Completed Actions with 咗 in Cantonese

In Brief

Put 咗 (zo2) directly after a verb to present an action as complete: 我食咗飯 (ngo5 sik6 zo2 faan6) means “I ate” or “I’ve eaten.” It is a perfective aspect marker—a small word showing how an event is viewed—not a past-tense ending. For an ordinary negative, use 冇 + verb and normally leave out 咗: 我冇食飯 “I didn’t eat / haven’t eaten.”

Overview

Cantonese verbs do not change form for person or tense. 食 (sik6) remains 食 whether the subject is “I,” “she,” or “they,” and whether the surrounding context concerns yesterday or tomorrow. Cantonese instead uses time expressions, context, and aspect markers. 咗 is one of the most frequent of these markers.

The technical name perfective aspect means that the speaker presents an event as a complete whole, with its endpoint reached. English often expresses the same idea with the simple past (“ate,” “left”) or the present perfect (“have eaten,” “has left”). There is no automatic one-to-one translation: the surrounding situation decides which English tense sounds natural.

At A2, the useful beginner rule is simple: put 咗 after the verb for a completed affirmative action; use 冇 or 未 before the verb when that completion is denied. Once this pattern is secure, you can learn how completion interacts with objects, time expressions, resultative complements, and the different clause-final particle also written 咗.

How It Works

The core pattern

The basic sentence keeps normal Cantonese subject–verb–object order. 咗 attaches to the verb phrase and follows the verb.

Meaning	Pattern	Example
Completed action without an object	subject + verb + 咗	佢走咗。 “He/She left.”
Completed action with an object	subject + verb + 咗 + object	我食咗飯。 “I ate / have eaten.”
Completed amount	subject + verb + 咗 + quantity + classifier + object	我睇咗兩本書。 “I read two books.”
Completed action with a time phrase	time + subject + verb + 咗 + object	尋日我買咗飛。 “I bought the tickets yesterday.”

咗 does not change for the subject. Compare 我買咗 “I bought,” 佢買咗 “he/she bought,” and 我哋買咗 “we bought.” This is different from English, where some verbs change form, such as “go” becoming “went.”

咗 marks completion, not simply past time

A past-time phrase does not by itself require 咗, and 咗 does not by itself mean “past.” What matters is whether the speaker chooses to present an event as completed.

Sentence	Natural interpretation	What it highlights
我尋日喺屋企。	I was at home yesterday.	A past state; no completed event needs marking.
我尋日買咗餸。	I bought groceries yesterday.	The shopping event was completed.
我已經交咗功課。	I’ve already handed in the homework.	Completion by now.
我聽日做咗功課先出去。	Tomorrow, I’ll go out only after I’ve done my homework.	Future completion before another action.

The last sentence is especially useful: 聽日 makes the time future, while 咗 presents finishing the homework as the completed first step. This is why calling 咗 “the past tense” leads to mistakes.

Time words often carry the time reference

Words such as 尋日 (cam4 jat6, yesterday), 頭先 (tau4 sin1, just now), 已經 (ji5 ging1, already), and 聽日 (ting1 jat6, tomorrow) locate the event in time. 咗 adds the viewpoint of completion.

• 佢頭先打咗電話嚟。 — He/She called just now.
• 我已經訂咗枱。 — I’ve already booked a table.
• 聽日食咗早餐先出發。 — Tomorrow, we’ll set off after eating breakfast.

Do not add a time word merely to make 咗 grammatical. 佢走咗 is complete and natural when the time is clear from the conversation.

Negating a completed action with 冇

For the basic negative, use 冇 (mou5) before the verb and omit 咗.

Affirmative	Negative	Meaning
我去咗。	我冇去。	I went. / I didn’t go.
佢食咗飯。	佢冇食飯。	He/She ate. / He/She didn’t eat.
我哋買咗飛。	我哋冇買飛。	We bought tickets. / We didn’t buy tickets.

Think of the contrast this way: the affirmative says the event reached completion; the negative says the event did not happen as a completed fact. In the ordinary A2 pattern, 冇 therefore replaces the affirmative completion pattern rather than combining with 咗.

Use 未 (mei6, not yet) when the action is still expected or remains possible:

• 我未食飯。 — I haven’t eaten yet.
• 佢未交功課。 — He/She hasn’t handed in the homework yet.

