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According to CantoDict, 找晦氣 in Cantonese means, "to get back at someone or cause trouble over a past grievance". Link: http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/50994/

CantoDict is sometimes wrong since it is edited by volunteers.

Wouldn't 找負氣 make more sense instead of 找晦氣 because 負氣 means to act out of stubbornness or irritation whereas 晦氣 means unlucky or gloomy.

Which is correct?

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  • 晦 is pronounced as fui3 but 負 as fu6. And I haven't ever heard "找fu6氣", so ...
    – Stan
    Commented Mar 5, 2014 at 1:16
  • ok, so you're saying 找晦氣 is correct, and it's not 找負氣?
    – Crashalot
    Commented Mar 5, 2014 at 1:34
  • Yes, to some extent -- though Cantonese is my mother tongue, I'm not an expert on it so I'm not sure if 負氣 is also acceptable.
    – Stan
    Commented Mar 5, 2014 at 4:21

3 Answers 3

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找晦氣 is correct.

你得罪咗佢，佢实找你晦气[你得罪了他，他一定会来报复的] 。

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找晦氣 is a verb. To avenge.

負氣 is an adjective. "Being negative". 負 itself means "negative" (the opposite of positive). 氣 is energy. Full of negative energy... being negative.

e.g. 佢好負氣 - he is so negative

找負氣 is an improper use

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    Nope, it means 'to exact revenge upon', not 'to avenge'. 找你晦气 would mean to exact revenge upon you, not to avenge you, which pretty much means the opposite.
    – deutschZuid
    Commented Mar 12, 2014 at 22:18
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I think 找晦氣is an idiom in Chinese mainland now, but I never heard about"找負氣".

There is a word"負氣", but here 負 is a verb, means bear or carry angry(氣) on the back, for example:

負氣離家, 負氣出走

However I'm not sure about the diff between Cantonese and Chinese.

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