Cantonese Sentence Particles
Cantonese has an affluent amount of sentences particles. This page provides a list for all of them, helping you to distinguish and master the usage of them.
Principles of Choosing Characters
The principle of this scheme is one character corresponds to one morpheme. For characters that share a same syllable, normally we define those with tone 1, 3 and 4 as separate morphemes, and those with tone 2, 5 and 6 as derivations, which are recommended to be denoted using punctuations. For example, we recommend writing “㗎？” instead of ”𠿪” to represent the morpheme gaa2.
For most open syllable particles with aa, we recommend not contrasting aa and a, e.g. laa3 and la3 are regarded as the same morpheme.
Table of Recommended Characters for Cantonese Sentence-final Particles
Note
- The character “了”, pronounced liu5, is not recommended as a sentence particle character.
- There is no “吧” in Cantonese.”吧” only exists in Mandarin.
- “嗱” naa4 is a sentence-initial particle and also included in this table, so as to contrast with the sentence-final particle “喇” laa4.
| Recommended Character | Jyutping | Example usage | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 吖 | aa1 | 唔該畀兩個橙我～。 | |
| 啊 | aa3 | 你去唔去睇戲～？ 做完功課先好出街～。 | |
| 呀 | aa4 | 噉唔通乜都唔使做～。 | aa5 can be written as 呀 or 咓 |
| 𡅅 | aak3 | 唔係～。 | |
| 噃 | bo3 | 你唔好唔記得～。 | |
| 𠺢/咖 | gaa1/ga1 | 噉先啱～嘛。 | 咖 is recommend as a backup, not a top choice. |
| 𠿪 | gaa2 | 前提係做得出先得～。 | |
| 㗎 | gaa3/ga3 | 唔係噉樣～。 | gaa2 within a question can be represented with a question marker. E.g. 冇理由㗎？ |
| 嘎 | gaa4/ga4 | 乜原來要收畀錢～。 | |
| 𠺝/嗝 | gaak3 | 你平時好飲得～，點解而家咁快就醉。 | 嗝 is recommended as a backup word. |
| 嘅 | ge3 | 我點都唔會走～。 | |
| 啩 | gwaa3 | 應該係～。 | |
| 吓 | haa2 | ～，噉都得？ 記得食飯啊～。 | |
| 嚱 | he2 | 呢套戲幾好睇嚱？ | |
| 嗬 | ho2 | 噉就夠嘞～？ | |
| 啦 | laa1/la1 | 就噉先～。 | |
| 喇 | laa3/laa4 | 1. 你點講佢都唔會明㗎～。2. 噉就得～？ | We use punctuations to distinguish laa3 and laa4. Sentence #1 is laa3 and #2 is laa4. |
| 嘞 | laak3/lak3/la3 | 係嘞，你有冇帶遮？ | |
| 咧 | le4 | 我送你五萬個口罩～，好唔好啊？ | |
| 哩 | le5 | 我真係冇呃你～。 | |
| 囉 | lo1 | 噉你去～。 | |
| 囖 | lo4 | 係～，點解你自己唔去呢？ | |
| 咯 | lok3/lo3 | 都話咗係噉～。噉就弊家伙～。 | |
| 嚕/𡀔 | lou3/lu3 | 我做完功課～。 | |
| 嗎 | maa3/ma3/maa1 | 你好～？ | |
| 嘛 | maa5/maa3 | 唔係啊～？所以先話吖～。 | |
| 咩 | me1 | 佢唔係好叻嘅～？ | |
| 嗱 | naa4 | ～，就喺呢度。 | |
| 呢 | ne1/le1 | 佢係做咩嘅～？ | |
| 添 | tim1 | 我以爲你會去埋佢屋企～。 | Can also be written as 㖭 or 𠻹, they are backup characters and the usage of them is deprecated. |
| 喎 | wo3 | 佢唔喺度～。 | |
| 啝/咊 | wo4 | 篇文原來係佢寫嘅～。 | |
| 𡁜/唩 | wo5 | 佢話佢唔去～。 | |
| 咋 | za3/zaa3/zaa5 | 1. 我就得翻兩文～。2. 哦，就係噉～？ | We use punctuations to disgintuish zaa3/za3 and zaa5/za5. For example, sentence #1 is zaa3/za3, #2 is zaa5/za5. |
| 喳 | za4/zaa4 | 就得咁多～？ | |
| 啫 | ze1 | 無非都係噉嘅～。 | |
| 唧 | zek1 | 究竟發生咗咩～？ |
Examples of Compound Sentence Particles
Note
Below are some examples of compound sentence-final particles in Cantonese. Note that some characters can have a shorter vowel than usual, e.g. the 吖 in 吖嘛 can be either aa1 or a1.
| Characters | Jyutping | Example Usage | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 吖嘛 | aa1 maa3 / a1 maa3 | 聽日係星期日～。 | |
| 啊嘛 | aa6 maa5 / a6 maa5 | 唔係噉～？ | |
| 哎吖吖 | ai1 aa1 aa1 | ～，做乜搞成噉啊？ | 哎 can be ai1 or aai1. |
| 哎吔/哎吔吔 | ai1 jaa1/ai1 jaa1 jaa1 | ～！豈有此理！ | |
| 哎呀 | ai1 aa4/ai1 jaa5 | ～，你唔係噉啊嘛？ | |
| 𠺢嘛 | gaa1 maa3/ga1 maa3 | 噉我唔知～！ | 𠺢 can be replaced with 咖 |
| 㗎咩 | gaa3 me3/ ga3 me3 | 今日唔係放假～？ | |
| 㗎嘛 | gaa6 maa5 / ga6 maa5 | 唔係噉～？ | |
| 嘅啫 | ge3 ze1 | 無非就係佢一個人～。 | |
| 嘞噃 | la3 bo3 / lak3 bo3 | 你好～，唔好再得寸進尺～！ | |
| 吓話 | haa6 waa5 / ha6 waa5 | 1. 係得咁多～？ 2. 「呢隻股票實升㗎！」「～？」 | |
| 喇啩 | laa3 gwaa3 / la3 gwaa3 | 噉應該搞掂～？ | |
| 㗎喇噃 | ga3 la3 bo3 | 你再唔嚟就食晒～。 |
Reference
陸鏡光, 2007, 粵語語氣詞的書寫方式, Studies in Cantonese Phonetics 2, eds. Joanna Ut-Seong and Sze-Wing Tang, 95 - 107