Cantonese grammar


Cantonese is an analytic language in which the arrangement of words in a sentence is important to its meaning. A basic sentence is in the form of SVO, i.e. a subject is followed by a verb then by an object, though this order is often violated because Cantonese is a Topic-prominent language. Unlike synthetic languages, seldom do words indicate time, gender and plural by inflection. Instead, these concepts are expressed through adverbs, aspect markers, and particles, or are deduced from the context. Different particles are added to a sentence to further specify its status or intonation.
A verb itself indicates no tense. The time can be explicitly shown with time-indicating adverbs. Certain exceptions exist, however, according to the pragmatic interpretation of a verb's meaning. Additionally, an optional aspect particle can be appended to a verb to indicate the state of an event. Appending interrogative or exclamative particles to a sentence turns a sentence into a question or shows the attitudes of the speaker.

Verbal aspect

In contrast to many European languages, Cantonese verbs are marked for aspect rather than tense—that is, whether an event has begun, is ongoing, or has been completed. Tense—where an event occurs within time, i.e. past, present, future—is specified through the use of time adverbs. In addition, verbal complements may convey aspectual distinctions, indicating whether an event is just beginning, is continuing, or at completion, and also the effect of the verb on its object.
Aspect particles are treated as suffixes bound to the verb.
AspectMarkerUsageExample
Perfectivezo2 To emphasise a completed activity the result of which still applies to the present situation我I 喺at/in 香港Hong Kong 住咗live-PERF 一one 年year = I have been living in Hong Kong for a year
Experientialgwo3 To emphasise an activity completed in the indeterminate past which no longer applies to the present situation我I 喺at/in 香港Hong Kong 住過live-EXPR 一one 年year = I lived in Hong Kong for a year
Progressivegan2 To emphasise a dynamic activity which may undergo a change of state我I 著緊wear-PROG 衫clothes = I am putting on clothes
Durativezyu6 To emphasise a continuous activity without a change of state我I 著住wear-DUR 衫clothes = I am wearing clothes
Delimitativehaa5 To emphasise an activity of brief duration等Let 我me 著吓wear-DEL = Let me wear it for a while
Habitualhoi1 To emphasise an activity protracted over a period of time to the point that it has become characteristic or habitual我I 做開do-HAB 鐘點part-time 嘅SFP = I normally work part-time
Inchoativehei2-soeng5-lai4 To emphasise the beginning of an activity個CL 孲?baby 突然之間suddenly 喊起上嚟cry-INCH = the baby suddenly began crying
Continuativelok6-heoi3 To emphasise the continuation of an activity你you唔NEG 使need 再again 講落去speak-CONT 喇SFP = You don't have to go on speaking

Abbreviations: CL = classifier; SFP = sentence-final particle

Final particles

Cantonese has many final particles to change the moods or sometimes even the meaning of an utterance. There are also many combinations of these final particles.
ParticleJyutpingUsageExample
呀aa3Used in neutral questions. Also used to soften the tone of affirmative statements so they don't sound as abrupt.你去邊處呀? Where are you going? 我返屋企呀 I'm going home.
嘅ge3Used in assertions where something is emphasized. Pronouncing it as ge2 adds a sense of puzzlement about the situation. This is equivalent to the Mandarin/written Chinese 的 dik1.我係今日返屋企嘅 I'm going home today.
㗎gaa3 Contraction of the combination 嘅呀 ge3 aa3.你係幾時返來㗎? When are you coming back?
啦laa1 Used in requests and imperatives. This is one particle where leaving it out could make the sentence sound rude. This is equivalent to the Mandarin/written Chinese sentence final 吧 baa6.俾我啦 Give it to me .
囉lo1Indicates a suggestion or conclusion that should be obvious.我冇車咪返唔到屋企囉 Without a car, I am unable to go home.
啫ze1Can be used to mean "only" or "that's all," or used to play down the significance of the situation.佢返一日啫 He's only coming back for one day.

There are more final particles than those shown above, such as 嘞 laak3, 咯 lo3, 吓 haa2, 呵 ho2, 吖 aa4, 㗎 gaa4, 喎 wo5, 啩 gwaa3, 噃 bo3, 喎 wo3 and 咩 me1.
Final particles may sometimes combine to convey multiple moods. There are unwritten rules about which particles can be combined and in what order they occur which are probably too complicated to explain here. However, one good rule of thumb is that 嘅 ge3 always comes before the other particles. In addition, the particles used in questions always come last.

