Quantifier Suffix 晒 in Cantonese

In Brief

Put 晒 (saai3) after a verb to say that an action includes all of a relevant amount or group: 我做晒功課 means “I finished all the homework,” and 佢哋走晒 means “They all left.” It can also mark a complete degree or change of state after words such as 開心 “happy.” Unlike 咗 (zo2), 晒 does not merely present an event as completed; it highlights totality.

Overview

晒 is extremely common in colloquial Cantonese. Depending on its surroundings, natural English equivalents include “all,” “everything,” “everyone,” “completely,” “up,” and “out.” English places these ideas in several different positions—compare “eat everything,” “they all left,” and “the tickets sold out”—but Cantonese can express all three by placing 晒 directly after the relevant verb or state.

At B1, the useful core rule is straightforward: verb or adjective + 晒 means that nothing relevant is left outside the action or state. The relevant whole may be an object, such as all the food; a plural subject, such as all the guests; an amount, such as all the money; or a degree, such as becoming thoroughly happy or tired.

You may see 晒 described as a complement (a word after a verb or adjective that completes its meaning). It is related to resultative complements because it describes the total extent reached. In this article, “object” means the person or thing affected by an action, while “subject” means the person or thing performing the action or being described.

How It Works

The basic patterns

Pattern	What is included in full	Example	Meaning
Verb + 晒 + object	the object or amount	食晒啲嘢	eat everything
Plural subject + verb + 晒	every member of the subject	佢哋走晒	they all leave
Verb + 晒	an amount understood from context	賣晒喇	it is all sold out
Adjective/state + 晒	the degree or resulting state	開心晒	become completely happy

The word immediately before 晒 supplies the action or state. 晒 then says that the action or state reaches the full contextually relevant set, quantity, or degree.

When the object is total: verb + 晒 + object

With an explicit object, 晒 normally follows the verb and comes before that object:

• 做晒功課 — finish all the homework
• 飲晒啲水 — drink all the water
• 睇晒三集 — watch all three episodes
• 用晒啲錢 — use up all the money

This order differs from English. English puts “all” before “the homework,” but Cantonese puts the totalizing element after the action: 做 + 晒 + 功課.

The object must be understood as a complete, relevant quantity. That quantity can be stated explicitly with expressions such as 啲 “the/some plural or mass quantity,” 三本 “three volumes,” or 成盒 “the whole box.” It can also be supplied by the conversation. If both speakers are looking at a plate, 食晒喇 can mean “It’s all been eaten” without naming the food.

When the subject is total: plural subject + verb + 晒

If there is no object for 晒 to quantify, a plural subject often supplies the complete set:

• 佢哋走晒。 — They all left.
• 啲學生到晒喇。 — All the students have arrived.
• 啲燈熄晒。 — All the lights are off.

The same surface pattern can depend on context. 食晒喇 might mean “They have all eaten” if a group of people is under discussion, or “It has all been eaten” if the topic is food. Cantonese regularly leaves information unspoken when it is already clear, so context matters more than an isolated word-for-word gloss.

晒 with states and adjectives

After an adjective or state word, 晒 can indicate a thorough degree or a resulting change affecting the whole person or situation:

• 開心晒 — become thoroughly happy / cheer right up
• 濕晒 — be completely wet
• 攰晒 — be utterly tired
• 亂晒 — become completely disordered

English “completely” is only a guide, not a translation to insert automatically. Some combinations are conventional and natural; others sound exaggerated or need a clear context. Learn adjective combinations from real phrases rather than assuming every adjective accepts 晒 equally well.

晒 is not the same as 咗

咗 (zo2) is a perfective aspect marker: it presents an event as a bounded, completed event. 晒 marks total extent. Compare:

Cantonese	Main point	Natural English
我做咗功課。	the homework event was done	I did my homework.
我做晒功課。	all the homework was done	I finished all my homework.
佢哋走咗。	their leaving occurred	They left.
佢哋走晒。	every one of them left	They all left.

An event can be completed without exhausting the entire amount: 我食咗蛋糕 says that I ate cake or ate the cake, but it does not by itself insist that none remained. 我食晒啲蛋糕 explicitly covers all the cake.

