18.4 Asking for Suggestions or Preferences with 好 hou2 (‘good’)
In Grammar and Vocabulary 4.3, we learned that 好 hou2 means ‘very’ as an adverb. 好 hou2 can also be an adjective. It means ‘good’ as an adjective.
We can use the adjective 好 hou2 with a question word (e.g., 乜嘢 mat1 je5 / 咩 me1 ‘what’, 邊度 bin1 dou6 ‘where’) to form a question that asks for suggestions or preferences. A question with 好 hou2 asks what will be a good choice or what we should choose. 好 hou2 adds the meaning of ‘should’ to a question (as in What should we eat? or Where should we go?). We put 好 hou2 at the end of the question and usually add the sentence particle 呀 aa3 (for questions) after it.
| A: | 我哋食咩好呀？ ngo5 dei6 sik6 me1 hou2 aa3? We eat what will be good? [= What should we eat?] |
| B: | → 不如我哋打邊爐吖。 bat1 jyu4 ngo5 dei6 daa2 bin1 lou4 aa1. Why don’t we have hotpot? → 我想打邊爐呀。 ngo5 soeng2 daa2 bin1 lou4 aa3. I want to have hotpot. |
When we are not sure how to form the question with 好 hou2, we can first think of the question without 好 hou2 and then put 好 hou2 before the sentence particle.
我哋食咩呀？
ngo5 dei6 sik6 me1 aa3?
What do we eat?
↓
我哋食咩好呀？
ngo5 dei6 sik6 me1 hou2 aa3?
We eat what will be good?
[= What should we eat?]