31.1 Possessive Pronouns

In Grammar and Vocabulary 2.4, we learned to use the possessive marker 嘅 ge3, which is similar to the apostrophe s (’s) in English, to form possessive constructions.

In English, words like mine, yours and theirs are possessive pronouns. To form possessive pronouns in Cantonese, we add the possessive marker 嘅 ge3 after the corresponding personal pronouns.

We can also add the possessive marker 嘅 ge3 after a personal name to mean ‘Sarah’s, etc.’.

In Cantonese, possessive pronouns usually appear in the following two sentence structures:

The first sentence structure is a sentence with the verb 係 hai6 (‘to be’). The possessive pronoun will be the subject complement.

The second sentence structure is a sentence that has a predicate without verbs (See Grammar and Vocabulary 12.4). The possessive pronoun will be the predicate on its own.

We sometimes add the sentence particle 呀 aa3 after 嘅 ge3. When we do so, we usually contract 嘅 ge3 and 呀 aa3 to 㗎 gaa3 (嘅 ge3 + 呀 aa3 = 㗎 gaa3).

The question words 邊個 bin1 go3 and 邊位 bin1 wai2 mean ‘who’. 邊位 bin1 wai2 is more formal and is used to show respect or being polite to the people we refer to. To ask ‘whose’, we add the possessive marker 嘅 ge3 after 邊個 bin1 go3 or 邊位 bin1 wai2 and say 邊個嘅 bin1 go3 ge3 or 邊位嘅 bin1 wai2 ge3. We can use 邊個嘅 bin1 go3 ge3 and 邊位嘅 bin1 wai2 ge3 in the two sentence structures above. We put them at the position of the possessive pronoun.

We can optionally add the sentence particle 呀 aa3 to the questions. We usually contract 嘅 ge3 and 呀 aa3 to 㗎 gaa3 (嘅 ge3 + 呀 aa3 = 㗎 gaa3).

We can also optionally apply rising intonation to the questions. When rising intonation is applied, 嘅 ge3 becomes 嘅 ge2 (嘅 ge3 + Rising intonation = 嘅 ge2).

Note that we can either add the sentence particle 呀 aa3 or apply rising intonation to a question, but we don’t do both at the same time.