In the Grammar and Vocabulary section, you will learn:

• The Verb 喺 hai2 / 响 hoeng2 (‘to be in, on, at’)
• Directional Verbs
• Indicating Destinations for Verbs Involving Movement of Things or People
• The Modal Verb 會 wui5 (‘will’) II (Future)
• The Conjunction 嗰陣時 go2 zan6 si4 (‘when’)
• Bare Noun Phrases II
• Vocabulary List
• Vocabulary: Places in a Community I

In Grammar and Vocabulary 7.2, we learned that the preposition 喺 hai2 means ‘in, on, at’.

We can also use the word 喺 hai2 as a verb to mean ‘to be in, on, at’. We can use the sentence structure below to indicate the location of a person or thing. We put the person or thing before 喺 hai2 and the location after 喺 hai2. Note that 喺 hai2 is also sometimes pronounced as 响 hoeng2.

We can put 邊度 bin1 dou6 (‘where’) after 喺 hai2 to ask where a person or thing is.

Since 邊度 bin1 dou6 appears after a verb, we can optionally contract 邊度 bin1 dou6 to 邊 bin1.

We can use the following directional verbs to indicate movement with a direction.

Culture

In Hong Kong, most people live in apartment buildings. 落 lok6 is often used to mean ‘to go down’ or ‘to come down’ from the apartment to the nearby area, and 上 soeng5 is often used to mean ‘to go up’ or ‘to come up’ to someone’s apartment.

We put a destination after a directional verb.

Although the directional verbs may mean to go to or to come to a direction, the intended meaning is usually obvious in the context. For simplicity, the translations will only include the meaning that fits the context from now on.

We often add the verb 去 heoi3 (‘to go’) or 嚟 lai4 (‘to come’, also pronounced as lei4) after a directional verb to indicate explicitly whether the movement is toward or away from our position. In grammar, 去 heoi3 or 嚟 lai4 after a directional verb is called a directional complement. It provides additional information about the direction of the movement. The table below shows all the combinations.

We use 去 heoi3 to indicate movement that is away from our current position or where we usually stay (e.g., our home or office). We also use 去 heoi3 when the movement is toward a location where we are not present. When 去 heoi3 is added, we put the destination after 去 heoi3.

We use 嚟 lai4 to indicate movement that is toward our current position or where we usually stay. When 嚟 lai4 is added, we put the destination after 嚟 lai4.

If the movement is toward the listener’s position, we can also use 嚟 lai4 even if we are moving away from our position. In this use, we describe the movement from the listener’s point of view. Compare:

We sometimes use a directional verb and 去 heoi3 or 嚟 lai4 without indicating a destination.

We sometimes add another verb phrase after the destination to indicate the purpose of the movement. In grammar, this is a type of serial verb construction.

We can also choose not to indicate a destination.

When we use certain verbs involving movement of a thing or person (e.g., 拎 ling1 ‘to take’, 攞 lo2 ‘to take’, 買 maai5 ‘to buy’), we can add 去 heoi3, 嚟 lai4 and directional verbs to indicate the destination of the movement using the sentence structures below. In grammar, these structures are serial verb constructions.

We can add 去 heoi3 or 嚟 lai4 to indicate the destination of the movement. We choose 去 heoi3 or 嚟 lai4 based on whether the movement is away from or toward our position (See Grammar and Vocabulary 36.2). 去 heoi3 and 嚟 lai4 in this structure function like the English preposition to (as in please take the clothes to the laundry store), but they additionally indicate the direction of the movement.

We can add another verb phrase after the destination to indicate the purpose of the movement. Notice below we don’t add an object in the last verb phrase because the object (衫 saam1 or 啤酒 be1 zau2) is already mentioned in the first verb phrase.

We can also add a directional verb to indicate the destination of the movement.

Again, we can add another verb phrase to indicate the purpose.

We can also use a directional verb and 去 heoi3 or 嚟 lai4 at the same time.

Again, we can add another verb phrase to indicate the purpose.

We sometimes use 去 heoi3, 嚟 lai4 or the directional verb without indicating the destination of the movement explicitly. In this use, we only indicate the direction of the movement. Note that when we only use directional verbs (i.e. without 去 heoi3 or 嚟 lai4), we don’t usually omit the destination.

Although the examples above only include verbs involving movement of a thing, we can use these sentence structures with verbs involving movement of a person too. We will see some examples in later lessons.

In Grammar and Vocabulary 23.3, we learned that we can use the modal verb 會 wui5 (‘will’) to indicate an activity will happen.

We also learned that we can put a time expression before 會 wui5.

We put 唔 m4 (‘not’) before 會 wui5 to negate 會 wui5.

We can put a time expression before 唔 m4.

We use the X-not-X construction to form yes-no questions with 會 wui5. Notice X will be 會 wui5 instead of the verb behind it.

To answer the questions, we can give a long answer or a short answer. We give a short answer more often. For short answers, we can simply say 會呀 wui5 aa3 for ‘yes’ and 唔會呀 m4 wui5 aa3 for ‘no’.

The conjunction 嗰陣時 go2 zan6 si4 means ‘when’ in the sense of ‘at the time that’ (as in when coming back, please buy some beer for me). It literally means ‘that time’. 嗰陣時 go2 zan6 si4 can be contracted as 嗰陣 go2 zan6 or 嗰時 go2 si4. We use 嗰陣時 go2 zan6 si4 to add a time description to a sentence. The time description indicates when the main activity in the sentence happens. It will also be an activity. We put 嗰陣時 go2 zan6 si4 after the time description. If the subject of the time description and the subject of the main activity are the same, we usually omit one of them.

The subject of the time description is omitted in these two examples:

The subject of the main activity is omitted in these examples:

In Grammar and Vocabulary 31.2, we learned that we use definite noun phrases to refer to specific people or things, and we form a definite noun phrase by adding a classifier before a noun.

When we mention certain places (e.g., laundry store, library), it is sometimes obvious that we are referring to a specific one (e.g., the laundry store we always go to, the library nearby). In this case, we usually use a bare noun phrase to refer to the places. To form a bare noun phrase, we simply say a noun without adding a number and a classifier.

This use of bare noun phrases is not limited to places. For example, we can also use a base noun phrase to refer to a specific person (e.g., our doctor, our teacher).

In Grammar and Vocabulary 6.1, we also learned that we can use bare noun phrases to refer to a type of people or things in general. A sentence with a bare noun phrase can sometimes have multiple possible meanings.

We use 舖 pou3 (in Tone 3) to mean ‘shop’ when we don’t specify the type of product or service that a shop sells.

We can put 舖 pou2 (‘shop’, in Tone 2) or 店 dim3 (‘shop’) after a type of product or service to refer to a shop that sells that type of product or service.

For some shops, we can only use either 舖 pou2 (‘shop’) or 店 dim3 (‘shop’), but not both.

We usually use the classifier 個 go3 or 間 gaan1 with a shops or facility. Here are some general rules for choosing which to use:

Of course, there are always exceptions, as you will see in the list below! The rightmost column is the classifiers we use with the nouns.

In the Communication section, you will learn:

• Asking Someone to Run Errands