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GRAMMARS

Apart from the wildly different closed words, the grammars vary greatly among languages.

• Object placement: Mandarin places indirect objects before direct objects, whereas Cantonese places direct objects before indirect objects. This impacts the word order in sentences.

I gave him the book.
• Mandarin: 我 (SUBJ: I) 給 (V: give) 了 (ASP: perfect) 他 (IO: him) 那本書 (DO: that book)
• Cantonese: 我 (SUBJ: I) 畀 (V: give) 咗 (ASP: perfect) 本書 (DO: the book) 佢 (IO: him) (8/13)