Learn how to make questions and question tags in Cantonese
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
Intro |
|---|
| Michael: How are questions made in Cantonese? |
| Siuling: And what about interrogative pronouns? |
| Michael: At CantoneseClass101.com, we hear these questions often. In this scenario, Mark Lee needs some help from his neighbor, Aaron Au. He calls him and asks, "Are you busy?" |
| 李傑雷: 你忙唔忙呀？ (nei5 mong4 m4 mong4 aa3?) |
| Dialogue |
| 李傑雷: 你忙唔忙呀？ (nei5 mong4 m4 mong4 aa3?) |
| 歐愛民: 唔忙呀。 (m4 mong4 aa3.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| 李傑雷: 你忙唔忙呀？ (nei5 mong4 m4 mong4 aa3?) |
| Michael: "Are you busy?" |
| 歐愛民: 唔忙呀。 (m4 mong4 aa3.) |
| Michael: "No, I'm not busy." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: It's surprisingly easy to form a yes–no question or convert a statement into a question in Cantonese, with the pattern: |
| Siuling: verb plus 唔(m4) plus verb. |
| Michael: For example, let's say there's the statement "you are American," |
| Siuling: 你係美國人 (nei5 hai6 mei5 gwok3 jan4), in which 係 (hai6) is the verb. |
| Michael: To form the question, simply add |
| Siuling: 唔(m4) |
| Michael: behind the verb |
| Siuling: 係(hai6), |
| Michael: and then add another |
| Siuling: 係(hai6) |
| Michael: behind that. Altogether, it will be |
| Siuline: 你係唔係美國人？ (nei5 hai6 m4 hai6 mei5 gwok3 jan4?) |
| Michael: "Are you American?." In the dialogue, Mark asks Aaron whether he was busy; in his question, you can see the same pattern, |
| Siuling: verb plus 唔(m4) plus verb. He asks, 你忙唔忙呀？ (nei5 mong4 m4 mong4 aa3?) |
| Michael: The verb in this sentence is "to be busy," |
| Siuling: 忙 (mong4). |
| Michael: When we apply this verb to the pattern, it becomes |
| Siuling: 忙唔忙 (mong4 m4 mong4), |
| Michael: which means "Are you busy?" |
| Siuling: That's the easiest way to form a question in Cantonese! |
| Michael: Right, but we need to pay attention to the length of the verb phrase. Sometimes, there's more than one character in it. Of course, the verbs with one character, such as "to eat," |
| Siuling: 食 (sik6), |
| Michael: we can simply fit it in the pattern mentioned above, and it will become… |
| Siuling: 食唔食？(nei5 sik6 m4 sik6?) "Do you eat it?" or "Do you want to eat it?" |
| Michael: If the verb phrase has more than one character, use the first character in the first part, and all of the characters in the second part. For example, let's look at a verb with two characters, |
| Siuling: 鍾意(zung1 ji3) |
| Michael: "to like" |
| Siuling: So, with the pattern, it becomes 鍾唔鍾意？(zung1 m4 zung1 ji3?) "Do you like it?" |
| Michael: How about a verb phrase with three characters? |
| Siuling: For instance, 去旅行(heoi3 leoi5 hang4), which means "to travel" or "to go on a trip." It works in a similar way. Using the same pattern, it becomes 去唔去旅行？ (heoi3 m4 heoi3 leoi5 hang4?) for "Do you travel?" or "Are you gonna travel?" |
| Michael: To answer the yes–no question of this structure, just repeat the verb for "yes," or add |
| Siuling: 唔 (m4) |
| Michael: in front of the verb for "no." In our dialogue, when Mark asks Aaron "Are you busy?" |
| Siuling: 你忙唔忙呀？ (nei5 mong4 m4 mong4 aa3?) which can actually be shortened to 忙唔忙？ (mong4 m4 mong4?) |
| Michael: Aaron replies with a negative answer, |
| Siuling: 唔忙 (m4 mong4). |
| Michael: And recalling our first example, "Are you American?" |
| Siuling: 你係唔係美國人？ (nei5 hai6 m4 hai6 mei5 gwok3 jan4?) |
| Michael: The affirmative answer will be |
| Siuling: 係 (hai6) |
| Michael: "Yes," and the negative answer will be |
| Siuling: 唔係 (m4 hai6) |
| Michael: "No." |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after Siuling focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Mark asks "Are you busy?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Siuling: 你忙唔忙呀？ (nei5 mong4 m4 mong4 aa3?) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Siuling: 你忙唔忙呀？ (nei5 mong4 m4 mong4 aa3?) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Siuling: 你忙唔忙呀？ (nei5 mong4 m4 mong4 aa3?) |
| Michael: And do you remember how Mark says "We are going, right?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Siuling: 唔忙呀。 (m4 mong4 aa3.) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Siuling: 唔忙呀。 (m4 mong4 aa3.) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Siuling: 唔忙呀。 (m4 mong4 aa3.) |
| Cultural Expansion |
| Michael: Apart from the yes–no question, here are the Cantonese interrogative pronouns for your reference. |
| Siuling: 邊度 (bin1 dou6) "where"; |
| 邊個 (bin1 go3) "who" or "whom," |
| 乜 (mat1) "what"; |
| 點 (dim2) for "how"; |
| 幾時 (gei2 si4) "when"; |
| And lastly, 點解 (dim2 gaai2) "why." |
| Michael: In English, the interrogative pronouns are usually placed at the beginning of a question. But, in Cantonese, they are often seen at the end of the questions. |
| Siuling: For example, 你喺邊度？(nei5 hai2 bin1 dou6?) |
| Michael: Literally "you are where," which is structured in a totally opposite way from English "Where are you?" |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Siuling: 拜拜! (baai1 baai3!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
Comments
Hide