睇唔起

Look Down on

Level 4Sounds Like tai2 m4 hei2

睇唔起 (tai2 m4 hei2) is the standard Cantonese way to say 'to look down on' or 'to despise' someone. It implies a judgment that the person is inferior or not worthy of respect.

How It Works

1. Meaning and Nuance
Unlike simply 'disliking' someone, 睇唔起 specifically targets a person's social status, wealth, or character. It is a social judgment. The positive form, 睇得起 (tai2 dak1 hei2), means to think highly of someone or to give them 'face.'

2. Sentence Structure
There are two common ways to place the object:

  • Standard: 睇唔起 + Object (e.g., 睇唔起佢 - Look down on him)
  • Emphatic: 睇 + Object + 唔起 (e.g., 睇佢唔起 - Look him down-not-up)

The second form is very common in colloquial speech and places more emphasis on the person being despised.

3. Register
This is a highly colloquial expression. In formal written contexts, you might see 輕視 (hing1 si6) or 鄙視 (pei2 si6), but in daily conversation, 睇唔起 is the most natural choice.

Examples (4)

  1. 你唔好因爲人哋窮就睇唔起人。

    Don't look down on people just because they are poor.

    Word by Word: You not good because other people poor then look-not-up people.

    This uses the standard V-m4-R + Object structure. '人哋' (jan4 dei6) refers to others, and '人' (jan4) here acts as a general object for 'people'.

  2. 佢好有錢，所以好睇唔起啲窮親戚。

    He is very rich, so he really looks down on his poor relatives.

    Word by Word: He very have money, so very look-not-up [plural] poor relatives.

    Here, '啲' (di1) is used as a plural classifier for the relatives.

  3. 我最睇唔起呢啲講大話嘅人。

    I despise these kinds of people who tell lies the most.

    Word by Word: I most look-not-up these [plural] speak big talk [possessive] people.

    The phrase uses '嘅' (ge3) to create a relative clause describing the people.

  4. 佢根本就睇我唔起。

    He simply looks down on me.

    Word by Word: He fundamentally just look me not-up.

    This demonstrates the 'sandwich' structure where the object '我' (ngo5) is placed between the verb and the complement.

Common Mistakes

  • Using 睇低 (tai2 dai1) where 睇唔起 is the usual word for despise.

    Different Meaning佢好睇低窮人。
    佢好睇唔起窮人。

    睇低 (literally 'look low') also exists and can mean to look down on or underrate someone. 睇唔起 (tai2 m4 hei2) is the more usual word for despising someone's status.

  • Confusing '睇唔起' with '睇唔開' (tai2 m4 hoi1).

    佢因爲失業所以睇唔起。
    佢因爲失業所以睇唔開。

    Learners often mix these up. '睇唔開' means to take things too hard or be unable to get over a misfortune (literally 'cannot look open'), whereas '睇唔起' is about social contempt.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

睇唔起Level 4Look Down on

Learn This First

The pattern '睇唔起' (to look down on) is a fixed idiomatic expression built on the potential complement structure. To understand it, learners need to be familiar with how '唔' is used between a verb and its complement to indicate a negative result or inability, as well as the directional complement '起'.

Words in This Pattern

睇唔起