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Not sure about Mandarin and other dialects, but Cantonese has no words for yes or no as well. Instead, cantonese speakers generally repeat the verb asked in a
by SeanLuke 4y ago
Not sure about Mandarin and other dialects, but Cantonese has no words for yes or no as well. Instead, cantonese speakers generally repeat the verb asked in a question in a positive or negative way, as in [Speaker A] Will you or will you not go to the dance? [Speaker B] Will not. Or in other circumstances they'll just use the be-verb ("haih"), or its negation ("mh-haih"); or the have-verb ("yauh") or its negation ("mouh") when appropriate.
- mytailorisrich 4y agoYes, it's the same in Mandarin.
- JamesSwift 4y agoSimilar in Mandarin (`shi` and `bu shi`), but you can also just use `shi` and `bu` by themselves. Not sure if thats just colloquial or what, I'm not a native speaker.
- SeanLuke 4y agoIn Cantonese you can't just say "mh" (the equivalent of "bu"). It's a negator like "not". You have to say "mh [verb]".