6.6 The Conjunction定 ding6 / 定係 ding6 hai6 (‘or’)

The conjunction 定 ding6 or 定係 ding6 hai6 means ‘or’. We use it to indicate two or more options in a question.

	Option 1		Option 2
	↓		↓
你	做緊嘢	定	讀緊書	㗎？
nei5	zou6 gan2 je5	ding6	duk6 gan2 syu1	gaa3?
Are you working or studying?

	Option 1		Option 2
	↓		↓
你	做緊嘢	定係	讀緊書	㗎？
nei5	zou6 gan2 je5	ding6 hai6	duk6 gan2 syu1	gaa3?
Are you working or studying?

定 ding6 or 定係 ding6 hai6 is put between the two options 做緊嘢 zou6 gan2 je5 and 讀緊書 duk6 gan2 syu1.

When there are more than two options, we add 定 ding6 or 定係 ding6 hai6 before the last option.

	Option 1		Option 2		Option 3
	↓		↓		↓
你想	游水	、	跑步	定	踩單車	呀？
nei5 soeng2	jau4 seoi2	,	paau2 bou6	ding6	caai2 daan1 ce1	aa3?
Do you want to swim, run or go cycling?

	Option 1		Option 2		Option 3
	↓		↓		↓
你想	游水	、	跑步	定係	踩單車	呀？
nei5 soeng2	jau4 seoi2	,	paau2 bou6	ding6 hai6	caai2 daan1 ce1	aa3?
Do you want to swim, run or go cycling?

We sometimes add 定 ding6 or 定係 ding6 hai6 between every option, especially when we are coming up with the options immediately so we are not sure which is the last option.

	Option 1		Option 2		Option 3
	↓		↓		↓
你想	游水	定	跑步	定	踩單車	呀？
nei5 soeng2	jau4 seoi2	ding6	paau2 bou6	ding6	caai2 daan1 ce1	aa3?
Do you want to swim, run or go cycling?

	Option 1		Option 2		Option 3
	↓		↓		↓
你想	游水	定係	跑步	定係	踩單車	呀？
nei5 soeng2	jau4 seoi2	ding6 hai6	paau2 bou6	ding6 hai6	caai2 daan1 ce1	aa3?
Do you want to swim, run or go cycling?