A1
唔 — saying no
How 唔 negates verbs and adjectives in Cantonese, why it never goes with 有, and how it splits work with 冇 the way 不 and 没 do in Mandarin.
唔 goes directly in front of what it negates. It is m4 — a syllabic nasal with no vowel at all, which takes some getting used to and is the reason it sounds like a hum rather than a word.
我唔飲咖啡。
Ngo5 m4 jam2 gaa3fe1.
I don’t drink coffee.
今日唔凍。
Gam1jat6 m4 dung3.
It isn’t cold today.
我聽日唔去。
Ngo5 ting1jat6 m4 heoi3.
I’m not going tomorrow.
What 唔 covers
Habits, preferences, states, intentions, the future — the same ground Mandarin 不 covers, and the split with 冇 works the same way.
佢唔鍾意辣嘅。
Keoi5 m4 zung1ji3 laat6 ge3.
He doesn’t like spicy food.
我唔識揸車。
Ngo5 m4 sik1 zaa1ce1.
I can’t drive.
識 there is know how to — Cantonese uses it where Mandarin uses 會, and it is one of the words most worth learning early.
有 refuses 唔
There is no 唔有. Cantonese fuses the negative and the verb into a single character: 冇.
我唔有時間。
我冇時間。
Mandarin says 没有 in two characters; Cantonese says 冇 in one. It is not 唔 plus 有 contracted — it is its own word, pronounced mou5.
Where 唔 sits with two verbs
In front of the first one, as in Mandarin, and moving it changes the meaning rather than breaking the sentence.
我唔想去。
Ngo5 m4 soeng2 heoi3.
I don’t want to go.
唔該 — the one you will say most
唔該 is thank you and excuse me and please, all built on this character, and it has nothing to do with negation any more. It is worth knowing that it contains 唔 and worth not trying to work out why.