How to say What Really and How Come in Cantonese 乜 咩

你做緊乜呀? 你做緊咩呀? They sound exactly the same. And often you may hear people say 乜 and sometimes you may hear people say 咩. Do they have the same meaning? Let's find out more in this video. Hi, my Cantonese buddies. Welcome to Weekend Canto. 廣一講 is basically here. When you ask questions in Cantonese, it's very common to ask 乜 or 咩. In fact, they both can mean what. But it's not always the case. I'll elaborate more later. First, let's take a look at the following examples where 乜 and 咩 can substitute with each other. 發生乜事? 發生 means happen. 乜 means what. 事 means matter. The whole sentence means what happened. 發生乜事? In this scenario, we can swap 乜 with 咩 and keep the same meaning. 發生咩事? 你做緊乜呀? 你 means you. 做 means doing. 乜 means what. 乜 is a particle here for a plain question. The whole sentence means what are you doing? 你做緊乜呀? In this scenario, we can also swap 乜 with 咩. 你做緊咩呀? 乜嘢嚟㗎? 乜 means what. 嘢 means things or stuff. 嚟㗎 is used to strengthen an assertion or a question. The whole sentence means what's that? 乜嘢嚟㗎? Or you can just say 乜嚟㗎? In this scenario, we can again swap 乜 with 咩. 咩嘢嚟㗎? 咩嚟㗎? Now, in the following scenarios, we can substitute 乜 and 咩 with each other. When something happens that makes you annoyed, for example, your computer is frozen all of a sudden, you can say 乜緊㗎? 乜 is how come. 緊 means this. 㗎 is a final particle to make a strong assertion. The whole sentence means how come? 乜緊㗎? When someone is trying to solve a problem with a solution that you don't agree with, you can say 有用咩? 有 means have. 用 means use. 咩 is used to form yes-no questions and to indicate doubt or surprise. The whole sentence means would it really help? When you hear a statement that you're in doubt or you're surprised, you can respond 係咩? 係 here means is it. 咩 here again is used to form yes-no questions and to indicate doubt or surprise. The whole sentence means really? 係咩? Often you will also see 乜 and 咩 in the same sentence, with 乜 at the beginning and 咩 at the end of a question. You usually ask those questions with something that you don't expect, like 乜你今日放假咩? 乜 here expresses the opposite idea, which means the speaker doesn't express something. 你 means you. 今日 means today. 放假 means have a holiday. 咩 here again is used to form yes-no questions and to indicate doubt or surprise. The whole sentence means oh, you're having a day off today? 乜你今日放假咩? So, to answer my question from the beginning of the video, 乜 and 咩 are interchangeable for most cases, so it's important to observe how others use those words and don't be afraid of asking questions. Happy learning! That's all for now. If you'd like to learn more about Cantonese, please check out my other videos. If you want to know some mistakes that a Cantonese learner could make, please check out this video. I'll catch you in the next one. Bye!