
<2 and
p
2
>2 are calculable numbers. A comparison is made of the speed of decay of the Fourier sine coefficients of a function in Lebesgue and Lorentz sequence spaces with that of the corresponding coefficients with respect to the functions
sin
p
,
q
.
These results sharpen previously known ones.