Some Cantonese questions
Dear friends,
The following are a few questions from my Cantonese lesson today… If you have any spare time, it would really help me if you could answer them…

Thanks a lot in advance!

1.
喺廣州條何叫做乜嘢名
how should I interpret this construction grammatically?

2.
hoy1 cing4
to start, to begin to move (of vehicles)
The first character is clearly 開, but what is the second one?

3.
放
vs.
放落
should I interpret the difference as “to put” vs. “to put down”?

4.
擠啲書喺書櫃
擠啲書書櫃
放啲書喺書櫃
放啲書書櫃
a. which of these sentences are correct?
b. are they all identical in meaning?

5.
擠啲襪喺櫃桶
擠啲襪櫃桶
放啲襪喺櫃桶
放啲襪櫃桶
a. which of these sentences are correct?
b. are they all identical in meaning?

6.
做工
in Mandarin this verb has a connotation of doing “manual work”. My Cantonese dictionary simply says “to do work”.
Does it have a similar connotation of “manual work” in Cantonese?

Thanks!

Question

Some Cantonese questions
Dear friends,
The following are a few questions from my Cantonese lesson today… If you have any spare time, it would really help me if you could answer them…

Thanks a lot in advance!

1.
喺廣州條何叫做乜嘢名
how should I interpret this construction grammatically?

2.
hoy1 cing4
to start, to begin to move (of vehicles)
The first character is clearly 開, but what is the second one?

3.
放
vs.
放落
should I interpret the difference as “to put” vs. “to put down”?

4.
擠啲書喺書櫃
擠啲書書櫃
放啲書喺書櫃
放啲書書櫃
a.	which of these sentences are correct?
b.	are they all identical in meaning?

5.
擠啲襪喺櫃桶
擠啲襪櫃桶
放啲襪喺櫃桶
放啲襪櫃桶
a.	which of these sentences are correct?
b.	are they all identical in meaning?

6.
做工
in Mandarin this verb has a connotation of doing “manual work”. My Cantonese dictionary simply says “to do work”.
Does it have a similar connotation of “manual work” in Cantonese?

Thanks!

Answer

1. 何 here should be 河(river).
喺廣州 In Guangzhou (called Canton in the past)
條河 the river
叫做 is called
乜嘢 what
名 name
In Cantonese, the adjective phrase/clause comes before the noun. Therefore, 喺廣州條河 means the river In Guangzhou. The whole sentence is: "What is the river in Guangzhou called?", or "What is the name of the river in Guangzhou?" 
叫做乜嘢名 would seem clumsy if translated word for word in English, but that's one way to ask about the name of somebody/something.

Answer

4.
擠啲書喺書櫃  √
放啲書喺書櫃  √
                                   the same meaning.. I think this expression is ok
擠啲書書櫃 ×
放啲書書櫃 ×
                          maybe→  擠啲書入書櫃 or 擠啲書喺書櫃

5.
擠啲襪喺櫃桶 √ is ok
擠啲襪櫃桶 ×···
放啲襪喺櫃桶 √ is ok
放啲襪櫃桶×...
                                   Ditto

Answer

2. No idea about cing4. It must be 開車 if it means to drive off.

3, 4, 5. 
Both 擠 and 放 (and also 擺) mean to place something.
To indicate where to put something, the phrase structure is 擠/放/擺  something 喺/上/落/出/入somewhere. 上 and 落 suggest that the final place is respectively in a higher and lower position. 出 and 入 means outside and inside respectively.
Examples
放手機喺檯面
放手機上櫃頂
放手機落梳化
放手機出窗外
放手機入手袋

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