Eating: 过 vs. 咗

[Altair]

In Mandarin, one uses 过 to ask: 你吃过饭没有. In Cantonese, why does one not also use 过 to ask: 你食过饭没啊. As far as I can tell,你吃过饭没有 means something like: "Have you eaten anything yet?

Let me also ask the reverse. If in Cantonese, one asks 你食咗饭没啊, why does one not say in Mandarin: 你吃了饭没有? What exactly does 你食咗饭没啊 mean?

What type of particle do other dialects use for this expression?

[Claw]

Actually, it's not 你食咗飯沒啊, but rather 你食咗飯未呀 (the 呀 is optional, and is used to soften the tone of the question), meaning "Did you eat yet?"

You actually can say 你食過飯未, but it means something different. Instead it means, "have you ever experienced eating rice?" or just, "have you ever eaten rice?" (It could mean "have you ever eaten?" but it is unlikely that a person has never eaten before in his life. ) The difference is in whether the question relates to the present situation (咗) or a past experience (過).

The positive response to 你食咗飯未 would be 我食咗飯嘞, meaning "I ate."

The negative response to 你食咗飯未 would be 我未食飯, meaning "I did not eat yet."

The positive response to 你食過飯未 would be 我食過飯, meaning "I have eaten rice."

The negative response to 你食過飯未 would be 我未食過飯, meaning "I have never eaten rice."

未 is translated as "yet/not yet" in the 咗 case and "ever/never" in the 過 case.

I cannot give you an explanation for the Mandarin usage of 你吃過飯沒有 though. I was actually unaware that 你吃了飯沒有 was not used, but my Mandarin ability is not as good. However, I did a Google search on 吃了飯沒有 and it does appear that it is used. I don't know the distinction though.

[xiaoxiajenny]

what does 咗 mean???

I am confused!!!

[Quest]

Both 你食咗饭未 and 你食过饭未 sound perfectly fine to me to mean "Did you eat (rice) yet?" Adding 呀 is a little different though. It would become sounding more like "have you ever eaten rice before?"

[Claw]

Both 你食咗饭未 and 你食过饭未 sound perfectly fine to me to mean "Did you eat (rice) yet?"

You can say 你食過飯未, but I feel it requires at least some context (either explicit or implied) in order to constrain the time period in which the past experience applies, for instance 你今日食過飯未 = Have you eaten today?

[Claw]

what does 咗 mean???

I am confused!!!

xiaoxiajenny: 咗 is a Cantonese word that has a function similar to the Mandarin 了 after verbs.

[anonymoose]

I can't comment on the cantonese, but as far as mandarin is concerned, the way I understand it is this:

你吃了饭没有? is a perfectly acceptable question.

The 过 particle is used to indicate experience, but the time frame of the experience can be limited. So 你吃过饭没有? doesn't necessarily mean 'Have you (ever) eaten?', but it could also mean 'Have you eaten (today)?' or 'Have you eaten (during the last couple of hours)?'. That is why this particle is used in questions such as these.

[ala]

你吃了饭没有?

In Shanghainese, direct usages of 没，没有，有没有 doesn't exist, so we can only say:

侬吃过饭了伐？ The 伐 (va) here is different from Mandarin 吗, the 伐 here actually is the equivalent of Mandarin -没有? If in English you have to start a question with "Do..." or "Verb-pronoun" (Have you.... Are you... Will you, etc); that question in Shanghainese will all end with "va?" No exception.

We also say (more common):

侬饭吃过了伐？

There is no Shanghainese usage of 你吃了饭了吗？.