to be angry; to get mad
HSK level
生气 (shēngqì) is the standard word for 'to be angry / to get mad.'
Literally 生 'produce / give rise to' + 气 'air / qi / temper' — i.e. 'to generate temper.' It is a separable verb-object compound, so things slip between the characters: 生我的气 ('be mad AT me'), 生了一会儿气 ('was mad for a while').
The preposition for the target of the anger is 跟 or 对: 我跟他生气 / 我对他生气 ('I'm mad at him'). Important: 生气 describes a passing state, not a permanent trait — for 'a hot-tempered person' use 脾气大. As a separate word, 生气 also means 'vitality / liveliness' (有生气 'full of life'), but in HSK 3 contexts it nearly always means 'angry.'
Note: Everyday word for the experience of getting angry. Use 生气 for personal anger; for furious / outraged, escalate to 愤怒 (fènnù, more formal).
Character by character
Memory hook: 生 (produce) + 气 (temper) — to produce temper = get angry.
生气 appears in 1 Fluentide podcast episode at natural native speed — each with the full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
Browse the full episode library你怎么了？是不是生气了？
Nǐ zěnme le? Shì bu shì shēngqì le?
What's wrong? Are you angry?
spoken
妈妈生我的气了。
Māma shēng wǒ de qì le.
Mom is mad at me.
spoken
对不起，请别生气。
Duìbuqǐ, qǐng bié shēngqì.
I'm sorry — please don't be angry.
spoken
他很容易生气。
Tā hěn róngyì shēngqì.
He gets angry easily.
spoken
老板今天很生气，因为我迟到了。
Lǎobǎn jīntiān hěn shēngqì, yīnwèi wǒ chídào le.
The boss was angry today because I was late.
neutral
生气 is written with 9 strokes (生: 5, 气: 4). Tap replay to watch each character drawn again.
Bare 气 as a verb ('to anger / be angered') is more literary or transitive: 他气我 = 'he angered me.' 生气 is the everyday intransitive 'to be angry.'
发火 ('set off fire') means 'to flare up / blow up at someone' — more about the visible outburst. 生气 is the inner state of being angry, with or without showing it.
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