Hokkien/Lesson 2

Lesson 2 contains a dialogue of two students discussing their classes for the day.

The Han characters provided below are for reference and are consistent with the Taiwanese Minnan Recommended Hanzi Usage (台灣閩南語推薦用字) which has been promoted by the government of Taiwan. Individual usage may vary from speaker to speaker based on preference.

Dialogues 1 & 2: Characters
Dialogue 1

Dialogue 2

Dialogues 1 & 2: POJ/English
Dialogue 1

Dialogue 2

Vocabulary
Note: Visit this lesson's Stroke Order subpage to see images and animations detailing how to write the following characters. Audio files of the words are linked from the POJ when available. Problems listening? See media help.

Affirmative-negative questions
Example: Q: 伊是 毋是Tony?
 * I sī m̄-sī Tony?
 * Is he Tony?

A: 是. or 毋是.
 * Sī. or M̄-sī.
 * Yes (he is). or No (he isn't).

Example: Q:
 * Kin-á-jit Amy bô-êng mā?
 * Is Amy busy today?

A:
 * I chin bô-êng. or I ū-êng.
 * Yes, she's busy. or No, she's not busy.
 * This is a special case because the word for busy (bô-êng) literally means "to not have leisure time," whereas ū-êng literally means "to have leisure time."

Sentences using ū [有]
Example:
 * Góa ū saⁿ-chiat-khò.
 * I have three classes.

Using bô [无/無] to negate ū [有]
Example:


 * Kin-á-jit in bô chi̍t-chiat-khò.
 * They don't have any class today.

More about bô and m̄

 * m̄ is used to negate verbs in present and future tense.
 * Example: i m̄ lâi - he does not come or he will not come
 * the exception to this rule are helping verbs such as:
 * beh - want to + verb; will + verb
 * ài - must + verb
 * èng-kai - should + verb
 * kah-ì - like to + verb
 * Example: i bô beh lâi - he is not going to come
 * for all other verbs, bô is used to indicate past tense negative
 * Example: i bô lâi - he did not come
 * bô is also used to negate adjectival nouns
 * Example: i bô súi - she is not beautiful
 * An exception can be made for hó (good), m̄-hó = bô-hó - not good.