In the Grammar and Vocabulary section, you will learn:

• The Verb 係 hai6 (‘to be’) II
• Applying Rising Intonation to Confirm Something
• The Sentence Particle 呀 aa4 (Confirmation)
• The Preposition 喺 hai2 / 响 hoeng2 II (‘from’)
• Serial Verb Constructions I (Purpose)
• Verbs for Movement I
• Vocabulary List
• Vocabulary: Places Around the World
• Vocabulary: Purposes for Visiting a Place

In Grammar and Vocabulary 4.2, we learned to use the adverb 唔 m4 (‘not’) to negate a verb in the present tense.

We can also use 唔 m4 to negate the verb 係 hai6 (‘to be’) in the present tense.

⚠️ When a sentence only has the sentence particle 嚟 lai4 but not the verb 係 hai6, we don’t use the adverb 唔 m4 because there is no verb to negate in the sentence.

In Grammar and Vocabulary 4.4, we learned to use the X-not-X construction to form yes-no questions in the present tense.

We can also use the X-not-X construction to form yes-no questions with the verb 係 hai6 in the present tense. We use the questions to ask whether the identity or description of the subject is true or false, without assuming what the answer should be. It is like questions that begin with are you in English (e.g., Are you Japanese?).

We often contract 係唔係 hai6 m4 hai6 to 係咪 hai6 mai6.

⚠️ We don’t contract 唔係 m4 hai6 to 咪 mai6 when we use 唔係 m4 hai6 alone.

To answer the question, we can give a short answer or a long answer. We give a short answer more often.

For long answers, if the question has the verb 係 hai6 and the sentence particles 嚟 lai4 and 嘅 ge3 (also 㗎 gaa3 and 嘅 ge2), we can usually use the sentence particle 呀 aa3 or 㗎 gaa3. We will use 㗎 gaa3 in this lesson.

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.

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.

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 add the sentence particle 呀 aa4 at the end of the sentence to form a question. We usually use 呀 aa4 only when we are quite certain that we are correct.

When we add 呀 aa4 after the sentence particle 嘅 ge3, we usually contract 嘅 ge3 and 呀 aa4 to 㗎 gaa4.

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 a question with 呀 aa4, 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.

To confirm something, we can either apply rising intonation or add the sentence particle 呀 aa4, but we don’t do both at the same time.

⚠️ Notice the sentence particles 呀 aa4 (for confirmation) and 呀 aa3 (for questions, emphasis or softening the tone) are different in their tone. We say 呀 aa4 with the low falling tone and 呀 aa3 with the mid level tone.

In Grammar and Vocabulary 7.2, we learned that the preposition 喺 hai2 (also pronounced as 响 hoeng2) means ‘in, on, at’.

The preposition 喺 hai2 (also pronounced as 响 hoeng2) can also mean ‘from’. We use 喺 hai2 to indicate where someone or something comes from. We put a location after 喺 hai2 to form a prepositional phrase.

We put the prepositional phrase before the verb we want to modify.

The actual meaning of the preposition 喺 hai2 depends on the context. Compare these two sentences:

We can form a verb phrase with a verb alone, or with a verb and an object.

In Cantonese, it is common to use two or more verb phrases consecutively without adding any conjunctions in between. In grammar, we call this type of construction a serial verb construction.

The verb phrases in a serial verb construction can have different meaning relationships. In this lesson, we will learn this meaning relationship: the second verb phrase indicates the purpose of the first verb phrase. For this type of meaning relationship, one common type of verb that appears in the first verb phrase is a verb that indicates movement to a location, such as 嚟 lai4 (‘to come’, as pronounced as lei4), 去 heoi3 (‘to go’) and 返 faan1 (‘to go back’). Also, the subject will be the person who performs the activities of both verb phrases.

To ask about the purpose for a movement, we can put 做乜嘢 zou6 mat1 je5 / 做咩 zou6 me1 (‘to do + what’) at the position of the second verb phrase.

Serial verb constructions are different from verb phrases connected with conjunctions like 同 tung4 (‘and’) and 同埋 tung4 maai4 (‘and’). For verb phrases connected with conjunctions, we can usually change the order of the verb phrases freely without changing the meaning too much. For serial verb constructions, if we change the order of the verb phrases, we will distort the meaning.

The first verb phrase can also be a verb that doesn’t indicate movement. We will see some examples in later lessons.

We will learn three common verbs for movement in this lesson. Notice below that we place the locations right after the verbs, without needing to add a preposition in between as we do in English.

The verb 去 heoi3 means ‘to go’. We use 去 heoi3 to indicate movement from our current position or where we usually stay (e.g., our country, city, home or office) to a more distant position.

The verb 嚟 lai4 (also pronounced as lei4) means ‘to come’. We use 嚟 lai4 to indicate movement from a more distant position to our current position or where we usually stay.

The verb 返 faan1 means ‘to go back’. We use 返 faan1 to indicate movement from our current position to our prior position or where we usually stay.

Arrange the words in the correct order. Then, check your answers and repeat after the recordings.

Example

去 heoi3 / 我 ngo5 / 讀書 duk6 syu1 / 老闆 lou5 baan2 / 日本 jat6 bun2

💡 日本 jat6 bun2 = Japan

1.

我 ngo5 / 去 heoi3 / 同事 tung4 si6 / 睇波 tai2 bo1 / 英國 jing1 gwok3

💡 英國 jing1 gwok3 = the UK

2.

朋友 pang4 jau5 / 嚟 lai4 / 佢 keoi5 / 香港 hoeng1 gong2 / 做嘢 zou6 je5

💡 香港 hoeng1 gong2 = Hong Kong

3.

踩單車 caai2 daan1 ce1 / 去 heoi3 / 佢哋 keoi5 dei6 / 大埔 daai6 bou3

4.

屋企 uk1 kei2 / 你 nei5 / 返 faan1 / 老公 lou5 gung1 / 瞓覺 fan3 gaau3

💡 屋企 uk1 kei2 = home

5.

我哋 ngo5 dei6 / 旺角 wong6 gok3 / 睇戲 tai2 hei3 / 去 heoi3

We can add the word 人 jan4 (‘person’) after a place (e.g., a country or a city) to indicate that someone is from that place.

The word 國 gwok3 means ‘country’. It appears in the names of several countries, such as 英國 jing1 gwok3 (‘the UK’) and 美國 mei5 gwok3 (‘the US’).

In the Communication section, you will learn:

• Talking About Where Someone Comes From
• Talking About the Purpose for Visiting a Place