In the Grammar and Vocabulary section, you will learn:

• Time Expressions I (Week)
• Days of the Week
• The Adverb 不如 bat1 jyu4 (‘why not’) and the Sentence Particle 吖 aa1 I (Suggestion)
• Serial Verb Constructions II (Details)
• The Sentence Particle 喇 laa3 II (Decision)
• Verbs for Movement II
• Introduction to Adjectives
• Predicative Adjectives
• Subject Omission II
• Vocabulary List
• Vocabulary: Activities

We use the following structure to mean ‘last week, this week, next week, etc.’.

Below are the possible combinations. We can optionally omit the classifier 個 go3 when we use 上 soeng6 or 下 haa6 with 星期 sing1 kei4.

We put a time expression before the verb we want to modify.

We combine the words 星期 sing1 kei4 (‘week’) or 禮拜 lai5 baai3 (‘week’, more colloquial) with the numbers from 一 jat1 to 六 luk6 (‘1 to 6’) to mean ‘Monday’ to ‘Saturday’, and with the word 日 jat6 (‘day’) to mean ‘Sunday’.

We use the following structure to mean ‘last Monday, this Tuesday, next Wednesday, etc.’. This structure is similar to the one we learned in Grammar and Vocabulary 16.1.

Below are the examples of Monday. We can optionally omit the classifier 個 go3 when we use 上 soeng6 or 下 haa6 with 星期 sing1 kei4.

We put a time expression before the verb we want to modify.

To refer to a day of the current week, we can also say only the day without adding 今 gam1 or 呢 ni1 / nei1. For example, if we want to refer to the Saturday in the current week, we can simply say 星期六 sing1 kei4 luk6.

There will be a calendar in each question. The grey box represents today. Say the day of the red box using the time expressions we have just learned.

Example

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The adverb 不如 bat1 jyu4 is similar to why not in English (as in Why don’t we have dinner together next week?). We can use 不如 bat1 jyu4 to suggest doing an activity. In this lesson, we will use 不如 bat1 jyu4 to invite someone to do something. We can put 不如 bat1 jyu4 before the subject.

When using 不如 bat1 jyu4, we often add the sentence particle 吖 aa1, which is also used to form suggestions.

We can use 吖 aa1 alone without 不如 bat1 jyu4, but the suggestion will become slightly stronger than when 不如 bat1 jyu4 is added.

When using 不如 bat1 jyu4 without 吖 aa1, we often apply rising intonation to form a question. The suggestion will be slightly softer than when 吖 aa1 is added.

Notice the sentence particle 吖 aa1 covered in this lesson and the sentence particle 呀 aa3 covered in previous lessons are different in their tone. We say 吖 aa1 with the high level tone and 呀 aa3 with the mid level tone.

In Grammar and Vocabulary 8.5, we learned to form serial verb constructions.

We will see another meaning relationship in this lesson: the first verb phrase is formed by 有 jau5 (‘to have’), 冇 mou5 (‘to not have’) or 有冇 jau5 mou5 (‘to have + to not have’, for questions) and a noun. The second verb phrase provides details about the noun and makes it more specific.

This meaning relationship will appear in the following two expressions that we use to invite someone to do an activity.

We can use 有冇興趣 jau5 mou5 hing3 ceoi3 to ask if someone has an interest in an activity.

We can use 有冇時間 jau5 mou5 si4 gaan3 to ask if someone has time to do an activity. Notice how the meaning changes slightly depending on the position of the time expression below.

In Grammar and Vocabulary 13.6, we learned to use the sentence particle 喇 laa3 to help signal something has changed.

We can also use 喇 laa3 when indicating a decision that is different from what is normally or originally expected. 喇 laa3 often softens the tone a little bit. In this lesson, we will use 喇 laa3 when rejecting an invitation, since an invitation is normally expected to be accepted.

In Grammar and Vocabulary 8.5, we learned this type of serial verb construction: the first verb phrase indicates movement to a location, and the second verb phrase indicates the purpose of the movement.

This type of serial verb construction will come up again in this lesson. We will learn some more common verbs for movement below. Notice locations are not added after the verbs in the examples below.

We can put 去 heoi3 (‘to go’) or 出去 ceot1 heoi3 (‘to go out’) before an activity if we go out or go to another location to do the activity.

We can also use 出嚟 ceot1 lai4 (‘to come out’, also pronounced as ceot1 lei4), but only when the listener is not at the same location with us.

We use 嚟 lai4 (‘to come’, also pronounced as lei4) or 過嚟 gwo3 lai4 (‘to come over’, also pronounced as gwo3 lei4) if we want to invite the listener to come to our location.

Note that if the activity already starts with the verb 去 (e.g. 去沙灘 heoi3 saa1 taan1 ‘to go to the beach’), we don’t usually put another verb for movement before it.

We use adjectives to modify nouns. We can group adjectives into two categories based on where we put the adjectives in a sentence.

We put predicative adjectives after the subject of a sentence to describe the subject. In English, a linking verb will be used to link the subject and the predicative adjective (e.g., I am busy). In Cantonese, we don’t use a linking verb, like 係 hai6 (‘to be’), to link the subject and the predicative adjective. Instead, we put an adverb between them. The default adverb is 好 hou2, which means ‘very’.

Note that 好 hou2 is sometimes added just because an adverb is needed to make the sentence grammatical. Therefore, the intensity expressed by 好 hou2 is often weaker than the intensity expressed by the word very in English.

We can fill the position of the adverb with different degree words to indicate different levels of intensity of the adjective.

To negate a predicative adjective, we can fill the position of the adverb with the adverb 唔 m4 (‘not’).

We can put another adverb before 唔 m4 to indicate the intensity. Note that we don’t add 唔係好 m4 hai6 hou2 and 唔係幾 m4 hai6 gei2 before 唔 m4.

We can put a time expression before the adverb.

We can omit the subject of a sentence if it is obvious in the context.

You can find more activities in Grammar and Vocabulary 3.9 and Grammar and Vocabulary 4.9.

In the Communication section, you will learn:

• Inviting Someone to a Gathering