Question about the cantonese possessive word "ge"

[anthonylok817]

Hi, I am a ABC, and I only know how to speak cantonese. I do not know how to write or read in chinese.

I just had a long discussion with my girlfriend, who speaks mandarin, about the word "ge" or "duh" in mandarin.

First off, does the word "ge" spoken sound like "goh"? And "ge" is used to show possession correct?

So used in a sentence, would it be:

(Sorry, I do not know how to correctly transcribe the word, so I will write it as how I speak it)

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1.) This dog is mine.

-Lee goh gou hay aw. (Cantonese)

or

-Lee goh gou hay aw goh. (Cantonese with the "goh" added at the end.)

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The reason I ask this is because my girlfriend says that in mandarin, they add a "duh" at the very end to show the possession.

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2.) This dog is mine.

-Nee duh gou sih wo duh. (mandarin with the "duh" added at the end.)

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If it is true that we add the "goh" at the very end, then would it not end up translating like this, leaving the sentence unfinished?

3.) Lee goh gou hay aw goh. (Cantonese)

-This dog is my.

Thanks for helping me out,

Anthony

[lgna2000]

I think it pronounce in pinyin "de1".like simple chinese 的.Yeah, it represents possession.

[skylee]

First off, does the word "ge" spoken sound like "goh"? And "ge" is used to show possession correct?

It is pronounced as "ge", though depending on its function the tone can be different. Sometimes it can be pronounced 個 "goh", sometimes not.

(Sorry, I do not know how to correctly transcribe the word, so I will write it as how I speak it)

The character is 嘅, which is a cantonese character (i.e. not used in the standard language).

1.) This dog is mine.

-Lee goh gou hay aw. (Cantonese)

or

-Lee goh gou hay aw goh. (Cantonese with the "goh" added at the end.)

Neither is right, as the count word for "dog" in cantonese is not "goh". In cantonese the sentence is 哩隻狗係我嘅 (lei zek gao hai ngo ge, expressed in jyutping). You can see that the count word is 隻/zek, not 個/go/goh. The possession is shown by the 嘅/ge at the end of the sentence. In mandarin, the sentence is 這隻狗是我的. The structure is exactly the same. Your girlfriend is right. And do note that in Cantonese I/me is not "aw", it actually has "ng" before the vowels.

2.) This dog is mine.

-Nee duh gou sih wo duh. (mandarin with the "duh" added at the end.)

I suppose you meant to express it in mandarin. Please note that "this" in mandarin is not "Nee". It is 這/zhe. I would think that what you have written means 你的狗是我的, which translates to "Your dog is mine".

If it is true that we add the "goh" at the very end, then would it not end up translating like this, leaving the sentence unfinished?

3.) Lee goh gou hay aw goh. (Cantonese)

-This dog is my.

No it would not. But do note that your cantonese version is incorrect. It should be 哩隻狗係我嘅 (lei zek gao hai ngo ge, expressed in jyutping), as mentioned above.

If you want to learn more about cantonese, this website might be useful (personally though I don't use it as I am a native speaker).

[Woodpecker]

And do note that in Cantonese I/me is not "aw", it actually has "ng" before the vowels.

I understand there is a mixture of pronunciation with some speakers saying "oh" and others "ngoh", although "ngoh" is correct. On the other hand I'm still learning the language, so...

Also, in this sentence:

1.) This dog is mine.

-Lee goh gou hay aw. (Cantonese)

Shouldn't it be "Ni jek gau haih ngoh ge" (In Yale) with "Ni" instead of "Lee"?

[Quest]

嘅 and 的 are pretty much identical except in Cantonese, measure words sometimes function as possessive with 嘅 omitted.

我【嘅嗰】只狗叫旺财。(cantonese)

我的【那只】狗叫旺财。(mandarin)

[L-F-J]

Shouldn't it be "Ni jek gau haih ngoh ge" (In Yale) with "Ni" instead of "Lee"?

N's are often pronounced as L's in spoken cantonese.

[Woodpecker]

N's are often pronounced as L's in spoken cantonese.

Ah, thanks

[trien27]

You have posted the exact same question at another forum haven't you? I have seen the exact same question elsewhere. At this other forum, there's many answers given and if it was you, then you really need to LEARN to WRITE and READ in Chinese. If not, then it's just the same question posted by 2 different people. Besides your Cantonese isn't really correct. It's never LEI, it's NEI.

N's are often pronounced as L's in spoken cantonese.

That's wrong. It should be N, instead of L, but most people also speak either Mandarin or other Chinese dialects or subdialects, so they might have been influenced by that. I always speak Cantonese with an N when it should be an N sound, not an L sound. People call those "lazy sounds", but that's incorrect as far as I know.

Can someone please read this if you still insist on pronouncing it with an "L" sound, when it's supposed to be "N" sound: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Cantonese#Pronunciation

[Woodpecker]

You have posted the exact same question at another forum haven't you?

Not guilty, unless you can link to the specific thread? I'm not the only 'Woodpecker' on the internet.

[sebhk]

That's wrong. It should be N, instead of L, but most people also speak either Mandarin or other Chinese dialects or subdialects, so they might have been influenced by that. I always speak Cantonese with an N when it should be an N sound, not an L sound. People call those "lazy sounds", but that's incorrect as far as I know.

In theory it might be incorrect to pronounce 你 as lei, but in Hong Kong 你 is pronounced with a 'n' only by some older people (60+), Chinese teachers, and a few guys who strongly object to lazy sounds. Most other people pronounce 你 as lei now and in fact it has been a while since I last heard anybody use nei. So IMHO using the 'l' and other lazy sounds is the de facto standard in Hong Kong Cantonese now. Not sure about the situation across the border though.