未 (mei6)

...yet? Question

Level 2Sounds Like mei6

Adding 未 (mei6) to the end of a sentence forms a question asking 'Have you... yet?' or 'Has [X] happened yet?'.

How It Works

1. How to Form the Question
Sentence-final 未 (mei6) attaches to the end of a verb phrase or clause, often as V + 咗...未 or ...未呀. Crucially, if there is an object, it must come before 未. The standard formula is Verb + (咗/過) + Object + 未. It frequently pairs with the perfective aspect marker 咗 (zo2) or the experiential marker 過 (gwo3). In highly colloquial speech, the perfective marker 咗 is sometimes dropped entirely, leaving just Verb + 未 (e.g., 食未呀？ sik6 mei6 aa3? - 'Have you eaten yet?' / 'Can we eat yet?' / 走未呀？ zau2 mei6 aa3? - 'Leaving yet?').

2. Using with Adjectives
Sentence-final 未 can also attach directly to adjectives (which act as stative verbs in Cantonese) or phrases containing them to ask if a state has been reached yet. For example, 好未呀？ (hou2 mei6 aa3? - 'Is it ready/done yet?') or 齊人未呀？ (cai4 jan4 mei6 aa3? - 'Is everyone here yet?', where 齊 is the adjective and 人 is the noun).

3. Expectation and Presupposition
Using sentence-final 未 (mei6) implies that the speaker expects the event to occur. For example, asking 你食咗飯未呀？ (nei5 sik6 zo2 faan6 mei6 aa3?) assumes the listener will eat and asks if they have already done so.

4. Answering & Word-Order Shift

  • Affirmative Answer: Repeat Verb + 咗 (zo2) / 過 (gwo3) (+ 喇 laa3). Example: 食咗喇 (sik6 zo2 laa3 - 'I have eaten').
  • Negative Answer & Position Shift: Sentence-final 未 in questions shifts to pre-verbal adverb position (未 + Verb) in negative statements. Example: 未食 (mei6 sik6 - 'Haven't eaten yet'). Simply saying 未呀 (mei6 aa3 - 'Not yet') is the single most common and natural standalone answer to these questions. Answering with 冇 (mou5) or 唔 (m4) is possible, but it rejects the speaker's expectation that the event will happen (e.g., 唔食 means 'I am not eating', rather than 'not yet').

5. Aspect Marker Rules Under Negation

  • Perfective 咗 (zo2) MUST be dropped: You cannot use 咗 after a verb negated by pre-verbal 未 (*未食咗 is ungrammatical).
  • Experiential 過 (gwo3) IS retained: Experiential 過 stays after the verb under negation (未 + Verb + 過), e.g., 未去過 (mei6 heoi3 gwo3 - 'have never been there / haven't been there before').

6. Cultural Nuance
Asking 食咗飯未呀？ often functions as a friendly social greeting equivalent to 'How are you?' rather than a literal inquiry.

Examples (4)

  1. 你食咗飯未呀？

    Have you eaten yet?

    Word by Word: you eat [completed] rice not-yet [particle]

    Pairs 咗 with sentence-final 未 and 呀 for a 'have you... yet?' question. Note that in declarative responses, 未 is placed before the verb (e.g., 我未食 - 'I haven't eaten yet').

  2. 佢做完功課未？

    Has he finished his homework yet?

    Word by Word: he do finish homework not-yet

    Attaches sentence-final 未 to a resultative verb compound like 做完 (finish doing). In negative statements, pre-verbal 未 is used instead (e.g., 佢未做完).

  3. 你去過日本未？

    Have you been to Japan yet?

    Word by Word: you go [experiential] Japan not-yet

    Combines the experiential marker 過 with sentence-final 未 to ask if an experience has happened yet. For declarative answers, pre-verbal 未 negates the action.

  4. 你睇完呢本書未呀？

    Have you finished reading this book yet?

    Word by Word: you read finish this [classifier] book not-yet [particle]

    Uses the resultative complement 完 followed by sentence-final 未 and 呀. Pre-verbal 未 is used for negative declarative replies.

Common Mistakes

  • Answering a 未 question with 冇 (mou5) or 唔 (m4)

    問：你睇咗未？ 答：冇 / 唔
    問：你睇咗未？ 答：未 / 未睇

    When a question ends with 未 (mei6), the usual answer is 未 (mei6) or 未 + Verb, meaning 'not yet'. 唔 (m4) does not fit an answer about something expected to be done by now.

  • Double-marking 未 before the verb and at the end of the sentence

    你未食飯未？
    你食咗飯未？

    Preverbal 未 (mei6) is used in negative statements. Questions only use 未 (mei6) at the end of the sentence, paired with 咗 (zo2) or a main verb in the sentence body.

  • Combining sentence-final 未 with the progressive marker 緊 (gan2)

    你做緊未？
    你做完未？

    Ongoing/progressive actions contradict the completion aspect required by 未 (mei6). Use a resultative verb like 做完 (zou6 jyun4 'finish doing') instead.

How It Connects

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未 (mei6)Level 2...yet? Question

Learn This First

To ask if someone has done something 'yet' in Cantonese, you need to understand how to mark a completed action with 咗 and how to use the negator 未 (not yet) at the end of the sentence to form a question.

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