Bored Potato's Cantonese Grammar Notes 🥔

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GCSE Grammar

06 May 20245 min read

As a first stage target, I hope to have written enough to cover all the grammar listed in Appendix 2 of the Edexcel GCSE Syllabus.

  • Noun Suffixes
    • ~子, ~家, ~員 for both tiers
    • ~兒 and ~者 for Higher tier only
  • Measure words, including using 每~ for ‘every…’
  • Adjectives (Stative Verb)
    • These points for both tiers:
      • As predicate (i.e. Use Adjectives as Verbs) for both positive and negative things
      • With Modifiers: 很, 非常
      • Modification of nouns with or without 的
      • Sticking 了 to imply limits have been passed, or a new situation
      • Stative verbs as adverbs (e.g. 好吃, 難學)1
    • And these additional ones for Higher tier:
      • Adjectives with suffixes ~得多, ~極了, ~不得了 added at the end
      • Adjective/stative verb + verb as adjective (e.g. 好吃, 好聽, 好看, 難看)2

  • Exclamations and interjections

    • Using these as exclamations and interjections: 太…了, 真…

  • Comparatives

  • Adverbs

    • These ones for both tiers: 非常, 常常, 一定, 也, 還, 就
    • These additional ones for Higher tier: 經常, 從來, 從來不

  • Pronouns

    • All personal pronouns, singular and plural
    • Personal pronouns with 的 to show ownership / procession
    • Demonstrative pronouns 這, 那 for this and that
    • The pronoun 大家
    • For higher tier only - the pronoun 自己

  • Verbs

    • These points for both tiers:
      • The verbs 是 and 有, both positive and negative
      • Simple sentences with verb & object, positive and negative
      • Verb-object compound verb (e.g. 唱歌, 跳舞)
      • Verbs of motion, methods of transport, purpose in coming & going
      • Bunch of modal verbs: 會, 想, 要, 應該, 可以
      • Future intention: 打算
      • Attitude: 喜歡, 愛
      • Actions in progress: 在, 正在
      • Requests: 請
      • Completed actions: 了
      • Experiential suffix (i.e. things you’ve experienced before): 過
      • Complements of direction, degree and manner
    • These additional points for Higher tier:
      • More modal verbs: 得, 必須3, 一定, 能
      • Negative of 必須3: 不用, 不必
      • Future intention: 準備
      • Imminent action: 了
      • Using 得 to describe how an action is carried out
      • The many uses of 給
      • Reduplication of verbs
      • Imperatives (i.e. giving orders or instructions)
      • Resultative verb complements (看見, 看不見) to show the result of an action
      • Reported speech: 聽説…, 媽媽説…
      • Topic-Comment sentence structure
      • Combining 是/係 with stative verbs for emphasis

  • Prepositions/co-verbs

    • Being able to use these prepositions & co-verbs: 從, 到, 在, 用, 坐

  • Interrogatives (Asking questions)

    • These points for both tiers:
      • Using 嗎 for questions
      • Choice type questions (whatever that means)
      • Questions with two options using 還是 (定喺)
      • The 5 Ws and a few more:
        • 什麼, 誰, 哪兒4/邊度, 為什麼, 怎麼, 幾, 哪個, 什麼時候, 怎麼, 怎麼樣, 多少, 多大, 幾歲
      • Stick in 呢, 吧 in questions to indicate a tone.
    • These additional points for Higher tier:
      • A few more question words:
        • 多遠/幾遠, 多長時間/幾耐, 多久/幾耐
      • Indirect questions
      • Interrogatives used to express inclusiveness/exclusiveness (what?)
      • Interrogatives used indefinitely (again what?)

  • Location

    • These points for both tiers:
      • Giving locations of things using 在, 是
      • Incorporating locations into things as an adjective (e.g. 牆上的畫)
    • For Higher tier you need this one as well:
      • Using the word 離 to state how close / far two places are

  • Conjunctions

    • These points for both tiers:
      • Joining nouns to nouns with commas and 和
      • Saying ‘with’ using 和 and 跟
      • Combining two subjects together with 都
      • A bunch of sentence structures:
        • 雖然… 但是…
        • 因為… 所以…
        • 也… 也…
        • 又… 又…
        • 先… 然後/再…
        • 如果/要是… 就…
        • 一邊… 一邊…
        • …的時候
    • Some more for Higher tier:
      • Present options with 或, 或者
      • Another bunch of sentence structures:
        • 一… 就…
        • 不但… 而且…
        • 除了… 以外…
        • 越… 越…
        • 而且…
        • 不過…
        • 那麼…
        • 因此…
        • 為了…

  • Number, quality, Time and Date

    • All numbers up to 1 million
    • Ordinal numbers using 第
    • Stating quantities
    • Currencies and prices
    • Giving the time and date, including:
      • Giving the length of time
      • Word order when using time expressions

That’s it. 🙂

Footnotes

  1. This points looks very confusing to me but I think what it means here is the use of some of the modifiers which are adjectives in their own right as adverbs. ↩

  2. Equally confusing to me because they’ve decided to use pretty much the same example, but anyways this is actually turning a verb into an adjective and so I think this should really under the Verb section… ↩

  3. Some quick Googling had come back with blog posts that say actually the modal verb here should be 必需 which means ‘needs / requires something’ - as opposed to 必須 which is actually more used as an adjective / adverb meaning ‘needs doing in this way’, but 必須 is what’s written in the syllabus. It’s even more confusing as both are pronounced the same! ↩ ↩2

  4. You will always never come across this in every day spoken or written Cantonese, or written language in Hong Kong, unless it’s for dramatic effect (for now). I think it’s here simply because the syllabus is written with Mandarin in mind. Obviously, hard to say that in a few years’ time. ↩

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