V+添

1. The Verbal Root
Before becoming a particle, 添 (tim1) is a verb meaning 'to add' or 'to refill'. You will often hear this in restaurants, such as 添飯 (tim1 faan6; refill rice) or 添水 (tim1 seoi2; refill water).

2. Basic Additive Usage
The most common use of 添 (tim1) is to request or describe an additional action or quantity. It follows the predicate (the verb or the adjective) and can be used with or without a specific quantity phrase. Additionally, 添 (tim1) frequently pairs with words like 埋 (maai4) or 多 (do1) to emphasize the addition.
Structure: Predicate (Verb/Adjective) + (Object/Quantity) + 添
Example: 買多個添 (maai5 do1 go3 tim1) — 'Buy one more.'

3. "Also" and "Even More"
When expressing 'additionally' or 'even', 添 (tim1) acts as part of a fixed grammatical frame or circumfix with 仲 (zung6) in the 仲...添 pattern. This works with adjectives to show an increased quality (e.g., 仲貴添 zung6 gwai3 tim1 — 'Even more expensive'), but it is also widely used with verbs and nouns to add extra information. This is frequently triggered by the correlative conjunction 唔單止...仲... (m4 daan1 zi2... zung6...) or 唔只... 仲... (m4 zi2... zung6...) to express 'Not only... but also', with 添 completing the structure. For example: 佢唔單止識講英文，仲識講法文添 (keoi5 m4 daan1 zi2 sik1 gong2 jing1 man2, zung6 sik1 gong2 faat3 man2 tim1) — 'Not only does he know how to speak English, he also knows how to speak French.' Additionally, while the core frame for 'even' is simply 連...都... (lin4... dou1...), 添 can optionally be added at the end of these sentences to emphasize the 'on top of that' aspect. For example: 連佢都去埋添 (lin4 keoi5 dou1 heoi3 maai4 tim1) — 'Even he went too.'

4. Nuance of Surprise or Regret
When 添 (tim1) appears towards the end of a sentence, it can act as a sentence-final particle expressing that something extra happened unexpectedly, or that the speaker just realized something (often with regret). Note that in this usage, its pronunciation frequently shifts from a strict high-level tone (tim1) to a high-falling intonation. Also, while it often appears at the end, 添 can cluster with other particles. When it does, there is a strict particle ordering rule: 添 almost always comes first in the cluster, preceding mood particles like 㗎 (gaa3), 呀 (aa3), or 噃 (bo3) (e.g., 添㗎 tim1 gaa3, 添呀 tim1 aa3). You cannot reverse the order (e.g., *㗎添 is ungrammatical).
Example: 唔記得咗添！ (m4 gei3 dak1 zo2 tim1!) — 'Oh, I forgot!' (The 'forgetting' is an extra, unwanted realization).

5. Register and Informal Writing
This is a strictly colloquial particle. In Standard Written Chinese, the equivalents change depending on the usage: for the basic additive meaning, you would use 再 (zài) or 又 (yòu); for 'also/even more', you would use 也 (yě), 還有 (hái yǒu), or 而且 (ér qiě); and for surprise/regret, you would use 了 (le), 呢 (ne), or 竟然/居然 (jìng rán / jū rán). In informal digital Cantonese (texting/social media), you will frequently see the variants 𠻹 or 㖭 used instead of the traditional 添.