A2
如果…就… — if, then
How conditionals work in Cantonese, the 嘅話 ending that often replaces 如果, and why there is no special verb form for hypotheticals.
如果 opens the condition and 就 marks what follows from it — both halves, as with 因為…所以.
如果落雨，我就唔去喇。
Jyu4gwo2 lok6jyu5, ngo5 zau6 m4 heoi3 laa3.
If it rains, I won’t go.
如果你得閒，就嚟啦。
Jyu4gwo2 nei5 dak1haan4, zau6 lai4 laa1.
Come along if you’ve got time.
就 sits before the verb and after the subject — 我就唔去, not 就我唔去.
嘅話 at the end
Extremely common in speech, and it can replace 如果 entirely or wrap around it.
落雨嘅話，我就唔去喇。
Lok6jyu5 ge3waa2, ngo5 zau6 m4 heoi3 laa3.
If it rains, I won’t go.
嘅話 is if it is the case that — literally the words of it — and 如果…嘅話 with both is normal rather than redundant.
No special form for hypotheticals
English changes the verb for degrees of unreality — if I have, if I had, if I had had. Cantonese changes nothing, and context carries the difference.
如果我有錢，我就買架車。
Jyu4gwo2 ngo5 jau5 cin2, ngo5 zau6 maai5 gaa3 ce1.
If I had money, I’d buy a car.
That sentence is equally if I have money, I’ll buy a car. Which is meant depends on what you both already know, and in conversation it is almost never ambiguous.
只要 and 唯有
只要…就 is as long as, a low bar. 唯有…先至 is only if, a high one — and it pairs with 先至 rather than with 就, which is the same distinction Mandarin draws between 就 and 才.
只要你想，就做得到。
Zi2jiu3 nei5 soeng2, zau6 zou6dak1dou2.
You can do it as long as you want to.