冇食 reports non-occurrence in the relevant period. 未食 specifically means “not yet eaten.” English “haven’t eaten” can represent either idea, so choose according to meaning rather than translation alone.

Asking whether something is complete

A very common pattern is verb + 咗 + object + 未？ or, with no object, verb + 咗 + 未？ Here 未 asks whether the expected endpoint has been reached yet.

• 你做咗功課未？ — Have you done your homework yet?
• 你食咗飯未？ — Have you eaten yet?
• 佢返咗嚟未？ — Has he/she come back yet?

Short answers normally avoid repeating the whole question:

• 做咗喇。 — Yes, I’ve done it.
• 未呀。 — Not yet.
• 冇呀。 — No, I didn’t / haven’t.

You will also hear 有冇 + verb questions, such as 你有冇睇套戲？ “Have you seen the film?” These ask whether the event occurred. The …咗未？ pattern puts the expected completion more clearly in focus.

Objects and longer verb phrases

With an ordinary object, place 咗 between the verb and object: 買咗飛, 飲咗咖啡, 寫咗封信. A number and classifier remain together after 咗: 買咗兩張飛 “bought two tickets.”

If the verb has a resultative complement—a following element showing the result—咗 normally follows the complete verb–result unit:

• 食完咗飯 — finished eating the meal
• 寫好咗份報告 — finished the report / got the report written
• 搵到咗鎖匙 — found the keys

At A2, you can safely learn common combinations as whole chunks. The complement itself identifies the result more precisely; 咗 presents that result as achieved.

Examples in Context

Cantonese	Jyutping	English	Note
我食咗飯。	ngo5 sik6 zo2 faan6.	I ate / I’ve eaten.	Basic verb + 咗 + object.
佢走咗。	keoi5 zau2 zo2.	He/She has left.	The time is understood from context.
我尋日買咗對鞋。	ngo5 cam4 jat6 maai5 zo2 deoi3 haai4.	I bought a pair of shoes yesterday.	尋日 gives past time.
阿明頭先打咗電話嚟。	aa3 ming4 tau4 sin1 daa2 zo2 din6 waa2 lai4.	Ah Ming called just now.	A recently completed action.
我已經交咗功課。	ngo5 ji5 ging1 gaau1 zo2 gung1 fo3.	I’ve already handed in my homework.	已經 reinforces “already.”
你做咗功課未？	nei5 zou6 zo2 gung1 fo3 mei6?	Have you done your homework yet?	Completion question with 未.
食咗喇。	sik6 zo2 laa3.	Yes, I’ve eaten.	Natural short answer.
我冇去個聚會。	ngo5 mou5 heoi3 go3 zeoi6 wui6.	I didn’t go to the gathering.	冇 before the verb; no 咗.
佢未返嚟。	keoi5 mei6 faan1 lai4.	He/She hasn’t come back yet.	未 means the expected action is pending.
我哋睇咗兩集。	ngo5 dei6 tai2 zo2 loeng5 zaap6.	We watched two episodes.	Quantity follows 咗.
我搵到咗鎖匙。	ngo5 wan2 dou2 zo2 so2 si4.	I found the keys.	咗 follows the resultative unit 搵到.
聽日食咗早餐先出發。	ting1 jat6 sik6 zo2 zou2 caan1 sin1 ceot1 faat3.	Tomorrow, we’ll leave after eating breakfast.	Future completion before the next step.
你有冇睇嗰套戲？	nei5 jau5 mou5 tai2 go2 tou3 hei3?	Have you seen that film?	Asks whether the event occurred.

Common Mistakes

Treating 咗 as a past-tense ending

• Misleading rule: “Every sentence about the past needs 咗.”
• Better: Use a past-time expression when needed, and add 咗 when presenting an event as completed.
• Why: 我尋日喺屋企 “I was at home yesterday” is naturally past because of 尋日. There is no completed action to mark.

Putting 咗 after the object

• Wrong: 我食飯咗。 (for the ordinary completed-action pattern)
• Right: 我食咗飯。
• Why: Verb-attached 咗 normally comes immediately after the verb, before its object.

Using 唔 for a completed negative

• Wrong: 我唔食咗飯。
• Right: 我冇食飯。
• Why: 唔 usually negates present, habitual, intended, or general actions. Ordinary non-occurrence of a completed action takes 冇.

