Grace
How to use 啲?

I've been hearing this word being used a lot and I'm just wondering how to use it. I've been hearing it used in situations where I thought that 'ge3' should be used, as well as times that I didn't even know it needed to be used at all.

But it’s important to note that 的 itself can translate back to spoken Cantonese a few ways, including: 的 (dik1) itself, 嘅 (ge3), and also 啲 (di1).

So now I  know that it's somehow linked to 'ge3'.

Here are some example sentences that I've heard it being used in:

'Ngo5 jau5 di1 gam2 mou6'

'Ngo5 jau5 di1 faat3 siu1'

In these cases, shouldn't it be, 'ngo5 jau5 jat1 go3 faat3 siu1'?

I really don't understand the usage of this 'di1', if someone could explain it to me in depth that would be wonderful. Thank you so much!

May 7, 2018 9:04 PM
Comments · 3
dik1 的 is for written, never use colloquially. Never.
May 19, 2018
di1 is used for plural or uncountable. go3 is a measure word for most countable nouns. ge3 is for possession.

di
E.g. ngo5 soeng2 jiu3 di1 seoi2 
I want to have some water

go3
E.g. ngo5 soeng2 jiu3 go3 caang2
I want to have an orange

ge3
E.g. ne1 go3 hai6 ngo5 ge3 pang4 jau5
This is my friend

In your example, I have some fever. It is uncountable. We have a "serve" of fever?! No, we just say some fever, or some headache. Thus we use di1, no further measure word is needed.
May 19, 2018

I really want to drop a line to you that explains the 的 usage for you. but my English isn't good at explicitly answering. So in short. when you see 的 (dik1), 嘅 (ge3), 啲 (di1) following the noun. that means the objects or entity are changed to be an adjective. they are used to modify the following objects. so to speak. 美丽的城市。that means beautiful city.绿色的公园(green park) 中国的国旗。China's frag. in this way. 的 becomes possessive. such all the pronoun can apply this way. 我的妈妈,他的儿子, 我们的朋友。(my mother/ his son/ our friends.). 

Regarding 的 (dik1), 嘅 (ge3), 啲 (di1)'s the subtle difference..的 is Mandarin. Most Cantonese's characters are mandarin characters. but 嘅 啲 are Cantonese. they work the same function. 的 is writing Chinese and formal .嘅 and 啲 are colloquial spoken Cantonese.  like pack n play and playpen are the same things different expression way. 啲 (di1) sometimes I use as a state. 係啲。 系嘅,and 是的。(YES。)they have virtually difference in spoken but meanings are the same.

If you have any questions or confusing please point out.




May 7, 2018