When both meanings need to be marked, 晒 stays with the verb as its complement and 咗 follows that verb-complement unit: 我食晒咗啲蛋糕 “I ate all the cake.” In everyday speech, speakers often use 晒 with a sentence-final 喇 instead—我食晒啲蛋糕喇—when the new resulting situation is the important point. Do not add every available marker merely because the English sentence uses a perfect tense.

Negating totality

The most useful negative distinction is between “not all” and a refusal or future intention:

Pattern	Typical meaning	Example
未 + verb + 晒	not all done yet	我未做晒功課。
冇 + verb + 晒	did not do all of it	我冇食晒啲飯。
唔 + verb + 晒	do not/will not do all	我唔會用晒啲錢。

未做晒 leaves open the possibility of finishing later. 冇做晒 looks back and says the whole amount was not completed. In both cases, some may have been done: “not all” does not necessarily mean “none.” To say none was done, use an expression such as 完全冇做 “did not do it at all,” according to context.

Examples in Context

Cantonese	Jyutping	English	Note
食晒啲嘢。	sik6 saai3 di1 je5.	Eat everything up.	The whole object is affected.
我做晒功課喇。	ngo5 zou6 saai3 gung1 fo3 laa3.	I’ve finished all my homework now.	喇 highlights the new situation.
佢哋走晒。	keoi5 dei6 zau2 saai3.	They’ve all left.	晒 includes every member of the subject.
啲客到晒未呀？	di1 haak3 dou3 saai3 mei6 aa3?	Have all the guests arrived yet?	未 asks whether the full set has arrived.
我哋飲晒成支水。	ngo5 dei6 jam2 saai3 seng4 zi1 seoi2.	We drank the whole bottle of water.	成支 states the complete quantity.
啲飛賣晒喇。	di1 fei1 maai6 saai3 laa3.	The tickets are sold out.	Nothing in the relevant stock remains.
佢用晒啲錢買衫。	keoi5 jung6 saai3 di1 cin2 maai5 saam1.	They spent all the money on clothes.	晒 applies to the available money.
我未睇晒呢本書。	ngo5 mei6 tai2 saai3 ni1 bun2 syu1.	I haven’t finished this book yet.	Some may already have been read.
佢冇食晒啲飯。	keoi5 mou5 sik6 saai3 di1 faan6.	They didn’t finish all the rice.	This does not mean they ate none.
落完雨，地下濕晒。	lok6 jyun4 jyu5, dei6 haa2 sap1 saai3.	After the rain, the ground was completely wet.	晒 marks a thorough resulting state.
聽到呢個消息，大家開心晒。	teng1 dou2 ni1 go3 siu1 sik1, daai6 gaa1 hoi1 sam1 saai3.	Everyone cheered up when they heard the news.	The group and change of mood are understood together.
多謝晒你哋幫手。	do1 ze6 saai3 nei5 dei6 bong1 sau2.	Thanks so much for your help.	A conventional, warm expression of thanks.

Common Mistakes

Putting 晒 before the object like English “all”

• Wrong: 我做功課晒。
• Right: 我做晒功課。
• Why: When 晒 quantifies the affected object, it forms a unit with the verb and comes before the object: 做晒 + 功課.

Treating 晒 as a past-tense marker

• Wrong idea: 佢哋走晒 means past simply because 晒 is present.
• Right understanding: It means that all of them leave, left, or have left, with time supplied by context.
• Why: Cantonese does not use 晒 as a past-tense ending. It marks totality; time words, aspect markers, and context locate the event in time.

Assuming 咗 automatically means “all finished”

• Wrong: 我睇咗呢本書 when the intended point is “I read the whole book.”
• Right: 我睇晒呢本書。
• Why: 咗 presents the reading as an event. 晒 explicitly says the complete book was covered.

Using 冇食晒 to mean “ate nothing”

• Wrong interpretation: 我冇食晒啲餸 = “I ate none of the dishes.”
• Right interpretation: “I didn’t eat all the dishes.”
• Why: Negation takes scope over the complete result. The sentence allows for eating some but leaving some.