Keeping 咗 after ordinary negation

• Wrong: 我冇去咗。 (intended simply as “I didn’t go”)
• Right: 我冇去。
• Why: In the beginner pattern, 冇 denies that the action occurred and 咗 drops. Advanced scope combinations exist, but they do not justify copying the affirmative mechanically.

Translating English “have” word for word

• Wrong strategy: Adding 有 because English says “I have eaten.”
• Right: 我食咗飯。
• Why: The “have” in the English present perfect is an auxiliary—a helping verb—not possession. Cantonese marks completion with 咗, not with possessive 有.

Confusing 冇 with 未

• Less precise: 我冇交功課。 when you mean “I haven’t handed it in yet, but I will.”
• Better: 我未交功課。
• Why: 未 keeps the expected action open; 冇 simply says it did not occur in the relevant context.

Usage Notes

咗 is extremely common in everyday spoken Cantonese. The examples here use Traditional Chinese characters and Jyutping, reflecting common Hong Kong-style learner materials. In formal Standard Written Chinese, you may instead encounter 了, but spoken Cantonese grammar and written standard Chinese should not be treated as interchangeable systems.

English translations vary with context. 我買咗飛 can be “I bought the tickets” in a story about yesterday or “I’ve bought the tickets” when the present result matters. Do not spend time trying to assign one fixed English tense to 咗. Ask the more useful question: “Is the event being presented as complete?”

Speakers often omit information that is already obvious. After 你食咗飯未？, answers such as 食咗喇 and 未呀 are more natural than repeating the subject and object. Sentence-final particles such as 喇 and 呀 add conversational tone; they are not required to understand the completion contrast.

Beyond the Basics: Two Uses Written 咗

You do not need to master this distinction at A2, but it explains sentences that otherwise look inconsistent. Cantonese has a verb-attached perfective marker 咗 and a clause-final 咗 associated with a new situation or change of state. They have the same written form and pronunciation, but they do different jobs.

Use	Position	Main idea	Example
Perfective aspect	After the verb, before an object	Event viewed as complete	我買咗飛。 “I bought the tickets.”
Clause-final particle	At the end of the clause	A new state now holds	而家十二點咗。 “It’s twelve o’clock now.”
Both functions	One after the verb and one at the end	Completed event plus newly relevant situation	我食咗飯咗。 “I’ve eaten now.”

When a sentence has no object, as in 佢走咗, the two positions coincide, and context may carry more than one nuance: the leaving is complete, and the person is now gone. For beginners, it is enough to recognize the ordinary completed-action reading.

Completion also combines with resultative complements. Compare 食咗飯 “ate a meal” with 食完咗飯 “finished eating the meal.” The first views the eating event as complete; 完 explicitly names the result “finish.” Likewise, 搵咗鎖匙 means “looked for the keys,” while 搵到咗鎖匙 means “found the keys”: 到 shows that the search achieved its result. This distinction leads naturally into resultative complements at B1.

Finally, a completed action does not always imply that its result still holds. Someone may say 我買咗本書 “I bought a book,” but that alone does not tell you whether they still own it. 咗 presents the event as bounded and complete; it does not guarantee a permanent present result.

Practice Tips

1. Build affirmative–negative–question sets. Start with one useful phrase, such as 買飛 “buy tickets”: 我買咗飛 / 我冇買飛 / 你買咗飛未？ This trains the whole pattern instead of only the affirmative.
2. Listen for position, not just sound. In short clips, pause after hearing zo2 and identify what comes before and after it. If an object follows, you are probably hearing verb-attached 咗.
3. Retell your day with time anchors. Use 頭先, 尋日, and 已經 to make five true sentences. Then add one future sequence with 聽日…咗…先… to break the habit of equating 咗 with past tense.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Basic Verbs and Word Order — provides the subject–verb–object pattern that 咗 fits into.
• Contrast: Experiential 過 — marks having had an experience, not simply one completed event.
• Next step: Resultative Complements — shows results such as finishing, finding, or doing something successfully.
• Related structure: 俾 as Give and Passive Marker — introduces another common verb and sentence pattern.
• Further aspect marking: Quantifier Suffix 晒 — expresses that all of something is affected or used up.