How to use “生气” and “发火” in Chinese

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:

Wǒ wèi cǐ duì nǐ shēngqì.

我为此对你生气。 

I'm angry with you about this.

Wǒ wéi zìjǐ de dī fēnshù duì zìjǐ shēngqì.

我为自己的低分数对自己生气。 

I'm angry with myself for my low grades.

Wǒ wéi wǒ nánpéngyou wàng le qíngrénjié duì tā shēngqì.

我为我男朋友忘了情人节对他生气。 

I'm angry with my boyfriend for forgetting about Valentine's Day. 

Nǐ wèishénme duì wǒ shēngqì?

你为什么对我生气？ 

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.:

Wǒ wèi cǐ shēng nǐ de qì.

我为此生你的气。 

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:

Wǒ wéi tā jiāoào xìng duì tā fāhuǒ.

我为他的傲慢而发火。

I lost my temper with him because of his arrogance.

Tā wéi sǐjī duì wǒ de diànnǎo fāhuǒ.

他为电脑死机而发火。 

He lost his temper with the computer because it crashed.