# Cantonese: 度



## vince

Hello everyone,

I would like to know when the word 度 is necessary when describing locations.

e.g.
你本書唔喺架車度
Nei bun syu m hai gaa che dou
_ "Your book is not at the car"_
do I need the 度?

How about:

我而家喺多倫多度?
Ngo jigaa hai do-loen-do dou
_ "I am in Toronto now"_
do I need the 度?

I know that when you say "I'm here" you have to keep the 度: 我喺度

But is there a rule when the structure 喺...度 requires the 度?
Or perhaps leaving out the 度 is informal usage while 喺...度 is the accepted usage?

Thanks,
Vince


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## vince

Are there any Chinese-speakers around?


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## MingRaymond

vince said:


> Hello everyone,
> 
> I would like to know when the word 度 is necessary when describing locations.
> 
> e.g.
> 你本書唔喺架車度
> Nei bun syu m hai gaa che dou
> _"Your book is not at the car"_
> do I need the 度?
> 
> How about:
> 
> 我而家喺多倫多度?
> Ngo jigaa hai do-loen-do dou
> _"I am in Toronto now"_
> do I need the 度?
> 
> I know that when you say "I'm here" you have to keep the 度: 我喺度
> 
> But is there a rule when the structure 喺...度 requires the 度?
> Or perhaps leaving out the 度 is informal usage while 喺...度 is the accepted usage?
> 
> Thanks,
> Vince


 
你本書唔喺架車度, You need 度 in this one. It is not incorrect if you don't say the 度, but it is strange if you don't say 度 here.
我而家喺多倫多度? It is more common not to say 度 here, but it is also correct to add 度 here.

Actually, I don't think there is a rule.

Cheers,
Ming


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## vince

Thank you MingRaymond!

If anyone can add anything about when to add 度, that would be great!


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## Thomas F. O'Gara

All us foreign devils out here are a bit thrown by this.  This is Cantonese, not Mandarin.


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## Flaminius

I have so far found no reason to object that Cantonese is as good as Mandarin to be called Chinese.  For practical reasons, however, if vince wants to limit replies to those pertaining to Cantonese usage of 度, I am glad to change the thread title: something like *Cantonese: Use of 度*.

Flaminius, moderator


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## zena168

Not that people don't want to help but maybe there are a limited number of Cantonese speakers here who's able to help.  And you could put Chinese-Cantonese on the heading to be more direct.  Mandarin isn't my first Chinese language either but it is mandated as the official language for everyone to communicate in.  Let's just not get hung up on the nationality stuff yeah?


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## 4u4me4ever

i wanted to help you,i am a chinese,but what you asked is not Mandarin,is cantonese.sorry


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## Flaminius

4u4me4ever said:


> I wanted to help you, I am a chinese, but what you asked is not Mandarin, is Cantonese.  Sorry


 
Please capitalise properly in your posts (Cf. Rule #22).

Are you saying 度 is not used as a 語気詞 (modality particle) in Mandarin?


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## yuechu

大家好！
I am a beginner in Cantonese and have a question about the following sentence: 你依加系度做乜野（咩野）？
Does anyone know what 度 means here?

Thanks!


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## radagasty

yuechu said:


> 你依加系度做乜野（咩野）？
> Does anyone know what 度 means here?



度 here is short for 呢度, 'here', so, "What are you doing here now?"


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## yuechu

OK! Thanks, Radagasty!


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## YangMuye

度 means "place".
It is often just a placeholder or particle that constitutes a spatial phrase and fulfills certain syntactic requirements.



vince said:


> 你本書唔喺架車度


For example, a car is not a spatial noun. If you just say 喺架車 without 度, it means “be a car” which is confusing. By adding 度, it makes it clear that 架車 is functioning as a place, so the phrase 喺架車度 is understood as “be in/by/near a car”.
度 is vague. Instead of 度, you can also use more specific words such as  喺架車隔籬, 喺架車入面, 喺架車上 and so on. All of those spatial nouns make the expression grammatical.



vince said:


> 我而家喺多倫多度?


多倫多 is a proper noun of place so you do not need 度 to make it grammatical, but you can still use it.



yuechu said:


> 你依加系度做乜野（咩野）


度 is merely a placeholder to put the verb phrase in the progressive aspect. 喺度做 literally translates to "be here/somewhere doing".
The problem is, you cannot leave out the “here” or “somewhere” by just saying “be doing” because the same construct is not allowed in Cantonese.
You either use more specific phrases as  你喺學校做啲乜嘢 (what are you doing at school), or just a placeholder 度.
In Mandarin, we can say 正在做, which literally means “right be doing” or “be doing right now”, without any object following the prepositional/verb 在.


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## yuechu

Thank you so much for your detailed explanations, YangMuye! It makes a lot more sense now.
I have a lot to learn in Cantonese.


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## radagasty

YangMuye said:


> 度 means "place".



Yes, that is a better characterisation. I said that in 你而家喺度做乜嘢, 度 was short for 呢度, 'here', but, if you said that to someone on the phone, it could equally mean 'there', or some other vaguely specified place.



> 度 is merely a placeholder to put the verb phrase in the progressive aspect. 喺度做 literally translates to "be here/somewhere doing".
> The problem is, you cannot leave out the “here” or “somewhere” by just saying “be doing” because the same construct is not allowed in Cantonese.



I am not sure that I would characterise 度 in this manner, for I would say that the principal purpose of adding 喺度 to the sentence is to specify a place, if albeit only vaguely, even if it does have the effect of giving the verb a progressive aspect. Thus, 你喺度做乜嘢 'What are you doing here?' has a progressive sense, whereas, if one wanted to express 'What do you do here?' instead, 呢度 would better be said in full: 你喺呢度做乜嘢?

The reason that 度 'here' cannot be left out in the construction is because 喺 requires an object, but 喺度 can be omitted in its entirety: 你而家做乜嘢? 'What are you doing now?' What is lost is not necessarily the progressive aspect but the indication of place, even if the indication was only vague before. Of course, the latter can also be interpreted in the simple/habitual aspect, 'What do you do now?', and if one wants to insist on the progressive aspect, the particle 緊 can be added: 你而家做緊乜嘢?

In other words, 緊 is the normal way of indicating the progressive aspect, whereas 喺度 serves to indicate a place, even if, at the same time, it coïncidentally adds a sense of progressiveness to the verb phrase.


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## yuechu

I've noticed that the character 度 can be pronounced dou6, dok6 and dou2 in Cantonese. Are these all common pronunciations?
Which pronunciation is correct in the sentence: "你依加系度做乜野（咩野）？"?

Thanks!


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## radagasty

度 is pronounced /dok6/ when it means to measure or estimate, and in all other meanings, it is pronounced /dou6/. (Clearly, this is incorrect, since you cite a third pronunciation /dou2/, but I must confess to being unfamiliar with it.)

In the sentence « 你依加系度做乜野? », it's pronounced /dou6/, but this is dialectal usage, and I don't even know if this is the proper character for the word. Certainly, /hai2/ is usually written 喺 rather than 系, and I'm not even sure that the latter has the relevant pronunciation, since it is normally pronounced /hai6/, and indeed 喺度 is usually so written, but I seem to have the vague impression that I have also seen (less usual) character 喥 (for 度) used in magazines. Then again, perhaps I'm mistaken, and what I remember seeing was 喥 used to mean 'about', pronounced /dou*2/ (this is 變音, so I'm not sure how to mark the tone), as in 我哋十點喥會出街食宵夜 “We'll go out at around ten to have supper.”


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## yuechu

Thanks for your thorough explanations, Radagasty! I really appreciate it!


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