A2
畀 — give, and the passive
How 畀 works for giving in Cantonese with the object order reversed from Mandarin, and how the same word marks the passive where Mandarin uses 被.
Giving
畀 is to give, and the order is the thing first, the person second — the reverse of Mandarin and of English.
畀本書我。
Bei2 bun2 syu1 ngo5.
Give me the book.
佢畀咗五百蚊我。
Keoi5 bei2zo2 ng5 baak3 man1 ngo5.
He gave me five hundred dollars.
Mandarin says 给我一本书 and English says give me the book; both put the person first. Cantonese does not, and this is one of the differences that has to be learned deliberately because nothing in your first language nudges you towards it.
畀 also means “for” and “to”
Introducing the person something is done for, after the verb.
我打電話畀佢。
Ngo5 daa2 din6waa2 bei2 keoi5.
I’ll ring him.
呢個係買畀你嘅。
Ni1 go3 hai6 maai5 bei2 nei5 ge3.
This one’s bought for you.
And it makes the passive
Where Mandarin uses 被, Cantonese uses 畀 — and unlike 被, it requires the agent to be named.
我個銀包畀人偷咗。
Ngo5 go3 ngan4baau1 bei2 jan4 tau1zo2.
My wallet got stolen.
佢畀老師鬧咗。
Keoi5 bei2 lou5si1 naau6zo2.
He got told off by the teacher.
人 in the first one is a placeholder — someone — filling the agent slot that 畀 cannot leave empty. Mandarin’s 被 can stand alone; 畀 cannot.
Most passives are still unmarked
As in Mandarin, a great many Cantonese sentences are passive in meaning with no marker at all: state the topic, then say what happened to it.
飯做好喇。
Faan6 zou6hou2 laa3.
The food’s ready.
Reaching for 畀 every time the English is passive is the same mistake as reaching for 被, and produces the same translated-sounding result. Keep it for things that happened to someone, usually unwelcome.