"serves you right"

[wai ming]

How would you say something like "serves you right" in Mandarin and Cantonese?

Thanks

[roddy]

Would normally be 活该 in Mandarin. Here's the sample sentence from iciba.com

如果他真地要你当众收回海口，那你也是活该；你本不该那样自吹自擂。

which I quote mainly so I can follow up with the fantastic English.

It serves you right if he did make you eat the leek in public; you should not be so boastful.

海口 here means bragging - don't recall seeing that before. The same can be said for 'eat the leek', which seems to be Shakespearian.

[wai ming]

Thanks for that Roddy. Those are some interesting expressions, indeed.

My dictionary has a <口> next to the entry for 活該... are there any slightly less colloquial ways of saying "serves (someone) right"? (I know it's a pretty colloquial expression in English, but anyway...)

I've heard that 抵死 is the Cantonese equivalent of 活該... are there any other ways of saying "serves (someone) right" in Cantonese?

[skylee]

In Cantonese, consider 抵你死 or 抵你o架.

[cookie_monster]

你应得的 is more like "you deserve it" but I think has the safe effect as "serves you right"

[Mugi]

If you want some four-character idioms, consider:

自作自受, 自食其果, 自食惡果 or 咎由自取.

Some of these can probably be used in Cantonese too, although I'm sure there must be some other Cantonese-specific idioms.

[semantic nuance]

serve you right-(你)活該!

serve him right-他活該!

In Taiwanese, we say 你死好!

Hope it helps!