A2
Potential complements — 睇唔明, 搵得到
How Cantonese says whether an action can reach its result by inserting 得 or 唔 into a result complement, and why 唔可以睇明 is not how it is done.
Take a result complement — 聽明, 搵到, 食晒 — and slide 得 or 唔 into the join. The sentence stops reporting what happened and starts saying whether it is possible at all.
我聽唔明。
Ngo5 teng1 m4 ming4.
I can’t understand it.
你睇唔睇得明呀？
Nei5 tai2 m4 tai2dak1 ming4 aa3?
Can you read it?
咁多嘢食，我食唔晒。
Gam3 do1 je5 sik6, ngo5 sik6 m4 saai3.
That’s far too much food — I’ll never finish it.
The negative is far more common than the positive, and 聽唔明 is one of the most useful sentences a learner can own.
Not 唔可以
可以 is about permission and circumstances. Whether an action reaches its result is expressed inside the verb.
我唔可以聽明。
我聽唔明。
唔可以聽明 says something is preventing you from understanding — that you are not allowed to. What you mean is that the understanding does not arrive.
The useful ones
- 聽得明 / 聽唔明 — can or can’t follow it
- 睇得明 / 睇唔明 — can or can’t read it
- 搵得到 / 搵唔到 — can or can’t find it
- 食得晒 / 食唔晒 — can or can’t finish it
- 買得起 / 買唔起 — can or can’t afford it
- 嚟得切 / 嚟唔切 — in time, or too late
買唔起 and 嚟唔切 are worth learning whole. 起 in this position means afford, and 切 means in time — 嚟唔切 is what you say when the ferry has gone.
得 on its own means “can”
Outside this pattern, 得 alone is a complete answer meaning fine, that works — and 得唔得呀 is is that alright?, one of the most common questions in the language.
——聽日得唔得呀？——得。
— Ting1jat6 dak1 m4 dak1 aa3? — Dak1.
— Is tomorrow alright? — Yes.