There are different ways to form yes-no questions. To form yes-no questions in the present tense, one way is to use the X-not-X construction.

In the X-not-X construction, where X represents the verb, we combine the positive form (X) and the negative form (not X) of the verb. To make the negative form, we simply add 唔 m4 (‘not’) before the verb.

If the verb has more than one syllable, we keep only the first syllable and omit the other syllables in the positive form.

The actual meaning of a question using the X-not-X construction varies depending on the context. If the verb is a stative verb, such as 鍾意 zung1 ji3, the question usually asks whether a state is true or false, without assuming what the answer should be. It is like questions that begin with do you in English (e.g., Do you like hiking?).

Notice the sentence particle 嘅 ge3 is added to the questions above. In this context, we are asking about someone’s likes and dislikes. This is similar to eliciting some facts.

To answer the question, we can give a short answer or a long answer. We give a short answer more often.

Cantonese doesn’t have words like yes and no in English that can be used for short answers. We form a short answer by keeping the verb and omitting the subject and the object in the long answer.

Notice the answers above end with the sentence particle 呀 aa3. We generally will use the sentence particle 呀 aa3 if we are simply answering “yes” or “no” (i.e. there isn’t anything special about the answer or anything we want to add after the answer). We may use other sentence particles in different situations, but we won’t examine them here.