Lesson 5

Vocabulary

ge	{attributive}	嘅	/hou/	very/good	好
\syu\	book	書	\mohng\	busy	忙
/bou/ /jai/	notebook	薄仔	\hoi\ \sam\	happy	開心
\che\	car	車	leng	pretty	靚
\ga\ \tihng\	family	家庭	\huhng\ -sik-	red	紅色
hohk \saang\	student	學生	luhk -sik-	green	綠色
\yahn\	person	人	\laahm\ -sik-	blue	藍色

Grammar explanation

Adjective Phrases

Adjective phrases are used to give more detail about a noun. An example of an adjective phrase in English would be "three very big, blue" in the sentence "I have three very big, blue books."

As in English, Cantonese descriptors come right before the thing they describe. There are a few differences between Cantonese and English adjective phrases, though. For one, Cantonese uses a special particle (ge) to separate the descriptions from the thing being described.

/Hou/	ge

	ge

Note that some adjectives do not require the ge particle, although it is still correct to use it even in these cases. Colors in particular are often used without the ge.

Cantonese adjective phrases can be very complex, combining long series of descriptions and varying types of modifiers. More will be said on this in a later lesson.

Possessives

In English, words change form to show possession (thief's painting), ownership (collector's painting), and relationship (thief's mother). Most words add a form of (-'s). Others, like pronouns, undergo more drastic changes. Additionally, some words have different possessive forms depending on whether they are the subject or object of the sentence.

brother	->	brother's		I	->	my		me	->	mine
sisters	->	sisters'		they	->	their		them	->	theirs

Cantonese words do not change form. Instead, possession is treated the same way as any adjective phrase. The possessive noun or pronoun goes on the left, the particle ge goes in the middle, and the object goes on the right. This is true whether the possessive is acting as the subject or object of the sentence.

ge /hai/ -uk- /kei/

haih ge

Note that if the object being described is understood, it can be omitted.

Possession or ownership almost always require the use of of ge. On the other hand, showing relationship often allows the ge to be omitted, although it is still correct to include ge. Family terms are great examples of this: "my mother" can be expressed either "/ngoh/ ge \mah\ \ma\" or "/ngoh/ \mah\ \ma\".

Notes

**"ge" is a colloquial Cantonese term and has a dialectal character 嘅 not used in standard Chinese. In standard written Chinese the character "-dik-" 的 performs the same function.

Sometimes including or omitting the ge particle makes a slight difference in the meaning of an adjective phrase. For example, a \huhng\ (-sik-) -bat- can be understood to be a "red pen" (perhaps used to refer to a teacher's correcting pen) while \huhng\ -sik- ge -bat- would be understood to be "a pen that is red" or "pens that are red". While the difference between these terms are slight, there can be a difference in meaning.

Cantonese Grammar Lesson 5 Possessives & Adjective Phrases

Vocabulary

Grammar explanation

Adjective Phrases

Possessives

Notes

Cantonese Grammar Lesson 5
Possessives & Adjective Phrases