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手尾 is a very common Cantonese term, I would like to know what Mandarin term can be the equivalent of it.

The following are from CantoDict dictionary:

手尾: (to tie up) loose ends

冇手尾: fail to finish what one has started; not cleaning up after oneself

跟手尾: to fix sb else's screwed-up work; to pick up someone's unfinished job

執手尾: to put things in order; to clean up [華]: 收拾

手尾長: a problem likely to drag on

Example sentences:

唔好咁冇手尾: Don't leave behind loose ends/ unfinished job like this

唔好要人跟(你)手尾: Don't make people fix (your) screwed-up work

你走先啦,我執埋手尾就會走㗎啦 : You can leave now, I'll leave after I've put every things in order

整傷脊椎骨就手尾長啦: The problem would likely to drag on if you injury your spine

I have no problem translating the examples above to Mandarin (first to English, then to Mandarin), But I have problem pinpointing a single equivalent term in Mandarin. Is there one?

Or maybe 手尾 is so uniquely Cantonese, it cannot be translated to Mandarin as a single term, and have to be translated differently depend on the context?

Edit:

手= hand ; 尾 = the last of

"手尾" literally means "remaining work on hand"

  • 唔好咁冇手尾: Don't be so disregarding to the remaining work on hand

  • 你走先啦,我執埋手尾就會走㗎啦: You can leave now, I'll leave after I've finished the remaining work on hand

  • 唔好要人跟(你)手尾: Don't make people follow up on (your) remaining work on hand

  • 整傷脊椎骨就手尾長啦: if you injury your spine, your remaining work on hand will last a long time

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To express “finish remaining work on hand” can use 收尾 in mandarin. And I think this is the word sounds closest to 手尾。So for 我執埋手尾就會走㗎啦, you can say 我做完收尾工作就走啦

唔好咁冇手尾 can be expressed as (做事)不要有头无尾

唔好要人跟(你)手尾 can be expressed as (做事)不要让别人帮你善后(or “擦屁股” )

整傷脊椎骨就手尾長啦 probably has no similar expression.

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  • 整傷脊椎骨就手尾長啦 in Mandarin could be 弄傷脊椎骨就後患無窮了
    – Tang Ho
    Dec 26, 2019 at 1:37
  • more colloquial phrase would be 弄傷脊椎骨的話後患可不少啊
    – Tang Ho
    Dec 26, 2019 at 1:47
  • @Tang Ho right, it's just that normally we don't say that...
    – sylvia
    Dec 28, 2019 at 2:13

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