52.5 Indicating Attributes of Items

In Grammar and Vocabulary 21.2, we learned to use an attributive adjective to modify a noun.

We can say only the attributive adjective with 嘅 ge3 to mean ‘a … one’ or ‘… ones’.

In Grammar and Vocabulary 52.4, we also learned to use a noun to modify another noun.

We can also say only the first noun with 嘅 ge3 to mean ‘a … one’ or ‘… ones’.

To mean ‘this one is a … one’ or ‘these … are … ones’, we can use the following two sentence structures. We often use these sentence structures to indicate the attribute of the items we have in our hands, such as their color, size or whether they’re new or a display item.

The first sentence structure is a sentence with the verb 係 hai6 (‘to be’). The subject complement will be the adjective or the noun with 嘅 ge3. If the number is 一 jat1 (‘one’), we can optionally omit the number.

The second sentence structure is a sentence that has a predicate without verbs (See Grammar and Vocabulary 12.4). The adjective or the noun with 嘅 ge3 will be the predicate on its own. If the number is 一 jat1 (‘one’), we can optionally omit the number.