Getting angry in Mandarin - 为 ... 对 ... 生气
If you’re annoyed or losing your temper, you might want to explain why.
The structure for this in Mandarin is:
为 [something] 对 [someone] 生气
or 为 _什么_ 对 _谁_ 生气 (to be angry with someone about something).
Examples:
我为此对你生气。 Wǒ wèi cǐ duì nǐ shēngqì. “I’m angry with you about this.”
我为自己的低分数对自己生气。 Wǒ wéi zìjǐ de dī fēnshù duì zìjǐ shēngqì. “I’m angry with myself for my low grades.”
我为我男朋友忘了情人节对他生气。 Wǒ wéi wǒ nánpéngyou wàng le qíngrénjié duì tā shēngqì. “I’m angry with my boyfriend for forgetting about Valentine’s Day.”
你为什么对我生气？ Nǐ wèishénme duì wǒ shēngqì? “Why are you angry with me?”
You can also use a slight different structure:
为 [something] 生 [someone] 的气
or 为 _什么_ 生 _谁_ 的气. This is otherwise the same as the structure above, e.g.:
我为此生你的气。 Wǒ wèi cǐ shēng nǐ de qì. “I’m angry with you about this.”
Losing your temper
If you want to go a bit further, you can use the fantastic word 发火. Literally this is ‘emit flames’, and means ‘lose one’s temper’. The structure is the same as for 生气:
为 [something] 对 [someone] 发火
(You can’t put the object in between 发 and 火 as with 生气.)
Examples:
我为他骄傲性对他发火。 Wǒ wéi tā jiāoào xìng duì tā fāhuǒ. “I lost my temper with him because of his arrogance.”
他为死机对我的电脑发火。 Tā wéi sǐjī duì wǒ de diànnǎo fāhuǒ. “He lost his temper with the computer because it crashed.”
Useful links
- [Search “为对生气” on Google for examples](http://www.google.com/search?&q=%22%E4%B8%BA*%E5%AF%B9*%E7%94%9F%E6%B0%94%22 ““为*对*生气” on Google”)
