In Cantonese, what does 多到 (do1 dou3) mean?

Question

In Cantonese, what does 多到 (do1 dou3) mean in this context?

你可以想像罪案多到幾咁嚴重嘞!

nei5 ho2-ji5 soeng2-zoeng6 zeoi6-on3 do1 dou3 gei2-gam3 jim4-zung6 laak3!

My guess is that the sentence translates to something like this:

You can imagine the criminal cases — many became quite serious!

But I'm really not sure. This is the first time I've come across this pattern.

多到數唔晒 = Ample amount (So many that I can't even count them all.) — Derek 朕會功夫, Jun 15 '12 at 16:40
"想像" here is more like "guess"/"conjecture" than "imagine". — Henry HO, Sep 03 '15 at 14:32

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 21 '12 at 06:16

11

You can understand it as "so many that...":

You can imagine the criminal cases are so many that the situation is serious.

answered Mar 21 '12 at 06:16

5

This is correct. It says that the number of cases are 多 (many) 到 (to the extent that) it's getting serious. – jogloran Mar 21 '12 at 08:08

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 03 '15 at 14:35

0

"多到幾咁嚴重" is sometimes simply a verbal form of "嚴重地多"

In such context, you can translate the sentence as:

You can conjecture that the number of criminal cases is seriously high.

answered Sep 03 '15 at 14:35

Henry HO

2 Answers2