52.4 Modifying Nouns with Nouns

In Grammar and Vocabulary 21.2, we learned that we can put an attributive adjective before a noun to modify the noun. We also learned that we use the particle 嘅 ge3 to link the attributive adjective and the noun.

Instead of using an adjective, we can also put a noun before 嘅 ge3 to modify the noun after it. When 嘅 ge3 is added after the first noun, the first noun functions like an adjective and can be used to modify the second noun. The first noun often indicates an attribute of the second noun (e.g., the color or size).

We can put a question expression (e.g., 乜嘢色 mat1 je5 sik1 / 咩色 me1 sik1 ‘what color’) at the position of the first noun to ask about an attribute (e.g., the color).