ABSTRACT
The verb yáuh 有, like ‘have’ in English, serves both as a main verb (‘I have a question’) and as an auxiliary (‘Have you sent the letter?’). Like all verbs in Cantonese, it keeps the same form for different persons: Ngóh yáuh yāt go jāi yāt go léui 我有一個仔一個女 I have a son and a daughter. Léih juhng yáuh gēiwuih 你仲有機會 You still have a chance. Kéuih yáuh géi gāan ūk 佢有幾間屋 She has several houses. Unusually, however, it has one irregular form: móuh 冇 is the negative form of yáuh 有. So, ‘I don’t have’ is ngóh móuh 我冇 (not *ngóh m̀h yáuh 我唔有): Léih móuh gīngyihm 你冇經驗 You don’t have experience. Ngóhdeih móuh sailouhjái 我哋冇細路仔 We don’t have any children. Kéuihdeih móuh ūkkéi 佢哋冇屋企 They don’t have a home. The question form is composed by putting yáuh 有 ‘have’ and móuh 冇 ‘not have’ together as yáuh-móuh 有冇 (not *yáuh-m̀h-yáuh 有唔有): Léih yáuh-móuh mahntàih a? 你有冇問題啊 Do you have any questions? Ngóhdeih yáuh-móuh sìhgaan a? 我哋有冇時間啊 Do we have time? Kéuihdeih yáuh-móuh chín a? 佢哋有冇錢啊 Do they have money? See Unit 23 for more on questions of this kind.
