7.5 Placement of Question Words in Wh-Questions

In a wh-question, the position of the question word is determined by its grammatical role.

Grammatical Role of Question WordPosition of Question WordExample
SubjectBefore the verb 邊個係你男朋友呀？
bin1 go3 hai6 nei5 naam4 pang4 jau5 aa3?
Who is your boyfriend?
ObjectAfter the verb 你讀咩㗎？
nei5 duk6 me1 gaa3?
What do you study?
你做咩職業㗎？
nei5 zou6 me1 zik1 jip6 gaa3?
What do you do?
Object of prepositional phraseAfter the preposition 你喺邊度返工㗎？
nei5 hai2 bin1 dou6 faan1 gung1 gaa3?
Where do you go to work?

When we are not sure where we should put the question word, we can always think of the answer to the question.

A:

你做咩㗎？
nei5 zou6 me1 gaa3?
What do you do?

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B:

我做老師嘅。
ngo5 zou6 lou5 si1 ge3.
I work as a teacher.

This question asks about the occupation. If we think of the answer, the occupation 老師 lou5 si1 (‘teacher’) will appear after the verb 做 zou6 (‘to work as’). Therefore, we should put 咩 me1 (‘what’) after 做 zou6 in the question.

A:

你喺邊度返工㗎？
nei5 hai2 bin1 dou6 faan1 gung1 gaa3?
Where do you go to work?

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B:

我喺中環返工嘅。
ngo5 hai2 zung1 waan4 faan1 gung1 ge3.
I go to work in Central [a business district in Hong Kong].

This question asks about the location of the company. If we think of the answer, the location 中環 zung1 waan4 (‘Central’) will appear after the preposition 喺 hai2 (‘in, on, at’). Therefore, we should put 邊度 bin1 dou6 (‘where’) after 喺 hai2 in the question.