8.2 Applying Rising Intonation to Confirm Something
We sometimes have a guess, an observation or a realization based on information in the context (e.g., what someone has said or what we have noticed). To confirm whether we are correct, we can apply rising intonation to the sentence to form a question.
你係日本人嚟嘅。
nei5 hai6 jat6 bun2 jan4 lai4 ge3.
You are Japanese.
↓
你係日本人嚟嘅？
nei5 hai6 jat6 bun2 jan4 lai4 ge2?
You are Japanese?
Notice when rising intonation is applied, the sentence particle 嘅 ge3 becomes 嘅 ge2 (嘅 ge3 + Rising Intonation ↗ = 嘅 ge2).
We answer this type of question like answering yes-no questions. We can give a short answer or a long answer. We give a short answer more often.
When answering this type of question, we say 係呀 hai6 aa3 to mean ‘yes’ and 唔係呀 m4 hai6 aa3 to mean ‘no’ even if the verb of the question is not 係 hai6.
| A: | 你做老師嘅？ nei5 zou6 lou5 si1 ge2? You work as a teacher? |
| B: | → 係呀。 hai6 aa3. Yes. → 唔係呀。 m4 hai6 aa3. No. |