sou3 hing3掃興扫兴
Jyutpingsou3 hing3
Yalesou hing
Definition
To dampen someone's spirits, spoil the fun, or be a killjoy.
colloquialemotionpeople
How it's used
Often used as a verb phrase where the object is the mood or the person being disappointed, such as 掃人興. It carries a strong sense of social disruption, implying that the person has actively ruined a collective positive atmosphere. It is frequently paired with particles like 呀 or 嘛 to express frustration or to plead with someone to stop their behavior.
Examples
What you are saying is really a total downer.
Everything was going fine, why do you have to go and spoil the mood?
Related words
Common phrases
to ruin the mood for everyone
Common mistake
Learners often mistake it for a simple adjective meaning sad or disappointed, but it specifically describes the action of ruining a group's mood. You cannot use it to describe your own internal feeling of being disappointed; it must be used to describe someone else's behavior that affects others.
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Classifier
Particle
Connector
Grammar guides
- In 30 secondsThe whole language at a glance. No tenses, no plurals, six tones, sentence particles. Read this before you dive into any specific topic.
- ParticlesSentence particles add tone, emotion, and nuance. Learn the most common particles in Cantonese and how to use them.
- Possession (嘅)How to say my, your, and his, and how to link a describing word to a noun, all with the little word 嘅 (ge3).