Adding 晒 to every adjective for “very”

• Wrong habit: translating every English “very” as 晒.
• Right: Use 好 for ordinary “very,” as in 好開心 “very happy”; use 開心晒 when a full or changed state is intended.
• Why: 晒 expresses total extent or a resulting state, not neutral intensity in every context.

Usage Notes

晒 is strongly associated with spoken Cantonese and informal writing. You will hear it constantly in conversation, entertainment, messages, and advertising. In formal Standard Written Chinese, writers may restructure the sentence or choose forms such as 全部 “all” or 完全 “completely,” depending on the intended meaning. Do not take that difference to mean 晒 is careless: it is normal, grammatical Cantonese.

The character 曬 is also seen for saai3, especially in its lexical meaning “to dry in the sun” or “to expose to sunlight.” In the complement discussed here, 晒 is the very common colloquial spelling. Follow the spelling conventions of the material or community you are using, and recognize both forms.

Sentence-final particles often make a 晒 sentence sound complete and conversational. 喇 commonly presents a new state: 冇晒喇 “There’s none left now,” 賣晒喇 “It’s sold out now.” 啦 can soften a suggestion or command: 食晒佢啦 “Go on, finish it.” The particle adds conversational stance; it does not replace the total meaning of 晒.

Two polite formulas deserve to be learned as whole expressions:

• 多謝晒 — thanks very much, especially for a gift, favor, or substantial help
• 唔該晒 — thanks very much, often for a service or everyday assistance

Here 晒 strengthens the gratitude rather than quantifying a literal object. The choice between 多謝 and 唔該 follows the usual Cantonese distinction; 晒 can warmly intensify either one.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

What counts as “all” comes from context

晒 does not mathematically quantify the entire universe. It exhausts a contextually relevant set—the set that speaker and listener have in mind. 啲飛賣晒 might mean all tickets for tonight’s performance, all tickets at one counter, or all tickets in a stated category. This is why supplying a clear topic or quantity matters when ambiguity would be inconvenient.

Total subjects and total objects can compete

In a short sentence such as 佢哋食晒喇, 晒 may be understood as “they have all eaten” or “they have eaten it all,” depending on what was being discussed. A speaker can reduce ambiguity by naming the relevant set:

• 佢哋個個都食咗喇。 — Every one of them has eaten.
• 佢哋食晒啲蛋糕喇。 — They have eaten all the cake.

This does not make the short version defective. Topic-heavy Cantonese relies naturally on shared context, but a learner should know when to make the missing quantity explicit.

晒 can convey an affected or dramatic result

With states, 晒 often does more than neutral measurement. 你搞到我亂晒 means “You’ve got me completely confused,” and the wording presents a strongly affected result. In stories and lively conversation, this gives 晒 expressive force. With 開心晒, the natural idea may be “cheered right up” rather than a static measurement of happiness.

Position inside a larger verb phrase

Treat verb + 晒 as a close unit. Other material then fits around that unit according to its own function:

• 未 + 睇晒 + 本書 — have not yet read the whole book
• 食晒 + 啲飯 + 喇 — have eaten all the rice now
• 食晒咗 + 啲飯 — completed eating all the rice

This becomes useful when you study longer resultative and aspect combinations. The safest learning strategy is not to stack markers from an English translation, but to decide separately whether you need totality (晒), perfective viewpoint (咗), or a newly relevant state (喇).

Practice Tips

1. Transform one sentence three ways. Start with 我做功課, then compare 我做咗功課, 我做晒功課, and 我未做晒功課. Say aloud what changes: completed event, complete amount, or incomplete amount.
2. Sort examples by what is total. While listening, label each 晒 as applying to an object, a plural subject, an understood amount, or a degree/state. This trains you to interpret short context-dependent sentences.
3. Learn frequent chunks. Keep a short list such as 食晒, 用晒, 賣晒, 冇晒, 濕晒, 多謝晒, and make one realistic sentence with each. Chunks will make the post-verbal position automatic.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Completed Action 咗 — compare completed events with the total extent expressed by 晒.