Gong2 hoi1 jau6 gong2, ngo5 soeng6 go3 jyut6 heoi3 soeng6 hoi2 go2 zan6 hou2 ci5 gin3 dou2 Mary gam2. Nah, nothing much, I was just having dinner with colleagues. Mou5, ngo5 ngaam1 ngaam1 tung4 tung4 si6 sik6 faan6 ze1. In English, you might use the past tense when you see these adverbs, but with Cantonese adverbs of time, it’s okay to omit them (the tenses). 幾個禮拜之前 (gei2 go3 lai5 baai3 zi1 cin4) a few weeks ago.Here are some you might see and hear in everyday life: The first case we’re going to discuss here is when no aspect markers are used – instead adverbs are used to add a bit of context to indicate the past. Let’s take a look at the how Cantonese speakers express the past tense. jargon for “characters that have specific grammar functions”) in play here: 咗 (zo2), 過 (gwo3), 完 (jyun4), 曬 (saai3). When it comes to expressing the past, there are four main Cantonese aspect markers (i.e. To get rusty (literally and figuratively)Ĭantonese Past Tense (Cantonese to English) In order to do this effectively, we’re going to present the past tense from two perspectives, similar to our previous coverage of the present tense:Ĭantonese grammar lesson 10 – Cantonese past tense. And that’s our focus today – the Cantonese past tense. After discussing the present, it only logically follows that we’ll extend that to include the past. And as we’ve seen, the notion of tenses is fairly different between the two languages. 過Ī few lessons ago, we talked about the “present tense” in Cantonese.
![past tense of ring up past tense of ring up](https://ecdn.teacherspayteachers.com/thumbitem/115-Irregular-Verbs-Key-Ring-Past-tense-resource-5815192-1595558175/original-5815192-3.jpg)
![past tense of ring up past tense of ring up](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/36/21/cf/3621cfa3ead734b051e5c1bb30c87469--school-levels-past-tense.jpg)
7.12 Cantonese Past Tense #12: More on 咗 vs.7.11 Cantonese Past Tense #11: Describing a fixated action (has been + verb + all this time).7.10 Cantonese Past Tense #10: Have been + verb + -ing.7.9 Cantonese Past Tense #9: Working with the double past.7.8 Cantonese Past Tense #8: We were meaning / thinking / wondering / considering / hoping.7.7 Cantonese Past Tense #7: Repeated actions.7.6 Cantonese Past Tense #6: Continuous action + sudden action.7.5 Cantonese Past Tense #5: An interesting quirk of 咗.7.4 Cantonese Past Tense #4: It’s the first time….7.3 Cantonese Past Tense #3: Translating “became”.7.2 Cantonese Past Tense #2: When quoting.7.1 Cantonese Past Tense #1: Talking about stuff in the news.7 Cantonese Past Tense (English to Cantonese).
![past tense of ring up past tense of ring up](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ac/7f/26/ac7f269085b81315b000dc63438dcccc.jpg)