Tuesday 5 April 2011

Cantonese Ending sounds

Ending sounds do not mean anything in particular, but are just used to make a sentence more speech friendly.
I will be going through some of the most used sounds.

呀 - Aa is probably the most common ending word/sound used.
This is used at the end of most sentences just to make it sound more informal.
E.g. 好悶呀 "hou mun aa" which literally translates to "so bored aa".
It can also be used at the end of questions like so 掛唔掛住我呀? "Gwaa m gwaa ji ngo aa?" meaning "do you miss me?"

咩 - Meh is used mainly after a question.
E.g. 係咩? " hai meh? This means "really?"
咩 - Meh is also short for 乜野呀 "mat yeh aa" meaning "what".

啦/喇 - Laa is also used quite often in Cantonese speech and is popular amongst foreign Cantonese speakers incorporating it within their text with friends.
An example of this is "Then get some food la".
A Cantonese example would be 去睇電視啦 "heoi tai din si la" meaning "go watch TV la".

嗎 - Maa is used at the end of questions.
E.g. 肚餓嗎? "Tou ngor maa?" meaning "are you hungry?"

啩 - Gwaa is used when the statement given is not certain.
E.g. 係啩 "hai gwaa" which directly translates to "yes gwaa" which passes as "maybe" or "probably".
Another example would be 去咗街啩 "heoi chor gaai gwaa" meaning "gone to the shop probably".

嘅 - Ge is used in some questions.
E.g. 點解係咁嘅? "Dim gaai hai gam ge?" meaning "how come it's like that?"
嘅 Ge can also be used as a possession word.
For example 佢嘅 "keoi ge" meaning "his" or "hers".

哂 - Saai is used at the end of sentences as a substitute for all
E.g. 靚哂 "leng saai" meaning "all pretty".
Another example is 乾淨哂 "gon jeng saai" meaning "all clean".

喎 - Wo added at the end of a sentence can make it mean different things.
E.g. 係喎 "hai wo" meaning "oh yeah" or 唔係咁喎 "m hai gam wo" meaning "it's not like that".

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