In the Grammar and Vocabulary section, you will learn:

• Location Expressions III
• Floors in a Building
• Number of Floors
• The Question Word 點 dim2 / 點樣 dim2 joeng2 (‘how’) II (Way)
• Imperative Sentences
• Sequence Words
• The Verbal Particle 到 dou3 (Arrival)
• The Conjunction 就 zau6 II (‘then’)
• Serial Verb Constructions V (Method)
• Vocabulary List
• Vocabulary: Facilities in a Shopping Mall
• Vocabulary: Directions in a Shopping Mall

In this lesson, we will learn the new location expressions below. Some of them end with 邊 bin6 / bin1 (‘side’) or 面 min6 (‘side’). 邊 bin is usually more often pronounced with Tone 6 (bin6) nowadays.

For expressions with more than one pronunciation, we will only use the highlighted pronunciations in this book. You can focus on them first and learn the other pronunciations later.

We can add the word 最 zeoi3 (‘most’) before these location expressions to indicate the furthest point of a direction.

When we add 最 zeoi3, we can optionally omit the word 邊 bin6 / bin1 or 面 min6. When 邊 bin6 / bin1 or 面 min6 is omitted, 上 soeng6 is sometimes said with Tone 5 as soeng5.

Below are some alternative expressions for ‘top’ or ‘lowest’. They are supplementary and won’t appear in the exercises or activities.

To refer to the end of a path, we can say:

To refer to a specific floor in a building (e.g., the second floor, the third floor), we first say the floor number and then the word 樓 lau2 (‘floor’) or 層 cang4 (‘floor’). 第 dai6 is the prefix for ordinal numbers (as in 第一 dai6 jat1 ‘first’, 第二 dai6 ji6 ‘second’). When using 樓 lau2, we can add 第 dai6 before the floor number, but we more often don’t. When using 層 cang4, we usually add 第 dai6 before the floor number. Note that we use 二 ji6 instead of 兩 loeng5 for ‘the second floor’. In this book, we will use PRE to indicate a prefix in English translations.

We can use the following expressions to refer to the top or lowest floor. We add 呢 ni1 if we are currently at the specific floor and 嗰 go2 if we don’t.

Below are some alternative expressions for referring to the top or lowest floor. They are supplementary and won’t appear in the exercises or activities.

Here are the expressions for other floors in a building:

If the basement has more than one floor, we put the specific floor after 地庫 dei6 fu3 or 地牢 dei6 lou4.

To mean ‘to go up to the first floor, to go down the ground floor, etc.’, we use the verb 上去 soeng5 heoi3 (‘to go up’) or 落去 lok6 heoi3 (‘to go down’).

To ask what floor a shop or facility is on, we can use the question expressions 幾多樓 gei2 do1 lau2 / 幾樓 gei2 lau2 (‘what floor’), 邊層 bin1 cang4 (‘which floor’) or 第幾層 dai6 gei2 cang4 (‘what floor’). Note that we usually only use 幾 gei2 but not 幾多 gei2 do1 after 第 dai6.

To mean ‘this floor’ or ‘that floor’, we combine 呢 ni1 (‘this’) or 嗰 go2 (‘that’) with 層 cang4, but not 樓 lau2. 層 cang4 is a classifier itself so we don’t need to add a classifier.

To indicate the number of floors (e.g., two floors, four floors), we use the classifier 層 cang4 (‘floor’). Note that we use 兩 loeng5 instead of 二 ji6 for ‘two floors’.

To mean ‘to go up one floor, to go down two floors, etc.’, we put the number of floors after 上 soeng5 (‘to go up’) or 落 lok6 (‘to go down’).

Below are some expressions that look similar. Pay attention to their meanings.

To ask how many floors we need to go up or go down, we can put the question expression 幾多層 gei2 do1 cang4 / 幾層 gei2 cang4 (‘how many + floor’) after 上 soeng5 or 落 lok6.

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.

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.

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.

It is possible to put 點 dim2 / 點樣 dim2 joeng2 before certain modal verbs, but we won’t examine that here.

Imperative sentences are sentences used to give instructions or commands (e.g., walk toward this side and turn left). In this lesson, we will use imperative sentences to give directions.

We use an imperative sentence to ask the listener to do an action. The subject of the sentence will generally be the listener. We will usually use 你 nei5 (‘you’) to refer to the listener. We can mention the subject explicitly or omit it.

If there is more than one listener, the subject will become 你哋 nei5 dei6 (‘you’, plural).

To ask the listener not to do an action, we put 唔好 m4 hou2 (don’t) before the action.

When giving instructions with several steps, we often add sequence words. Here are some common sequence words:

Note that when giving instructions with several steps, we don’t usually use 第一 dai6 jat1 (‘first’), 第二 dai6 ji6 (‘second’), 第三 dai6 saam1 (‘third’), etc. as the sequence words in Cantonese.

We put a sequence word at the beginning of the sentence.

If there is a subject in the sentence, we can put the sequence word before or after the subject.

In Grammar and Vocabulary 37.9, we learned that the verb 到 dou3 means ‘to arrive’.

We can also use the word 到 dou3 as a verbal particle. We use the verbal particle 到 dou3 with verbs involving movement of a person to indicate that the person has completed the movement and arrived at the location specified in the object.

We can use 到 dou3 with the verbs 去 heoi3 (‘to go’) or 嚟 lai4 (‘to come’).

We can also use 到 dou3 with a directional verb.

If 去 heoi3 or 嚟 lai4 is added after the directional verb to indicate the direction of the movement, we put 到 dou3 between the directional verb and 去 heoi3 or 嚟 lai4.

We also often use 到 dou3 with the verb 行 haang4 (‘to walk’). If we want to indicate the destination, we can add 去 heoi3 or 嚟 lai4. We put 到 dou3 between 行 haang4 and 去 heoi3 or 嚟 lai4.

In Grammar and Vocabulary 14.4, we learned to use the conjunction 就 zau6 to show contrast between people or things.

The conjunction 就 zau6 can also mean ‘then’. We use 就 zau6 to connect two parts in a sentence. 就 zau6 indicates that if the condition in the first part is fulfilled, then the result in the second part will be accomplished. The two parts can be an action (e.g., you turn left) or a state (e.g., it is the movie theater). We don’t add a subject in the second part.

The second part can also be a follow-up action. In this case, 就 zau6 indicates that when the condition in the first part is fulfilled, then the follow-up action should be completed.

In Grammar and Vocabulary 8.5, 16.4, 18.2, and 23.2, we learned to form serial verb constructions.

We will see another meaning relationship in this lesson: the first verb phrase indicates the method of doing the activity in the second verb phrase. That is, the first verb phrase describes how we do the activity in the second verb phrase.

The verb 用 jung6 means ‘to use’. It is commonly used in the first verb phrase to indicate the method. We put a tool after 用 jung6.

For expressions with more than one pronunciation, we will only use the highlighted pronunciations in this book. You can focus on them first and learn the other pronunciations later.

The rightmost column is the classifiers we use with the nouns.

Below are some common expressions for giving directions in a shopping mall.

In the expressions below, we will see the word 坐 co5 (‘to take’) frequently. We can replace 坐 co5 with 搭 daap3, which also means ‘to take’. They are interchangeable in this context.

In the Communication section, you will learn:

• Finding a Place in a Shopping Mall