3.5 The Question Word 咩 me1 (‘what’)
The question word 咩 me1 is similar to what in English. We can use 咩 me1 to form a question that elicits a thing as the answer.
你平時鍾意做咩？
nei5 ping4 si4 zung1 ji3 zou6 me1?
What do you usually like doing?
To make a question more specific, we can use 咩 me1 with a noun that specifies the type of thing we want to ask about.
咩 + Noun (type of thing)
你平時鍾意做咩運動？
nei5 ping4 si4 zung1 ji3 zou6 me1 wan6 dung6?
What sports do you usually like doing?
The noun 運動 wan6 dung6 (‘sport’) is used with 咩 me1 to indicate that the question is asking about sports, rather than any other types of activities.
咩 me1 has three other forms: 咩嘢 me1 je5, 乜 mat1, and 乜嘢 mat1 je5. When forming a question, we can generally use all the forms interchangeably.
你平時鍾意做咩？
nei5 ping4 si4 zung1 ji3 zou6 me1?
你平時鍾意做咩嘢？
nei5 ping4 si4 zung1 ji3 zou6 me1 je5?
你平時鍾意做乜？
nei5 ping4 si4 zung1 ji3 zou6 mat1?
你平時鍾意做乜嘢？
nei5 ping4 si4 zung1 ji3 zou6 mat1 je5?
What do you usually like doing?