Learn the basic rules of Cantonese sentence structure
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Intro |
|---|
| Michael: How are sentences structured in Cantonese? |
| Siuling: And are the rules rigid? |
| Michael: At CantoneseClass101.com, we hear these questions often. |
| In the following situation, Ben Lee is a foreign-exchange student and he's walking through central Hong Kong with his friend, Lilian Leung. Ben sees someone that he thinks is a celebrity and points them out to Lilian, saying "I know him! That's Jackie Chan!" |
| 李龍林: 我識佢！佢係成龍！ (ngo5 sik1 keoi5! keoi5 hai6 sing4 lung4!) |
| Dialogue |
| 李龍林: 我識佢！佢係成龍！ (ngo5 sik1 keoi5! keoi5 hai6 sing4 lung4!) |
| 梁樂霖: 我都識佢！ (ngo5 dou1 sik1 keoi5!) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| 李龍林: 我識佢！佢係成龍！ (ngo5 sik1 keoi5! keoi5 hai6 sing4 lung4!) |
| Michael: "I know him! That's Jackie Chan!" |
| 梁樂霖: 我都識佢！ (ngo5 dou1 sik1 keoi5!) |
| Michael: "I know him too!" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Let's look at the structure of the first sentence that Ben said. |
| Siuling: 我識佢！ (ngo5 sik1 keoi5!) |
| Michael: The sentence starts with the subject, |
| Siuling: 我 (ngo5) |
| Michael: which is "I." Then, the verb follows, |
| Siuling: 識 (sik1) |
| Michael: which is "know." Then comes the object |
| Siuling: 佢 (keoi5), |
| Michael: which is "him." The whole sentence is |
| Siuling: 我識佢！ (ngo5 sik1 keoi5!) |
| Michael: I know him. |
| Michael: We can see that Cantonese also has an SVO sentence structure just like English. SVO stands for subject-verb-object. |
| Michael: Now, let's see what Lilian said. |
| Siuling: 我都識佢！ (ngo5 dou1 sik1 keoi5!) |
| Michael: Its English translation can be either "I know him too" or "I also know him." Notice that there is an extra element in this sentence, |
| Siuling: 都 (dou1) |
| Michael: which means "too" or "also." This word is an adverb. Very often in Cantonese, an adverb should be placed before the verb. |
| Michael: Let's try another simple example. Let's say "Today is my birthday." |
| Siuling: 今日係我生日。(gam1 jat6 hai6 ngo5 saang1 jat6.) |
| Michael: Now let's say "Today is my birthday too." |
| Siuling: 今日都係我生日。(gam1 jat6 dou1 hai6 ngo5 saang1 jat6.) |
| Michael: We just need to place the adverb |
| Siuling: 都 (dou1) |
| Michael: before the verb |
| Siuling: 係 (hai6) |
| Michael: In spoken Cantonese, the SVO structure can be more flexible. Very often, you would hear people say the object first, so the sentence structure would be object-subject-verb. |
| Michael: Let's look at the conversation again. Ben said, |
| Siuling: 我識佢！ (ngo5 sik1 keoi5!) |
| Michael: This is an SVO pattern. Now, we move the object to the front. |
| Siuling: 佢，我識呀。(keoi5, ngo5 sik1 aa3.) |
| Michael: The meaning stays the same, but there is more emphasis on the object in the front. |
| Michael: We can do the same as what Lilian said, |
| Siuling: 我都識佢！ (ngo5 dou1 sik1 keoi5!) |
| Michael: Let's move the object to the beginning of the sentence. |
| Siuling: 佢，我都識呀。(keoi5, ngo5 dou1 sik1 aa3.) |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue we just heard. |
| Do you remember how to say "I know him! That's Jackie Chan!"? |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Siuling: 我識佢！佢係成龍！ (ngo5 sik1 keoi5! keoi5 hai6 sing4 lung4!) |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| And do you remember how to say "I know him too!"? |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Siuling: 我都識佢！ (ngo5 dou1 sik1 keoi5!) |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review what we've learned in this lesson. I will say a prompt in English and I want you to reply, out loud, with the Cantonese translation. Siuling will then model the correct answer. Listen to her carefully and repeat, with particular emphasis on your pronunciation. |
| The first prompt is, "I know him! That's Jackie Chan!" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Siuling: 我識佢！佢係成龍！ (ngo5 sik1 keoi5! keoi5 hai6 sing4 lung4!) |
| Michael: How did you do? Listen to Siuling again and repeat. |
| Siuling: 我識佢！佢係成龍！ (ngo5 sik1 keoi5! keoi5 hai6 sing4 lung4!) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Siuling: 我識佢！佢係成龍！ (ngo5 sik1 keoi5! keoi5 hai6 sing4 lung4!) |
| Michael: Let's move onto the second prompt. Do you remember how to say, "I know him too!" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Siuling: 我都識佢！ (ngo5 dou1 sik1 keoi5!) |
| Michael: How did you do this time? Again, listen to Siuling and repeat. |
| Siuling: 我都識佢！ (ngo5 dou1 sik1 keoi5!) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Siuling: 我都識佢！ (ngo5 dou1 sik1 keoi5!) |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Michael: It's also useful to know the word order of questions in Cantonese. Unlike English, where a question starts with a question word, in Cantonese, the word order of a question remains the same as a statement. |
| Michael: Let's look at a sentence from the conversation. |
| Siuling: 佢係成龍！ (keoi5 hai6 sing4 lung4!) |
| Michael: "He is Jackie Chan!" The statement starts with the subject |
| Siuling: 佢 (keoi5). |
| Michael: Then, the verb follows |
| Siuling: 係 (hai6) |
| Michael: Then follows the predicative |
| Siuling: 成龍 (sing4 lung4). |
| Michael: Now, if we ask "Who is Jackie Chan?," we are going to use the question word |
| Siuling: 邊個 (bin1 go3). |
| Michael: We just need to replace the subject with the question word. |
| Siuling: 邊個係成龍？(bin1 go3 hai6 sing4 lung4?) |
| Michael: And the response is |
| Siuling: 佢係成龍。(keoi5 hai6 sing4 lung4.） |
| Michael: If we ask "Who is he?," we replace the predicative with the question word. |
| Siuling: 佢係邊個？(keoi5 hai6 bin1 go3?) |
| Michael: And the response is |
| Siuling: 佢係成龍！ (keoi5 hai6 sing4 lung4!) |
| Michael: So you can see that, in Cantonese, a question and its response share the same word order. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Siuling: 拜拜! (baai1 baai3!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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