ABSTRACT
Cantonese is said to lack verb tenses, in the sense that the form taken by the verb does not consistently indicate the location of events in time. We have already seen how adverbs can serve to indicate when events take place (Unit 11); in this unit, we introduce the aspect markers jó 咗 and gwo 過 which also play an important role here. Although it may be tempting to equate jó 咗 and/or gwo 過 with past tense, the fact of referring to the past is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for their use. They are termed aspect markers because they are concerned with the way an action is viewed – as complete, or as ongoing as discussed in Unit 19 – rather than directly with time.
