A2
睇下, 試下 — softening with 下
How 下 makes a Cantonese action small and a request polite, why it is used far more than doubling, and what it does with 咗 in the past.
Where Mandarin doubles the verb — 看看, 试试 — Cantonese attaches 下. The effect is the same: the action becomes small, brief, a try rather than an undertaking.
我睇下。
Ngo5 tai2haa5.
Let me have a look.
你試下啦。
Nei5 si3haa5 laa1.
Give it a go.
等我諗下。
Dang2 ngo5 nam2haa5.
Let me think about it.
It is mostly politeness
The literal sense is a bit, briefly. The practical effect is that the request stops being an instruction. 睇 on its own is look; 睇下 is have a look — same information, entirely different temperature, and dropping it is what makes a beginner sound abrupt when every word was polite.
幫我睇下呢個。
Bong1 ngo5 tai2haa5 ni1 go3.
Could you have a look at this for me?
Doubling exists but is rarer
睇睇 and 試試 are heard and are not wrong. 下 is the default, and using it will never sound odd where doubling sometimes will.
In the past, 咗 goes in the middle
我睇咗下。
Ngo5 tai2zo2 haa5.
I had a quick look.
一陣 for a short while
一陣 is a moment and does a related job on the length of an action rather than its weight.
等一陣。
Dang2 jat1zan6.
Hang on a moment.
瞓一陣啦。
Fan3 jat1zan6 laa1.
Have a bit of a nap.
What cannot take 下
The same restriction as Mandarin doubling: it needs a verb you can do a bit of. 係, 有, 知, 鍾意 refuse it — you cannot like something briefly as an experiment.