定/定係

Or (In Questions)

Level 2Sounds Like ding6 hai6

Use 定 (ding6) or 定係 (ding6 hai6) when asking someone to choose between options (e.g., 'Tea or coffee?'). Do not use it for declarative statements like 'I will drink tea or coffee'; use 或者 (waak6 ze2) for statements instead.

How It Works

1. Choice Questions (Direct Questions)
When asking a question where the listener chooses between alternatives (Option A vs Option B), link the options with 定 (ding6) or 定係 (ding6 hai6). These questions frequently end with sentence-final particles such as 呀 (aa3) or 呢 (ne1):

  • Nouns: 茶定係咖啡呀？ (Tea or coffee?)
  • Verbs: 食飯定食麵呀？ (Eat rice or eat noodles?)
  • Adjectives: 黑色定係白色呢？ (Black or white?)
  • Clauses: 你等佢定係我哋自己去？ (Will you wait for him or will we go ourselves?)

2. Indirect Choice Clauses
As a disjunctive conjunction, 定係 can also appear in declarative sentences when embedding an indirect choice or expressing uncertainty, especially after verbs like 知 / 唔知道 (m4 zi1 dou3 - don't know) or 睇下 (tai2 haa5 - see whether):

  • 我唔知道佢嚟定係唔嚟。 (I don't know whether s/he is coming or not.)

3. Sentence-Initial Follow-up Suggestions
In an ongoing conversation, putting 定係 at the start of a prompt means 'Or should we...?' to offer a fresh suggestion:

  • 定係我哋去食日本菜呀？ (Or should we go eat Japanese food?)

4. Key Distinctions & Variants

  • 或者 (waak6 ze2): Used for 'or' in non-question statements and in general Yes/No questions (e.g., 你星期六或者星期日得唔得呀？ "Are you free Saturday or Sunday?"). Do not use 或者 in alternative choice questions where the listener must choose between Option A and Option B.
  • 定還是 (ding6 waan4 si6): A variant of 定/定係 that you may also hear.
  • 抑或 (jik1 waak6): The formal spoken and written equivalent of 定係.

Examples (4)

  1. 你要茶定係咖啡呀？

    Do you want tea or coffee?

    Word by Word: You want tea OR coffee [question-particle]

    A standard choice question connecting two nouns: 茶 (caa4 - tea) and 咖啡 (gaa3 fe1 - coffee).

  2. 我哋搭船定搭飛機去澳門呢？

    Are we taking the ferry or taking a plane to Macau?

    Word by Word: We take ferry OR take plane go Macau [question-particle]

    Demonstrates 定 (ding6) as a shortened form of 定係 connecting two verb phrases.

  3. 我唔知道佢嚟定係唔嚟。

    I don't know whether s/he is coming or not.

    Word by Word: I not know s/he come OR not come

    Shows 定係 used inside an indirect question after 唔知道 (m4 zi1 dou3).

  4. 定係去食麵呀？

    Or how about going to eat noodles?

    Word by Word: OR go eat noodles [question-particle]

    Shows 定係 used sentence-initially as a follow-up prompt suggesting an alternative.

Common Mistakes

  • Using 或者 (waak6 ze2) instead of 定/定係 in a choice question.

    你想食飯或者食麵呀？
    你想食飯定係食麵呀？

    或者 (waak6 ze2) is strictly used for statements ('or / perhaps'). For choice questions, you must use 定 (ding6) or 定係 (ding6 hai6).

  • Adding redundant yes-no markers to a 定係 question.

    你係唔係要茶定係咖啡呀？
    你要茶定係咖啡呀？

    定係 already establishes an alternative question structure. Combining it with A-not-A forms like 係唔係 (hai6 m4 hai6) creates unnecessary structural redundancy.

How It Connects

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定/定係Level 2Or (In Questions)

Learn This First

To use '定' or '定係' correctly, you need to understand how to link two options in a question. It helps to already know the basic verb 'to be' (係) and how to end a question with the particle '呀'. Knowing how to simply list items with 'and' (同埋) provides a useful contrast for when to use the 'or' question structure instead.

Words in This Pattern

定