# Cantonese: 咗



## cheshire

This is a question about one Cantonese letter: How is 咗 different from 了?


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## eastlife

*咗 *is cantonese, *了 *is mandarin.


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## bR0123

eastlife said:


> *咗 *is cantonese, *了 *is mandarin.


 
Yes, that's the main difference.  You can substitute 了 by 咗 in most cases.


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## cheshire

非常感謝、我高興!


> in most cases.


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## MingRaymond

But Cantonese people also use '了' in '了解' etc...


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## vince

Cantonese 咗 is only equivalent to Mandarin 了 when talking about what's called the "perfective" aspect - describing a completed event.

I doubt that 了 can be translated as 咗 here (please confirm, Cantonese speakers):

如果你有事的話 , 就不要來了

"If you are busy, then don't come": here there is no sense of completed action, hence 了 cannot be translated as 咗 (but by something else?)

Also, the bottom part of this thread indicates another difference in usage:
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=328527


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## cheshire

I see! 2 is impossible, then.

1.太貴了
* 2.太貴咗


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## bR0123

vince said:


> Cantonese 咗 is only equivalent to Mandarin 了 when talking about what's called the "perfective" aspect - describing a completed event.
> 
> I doubt that 了 can be translated as 咗 here (please confirm, Cantonese speakers):
> 
> 如果你有事的話 , 就不要來了
> 
> "If you are busy, then don't come": here there is no sense of completed action, hence 了 cannot be translated as 咗 (but by something else?)


 
You are right, here 了 cannot be translated as 咗.  I would use 啦.



cheshire said:


> I see! 2 is impossible, then.
> 
> 1.太貴了
> * 2.太貴咗


 
Definitely impossible...but you can say 貴咗 (becomes more expensive).


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## vince

Cheshire, if you check out the thread "All languages: The teacher is coming",  you'll see that the "Chinese" translation is "老师来了"

but if you write 老师来咗 in Cantonese, this means "The teacher *came*". Therefore it is important for Mandarin-speaking learners of Cantonese to understand the two meanings of 了 and not use a simple one-to-one translation.


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## cheshire

Thanks br and vince,


> "老师来了" (The teacher is coming.)


Can we make it "老师正在来"?


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## yuechu

Can 咗 also be equivalent to 过 in Mandarin?

你食咗飯未呀？ lei
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





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? 
Could this sentence mean "你吃过饭了吗？" (I'm actually not entirely sure of the difference between 过 and 了 in this sentence but I suppose it is another question!)
Thanks!


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## brofeelgood

baosheng said:


> Can 咗 also be equivalent to 过 in Mandarin?


In my opinion, no.

你食*咗*飯未呀？ = 你吃飯*了*没有？ or 你吃*了*飯没有？



baosheng said:


> Could this sentence mean "你吃过饭了吗？"


Yes, it's another way of saying the above. (你吃了飯没有？)

The question "你吃过饭吗？" (without the 「了」) is asking something else. In Cantonese, this would be expressed as 你食過飯未呀？ (Have you tasted/eaten rice before?)


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## yuechu

Thanks, brofeelgood!


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