38.4 The Question Word 點 dim2 / 點樣 dim2 joeng2 (‘how’) II (Way)
In Grammar and Vocabulary 33.8, we learned to use the question word 點 dim2 / 點樣 dim2 joeng2 (‘how’) to form a question that elicits opinions about something or someone.
We can also use 點 dim2 / 點樣 dim2 joeng2 to form a question that elicits the way or method to do an activity (e.g., how to get to a place, how to make a dish). We put 點 dim2 / 點樣 dim2 joeng2 before the verb of the activity.
| A: | 請問點去戲院呀？ cing2 man6 dim2 heoi3 hei3 jyun2 aa3? 請問點樣去戲院呀？ cing2 man6 dim2 joeng2 heoi3 hei3 jyun2 aa3? May I ask how to go to the movie theater? |
| B: | 你可以坐𨋢上去。 nei5 ho2 ji5 co5 lip1 soeng5 heoi3. You can take the elevator to go up there. |
For this type of question, the object is often moved to the beginning of the question and becomes the topic. Note we put 請問 cing2 man6 before the topic.
請問戲院點去呀？
cing2 man6 hei3 jyun2 dim2 heoi3 aa3?
請問戲院點樣去呀？
cing2 man6 hei3 jyun2 dim2 joeng2 heoi3 aa3?
May I ask how to go to the movie theater?
If we need to add a modal verb (e.g., 要 jiu3 ‘to need to’), we can put 點 dim2 / 點樣 dim2 joeng2 after the modal verb and before the verb for the activity.
請問戲院要點去呀？
cing2 man6 hei3 jyun2 jiu3 dim2 heoi3 aa3?
請問戲院要點樣去呀？
cing2 man6 hei3 jyun2 jiu3 dim2 joeng2 heoi3 aa3?
May I ask what I need to do to go to the movie theater?
It is possible to put 點 dim2 / 點樣 dim2 joeng2 before certain modal verbs, but we won’t examine that here.