A question on Cantonese possessive particles

[chrisp]

From my self-study so far I have learnt that 嘅 is the general possessive particle, but that 啲 can be used to indicate that a noun is in the plural. Why is it, then, that in a phrase such as "Your Cantonese is very good", 啲 always seems to be used? I've only ever seen 你啲廣東話... and never 你嘅廣東話...

Is this just an exception to the rule? Or is it because 廣東話 is an uncountable noun? In which case, is 啲 used as the possessive particle for all uncountable nouns? E.g. how would you say "my coffee" - which of the two particles would you use? Or is 廣東話 actually considered a plural noun?

Thanks in advance!

[dwq]

My experience with these two phrases is the opposite, and google seems to agree.

"你啲廣東話": ~4,000 hits

http://www.google.co...earch?q="你啲廣東話"

"你嘅廣東話": ~14,000 hits

http://www.google.co...earch?q="你嘅廣東話"

[Michaelyus]

In my experience the topic-comment structure is most common for this particular sentence 你廣東話... without the use of any particles.

But yes 啲 can be used for uncountable nouns (though with mass nouns like 'coffee' I think a real source of a measurement would be necessary unless you wanted to talk about a 'little bit', although I have seen the character 尐 used for that particular meaning).

[Takeshi]

I also personally find 你廣東話 to be the most common way of saying it.

As for 啲, in Cantonese, /any/ Cantonese measure word can be used to make a possessive phrase instead of 嘅.

[mcgau]

Compare those three possessive particles: 啲, 个, 嘅

你啲廣東話好好 (common)

你嘅廣東話好好 (less common but sound acceptable)

你个廣東話好好 (never, this means it's not a singular at all)

So i guess chrisp is right to say it's an "uncountable noun"

[Hofmann]

廣東話 is uncountable. 啲 is used for uncountable nouns. That's it.

...which is why 你嘅廣東話 is absolutely bizarre to me, but then again, my Cantonese is locked in the Qing Dynasty.

BTW, I suspect 啲 is a merger of two characters, 之 (used here) and 尐 (meaning "a bit", pronounced dit1). Not sure though.

[biggreencat]

o的　means "this/these" (usually plural, these)

o既　is the most used, casual possessive

o個　is "that" (never plural. plural is o個o的, "those")

的　is used as a regular possessive in putonghua, but usually reserved only for phrases that come from putongua or classical chinese.

o個　is also the generic measure word. 呢o個笔，o個o個相（那张照片），佢o個弟弟．ｏ甘样．

ｏ架　is just ｏ既啊　but truncated.

[biggreencat]

i'd also say, "your cantonese is getting better" 你广东话好好ｏ的！

[skylee]

o個　is also the generic measure word. 呢o個笔，o個o個相（那张照片），佢o個弟弟

First, the generic measure word you referred to is 個 (ie 个 in simplified Chinese), not 嗰. Second, nobody really uses 個 for pens and photos. You need to learn and use their respective measure words.

i'd also say, "your cantonese is getting better" 你广东话好好ｏ的！

I would not. 好好啲 does not make sense. Consider 好咗啲 instead.