A2
返, 埋 and 晒 — the suffixes Mandarin has no answer for
Three Cantonese verb suffixes with no Mandarin equivalent — 返 for back or again, 埋 for in addition or finishing off, 晒 for completely — and why they make the language sound so compact.
These three attach to almost any verb and change what it claims. Mandarin needs a whole phrase for each of them, which is much of why the same sentence is shorter in Cantonese.
晒 — all of it, completely
我食晒啲飯。
Ngo5 sik6saai3 di1 faan6.
I ate all the rice.
佢哋走晒喇。
Keoi5dei6 zau2saai3 laa3.
They’ve all left.
唔該晒。
M4goi1 saai3.
Thanks very much indeed.
That last one shows how far it reaches: 唔該 is thank you, and 晒 makes it thorough. 晒 attaches to the verb and quantifies either the object or the subject, whichever makes sense — 走晒 is everyone leaving, 食晒 is all the food going.
埋 — that as well, and finish it off
Two related senses: including something further, and completing what is left.
你食埋佢啦。
Nei5 sik6maai4 keoi5 laa1.
Finish it off.
我買埋呢個。
Ngo5 maai5maai4 ni1 go3.
I’ll take this one as well.
一齊嚟埋啦。
Jat1cai4 lai4maai4 laa1.
Come along too.
返 — back, again, and restored
Its literal sense is back — 返屋企, go home; 返工, go to work. As a suffix it says the action restores something or repeats it.
我搵返我條鎖匙喇。
Ngo5 wan2faan1 ngo5 tiu4 so2si4 laa3.
I found my keys again.
食返啲嘢啦。
Sik6faan1 di1 je5 laa1.
Have something to eat — you’ll feel better.
That second one is hard to translate and easy to feel: 返 carries a sense of putting things back the way they should be. 瞓返一陣 is have a nap and recover; 飲返杯 is have a drink, you’ve earned it.
They stack
More than one can attach to the same verb, in the order 返 · 埋 · 晒.
食返晒佢。
Sik6faan1saai3 keoi5.
Finish the lot, go on.
買埋晒佢哋。
Maai5maai4saai3 keoi5dei6.
Just buy all the rest of them too.
Nobody teaches the ordering and everybody follows it. Reading these as one unit rather than parsing them is the practical approach, and recognising the three characters is most of the battle.
Why they matter
They are not decoration. 我食咗飯 and 我食晒飯 and 我食返啲飯 are three different statements, and a learner who ignores the suffixes will understand roughly a third of what a native speaker just said about lunch.