A1
冇 — haven’t, didn’t, none
How 冇 negates both possession and past events in Cantonese, why 咗 disappears when it turns up, and how it differs from 未.
冇 is mou5, and it covers everything Mandarin splits between 没 and 没有. It is the negative of 有 and the negative of a completed action, in one character.
我冇錢。
Ngo5 mou5 cin2.
I haven’t got any money.
我冇去。
Ngo5 mou5 heoi3.
I didn’t go.
我冇食早餐。
Ngo5 mou5 sik6 zou2caan1.
I didn’t have breakfast.
The character is worth looking at: 有 with its middle strokes taken out. Having, hollowed.
唔 and 冇 divide the work
The same division as Mandarin’s 不 and 没, and the same test: is this a standing fact or an event that failed to happen?
我唔去。
Ngo5 m4 heoi3.
I’m not going.
我冇去。
Ngo5 mou5 heoi3.
I didn’t go.
The first is a decision that holds for the future; the second reports what did not take place.
咗 disappears under 冇
咗 marks an action as completed. 冇 says it was not. Both in one sentence would ask it to be two things at once.
我冇去咗。
我冇去。
The completion is already denied. This is the same rule as Mandarin’s 没…了, and it catches people for the same reason: English keeps its past marking in the negative, and Cantonese does not.
未 — not yet
未 is not yet, and it carries an expectation that the thing is still coming. It is used far more in Cantonese than 还没 is in Mandarin.
我未食飯。
Ngo5 mei6 sik6 faan6.
I haven’t eaten yet.
——你食咗飯未呀？——未。
— Nei5 sik6zo2 faan6 mei6 aa3? — Mei6.
— Have you eaten? — Not yet.
That question form — the sentence, then 未 at the end — is the ordinary way to ask whether something has happened yet, and 未 alone is the whole answer.