A1
Time and place come before the verb — except when they do not
Where when and where sit in a Cantonese sentence, and the three places Cantonese word order departs from Mandarin — 先 after the verb, the direct object before the indirect, and 多 with the verb.
The main rule is the one Mandarin has: when and where go in front of the verb, never after it.
我聽日去香港。
Ngo5 ting1jat6 heoi3 Hoeng1gong2.
I’m going to Hong Kong tomorrow.
我喺屋企食飯。
Ngo5 hai2 uk1kei2 sik6faan6.
I eat at home.
我去香港聽日。
我聽日去香港。
Putting the time at the end is English word order, and it is the first thing to unlearn in either Chinese language.
So far this is Mandarin. What follows is not.
先 goes after the verb
Mandarin puts first before the verb — 你先食. Cantonese puts it after, and this is one of the differences you will hear within a day of arriving.
你食先。
Nei5 sik6 sin1.
You eat first.
我行先喇。
Ngo5 haang4 sin1 laa3.
I’ll head off first, then.
The direct object comes before the indirect
Giving something to someone reverses the Mandarin order. Mandarin says 畀我一本書 — give me a book. Cantonese names the thing first and the person second.
畀本書我。
Bei2 bun2 syu1 ngo5.
Give me the book.
佢畀咗五百蚊我。
Keoi5 bei2zo2 ng5 baak3 man1 ngo5.
He gave me five hundred dollars.
English agrees with Mandarin here and not with Cantonese, so this one has to be learned deliberately rather than absorbed.
多 and 少 attach to the verb
Eat more is 食多啲, with the quantity after the verb rather than before it.
食多啲啦。
Sik6 do1 di1 laa1.
Have some more.
講少啲啦。
Gong2 siu2 di1 laa1.
Talk less.
Large to small
Addresses, dates and names run wide to narrow, as in Mandarin: country before city, year before month before day, family name before given name.
二零二六年九月六號
ji6 ling4 ji6 luk6 nin4 gau2 jyut6 luk6 hou6
6 September 2026