Pronouns

Cantonese uses the following pronouns, which like in many other Sinitic languages, function as both nominative and accusative :
PronounPronunciation Grammatical ClassificationEnglish equivalent
我ngo51st person singularI / me
你nei52nd person singularyou
佢keoi53rd person singularhe / she / it
我哋ngo5 dei61st person pluralwe / us
你哋nei5 dei62nd person pluralyou
佢哋keoi5 dei63rd person pluralthey / Them

Copula ("to be")

States and qualities are generally expressed using stative verbs that do not require the verb "to be". For example, to say "I am hungry", one would say 我肚餓 ngo5 tou5 ngo6.
With noun complements, the verb 係 hai6 serves as the verb "to be".
Another use of 係 is in cleft constructions for emphasis, much like the English construction "It's... that...". The sentence particle 嘅 ge3 is often found along with it.
To indicate location, the words 喺 hai2 and 响 hoeng2, which are collectively known as the locatives or sometimes coverbs in Chinese linguistics, are used to express "to be at":

Negations

Many negation words start with the sound m- in Cantonese; for example, 唔 m4 "not", 冇 mou5 "to not have ", 未 mei6 "not yet". Verbs are negated by adding the character 唔 m4 in front of it. For example:
becomes:
The exception is the word 有 jau5 'to have', which turns into 冇 mou5 'to not have' without the use of 唔 m4.
The negative imperative is formed by prefixing 唔好 m4 hou2 or 咪 mai5 in front of the verb:
In contrast to the examples of sentential negation above where the entire sentence is negated, 唔 m4 can be used lexically to negate a single word. The negated word often differs slightly in meaning from the original word; that is, this lexcial negation is a kind of derivation. Evidence for this is that they can be used with the perfective aspect particle 咗 zo2, which is not possible with sententially negated verbs.
is perfectly acceptable, but
is ungrammatical. 冇食嘢, but actually with an emphasis on not doing an action, as it is the negation of 我有食嘢 ngo5 yau5 sik6 je5: 我有食嘢

Questions

Questions are not formed by changing the word order as in English. Sentence final particles and certain interrogative constructions are used instead.

Yes-no questions

There are two ways to form a yes-no questions. One way is by the use of final particle and/or intonation alone. The question particle 呀 aa4 indicates surprise or disapproval. It tends to presuppose a positive answer.
The particle 咩 me1 is exclusively interrogative, indicating surprise and used to check the truth of an unexpected state of affairs.
A question may be indicated by a high rising intonation alone at the end of a question. This intonation pattern usually modifies or exaggerates the basic tone of the last syllable. This type of question is used especially for echo, where the questioner repeats a statement out of surprise.
The other way to form yes-no questions uses a special construction in which the head of the predicate, say X, is replaced by X-not-X. Final particles may be used in addition.
This form of yes-no questions looks less similar to the "X-not-X" type, but it is still considered in this type, because the "X" after "not" is omitted. For example, the example question above can be expanded as 你去過德國未去過? nei5 heoi3 gwo3 Dak1 gwok3 mei6 heoi3 gwo3''.
A syntax of yes-no question in the form "X-not-X" is actually a contraction of a combination of syntax of an affirmative sentence and the syntax of a negative sentence.

Interrogative words

InterrogativePronunciationEnglish equivalent
邊個bin1 go3who
乜 / 咩mat1 / me1e5what
邊度 / 邊處bin1 dou6 / bin1 syu3where
幾時gei2 si4when
點解dim2 gaai2why
點dim2how about
點dim2 how
幾gei2how
幾多gei2 do1how many/much

Questions use exactly the same word order as in statements. For example: 你係邊個? nei5 hai6 bin1 go3 "who are you?", 你幾時去邊度見邊個呀? nei5 gei2 si4 heoi3 bin1 dou6 gin3 bin1 go aa3 "When will you go? Where will you go and who will you meet?". Note that more than one interrogative words can be put in a single sentence at a same time.

Demonstratives

The proximal demonstrative, is 呢 ni1 / nei1, or more frequently in fast speech, 依 ji1. For example:
The distal demonstrative is 嗰 go2. For example:
Between the demonstrative and its noun, a certain word to link them must be used, whether a corresponding classifier for the noun for singular count nouns or 啲 di1 for plural count nouns and mass nouns:

Possessives

N.B.: 啲 di1 is a very versatile word in Cantonese, besides pluralizing certain phrases, it can also mean "a little/few", e.g. 一啲 jat1 di1 "a little", or 早啲 zou2 di1 "earlier".
However, in the case where there's an implied plural noun, one does not say:
For example:
嘅呀 ge3 aa3 is usually shortened in speech into one syllable, 㗎/嘎 gaa3.
Both of these are generic possessives.

Differences from Mandarin grammar

The following Cantonese grammatical points are not found in Mandarin Chinese.

Word order