Meaning?

[Guest]

I always hear these two phrases: haang le! and ha ma? What do they mean and what are the characters for them (or if they're in the vernacular, what would be the characters in standard Chinese?).

Thanks

[iris_ian]

I always hear these two phrases: haang le! and ha ma? What do they mean and what are the characters for them (or if they're in the vernacular, what would be the characters in standard Chinese?).

Thanks

i am a cantonese.maybe i can help you.
but your characters is incorrect
so i just guess "ha ma" refers to "is it correct?"

[jilang]

Does cantonese even use "ma 吗"? I thought they they use structures like: "hou m hou (good or not)" or "yao mou (have or don't have)" do they also use "ma" or do they use "a hou"?

[ong]

http://www.hku.hk/linguist/staff/kk_pdf ... les%20.pdf

[cryptquixote]

"ma" is an interogative (indicator) placed at the end of a statement intended to be a
question.
ex. "Nei hou ma" = "you (are) good (question)?"

"hou m hou" would typically be "hou m hou, ah?", which is the equivelant of
"good not good (question)?"

In this case "ah" is the interogative added or sometimes understood at the end of a
a "condition or not-the-condition" type of question.

"hou m hou" is just as likely to be heard or used as "hou m hou, ah" - sometimes
the "ah" also added for emphasis on a "condition or not-the-condition" type question.

You can hear the use of "ma" and "ah" in much of the Cantonese you hear day to day
on the street, in markets, etc.

I hope this helps,

cq

[jilang]

Thanks for that informative reply, cryptquixote!

That helped a lot, before I wasn't sure whether "ma" was used in Cantonese or not.

[Match]

Depends on the pitch of the "ma"

The sentence can be use in a serious way or a sarcastic way as well...

Don't know how to explain by writing out tho...