How To Say “I’m Tired” In Japanese – Learn It Now!

After a long day of work or study, it’s normal to be tired or worn out. You probably feel like going home, getting a bite to eat and having something nice to drink while relaxing with your favorite show. But before you do all that, let’s learn how to say I’m tired in Japanese.

This way you can tell your friends or family why you don’t feel like going out and doing something. You’ve got a good excuse.

First we’ll start with being exhausted from the things you do like exercising, working, studying, and so on. Then we’ll move on to the Japanese words for when you’re sleepy. Finally, we’ll check out the Japanese words for when you’re bored and you just don’t feel liking doing anything.

How To Say I’m Tired In Japanese

The first word to learn is 疲れる (tsukareru) which means “to get tired” and is the word that you use when you’re worn–out, as opposed to being sleepy.

When you want to say “I’m tired” you change the Japanese word into its past tense as 疲れた (tsukareta).

Person-1:

• どうした？
• doushita? 
• What’s wrong?

Person-2:

• 疲れた。
• tsukareta.
• I’m tired.

If you were with people you didn’t know too well, you could use the more polite version 疲れました (tsukare mashita) in order to say the same thing.

The Japanese word 果てる (hateru) can be used as as auxiliary verb to indicate that an extreme has been reached. One common combination is to use it with 疲れる to say that a person is “exhausted” and that they have reached their limit.

• がんの患者さんでは、疲れた、力が出ない、疲れ果てた
• gan no kanja san de wa, tsukareta, chikara ga nai, tsukare hateta
• (symptoms of) cancer patients, tired, weak, exhausted

[medical.nikkeibp.co.jp]

When you want to talk about tiredness or weariness as a concept, you use the word 疲労 (hirou) which is also the medical term that typically gets used for fatigue.

• 夕里子は、急に疲労を感じた。
• yuriko wa, kyuu ni hirou o kanjita.
• Yuriko suddenly felt tired.

Sometimes you will also see 感 (kan) added on to the end of it as a suffix 疲労感 (hiroukan) to talk about “the feeling” of being tired or “the state” of weariness.

That last word that I wanted to go over for this section was くたびれる (kutabireru) which means “to get tired; to be exhausted.”

Much like how a person can say 疲れた for when they are tired, くたびれた (kutabireta) can also be used is such situations.

From my experience, くたびれた is more like saying something is “worn out” which could be how you’re currently feeling or it could used to describe an object such as くたびれた背広 (kutabireta sebiro) for a “worn out suit.”

Onomatopoeia For Tired

An onomatopoeia is simply a word that is used to represent a sound or feeling. Here’s a couple of examples that we use in the English language:

• BANG
• POW
• sizzle
• zzzzzz

You often see these in comic books or when young children (especially boys) are telling a story. However, these types of words are used all the time in Japanese, by both kids and adults alike.

There are a few of them that actually get used for feeling tired, and I wanted to share three of them with you.

The first one is くたくた (kuta kuta) which might have its roots from the last word we went over くたびれた, but I’m just making an observation and a guess on that one. Don’t quote me on it.

• ベッドに入った時にはくたくたでした。
• beddo ni haitta toki ni wa kuta kuta deshita.
• By the time I got to bed, I was exhausted.

The next word I want to show you is へとへと (heto heto) which means “completely exhausted; dead tired”

• へとへとだ。
• heto heto da.
• I’m dead tired.

The last word that I’ll share with you here is structured a little bit differently from the first two that we covered.

It is ぐったり (guttari) and it is an adverb that means “wearily; exhaustedly” and so on. This word is generally used to show that a person is tired, but also that they have used up all of their energy and strength.

• ぐったり（と）横たわる
• guttari (to) yokotawaru
• to lie down exhaustedly

[kotobank.jp]

What Is “Sleepy” In Japanese?

What if you’re not tired because you’re worn out, but because it’s really late at night and you’re still up past your bedtime?

Or perhaps you’ve had a just a wee bit too much to drink and you’re feeling that sleepy drunkenness coming on?

In those cases you would want to use a different word to let people know you’re feeling sleepy. The Japanese word for “sleepy; drowsy” is 眠い (nemui).

• 眠いよー
• nemui yō
• I’m drowsy!

Another word that basically means the same thing, and even uses the same kanji, is 眠たい (nemutai).

• ちょー眠たいです。
• chō nemutai desu.
• I’m super sleepy.

Usually in English we say something like “I want to go to sleep” or “I want to take a nap” when we’re feeling the Z’s coming on. In Japanese, you can say this with 寝たい (netai) which simply means “I want to sleep.”

What Is “Bored” In Japanese?

One last section that I wanted to cover was how to say bored in Japanese. The reason for this is that we often say in English “I’m tired of XYZ” when what we really mean is “I am bored with XYZ.”

In Japanese when you want to say that you are bored with something, and therefore tired of it, you can use one of the next two words.

The first one is 飽きる (akiru) which means “to get tired of; to lose interest in” a thing, or in doing something.

• もう飽き始めてる？
• mou aki hajime teru?
• Are you already getting bored?

The other way that you can say that you are feeling bored or getting tired of something is with the word 退屈 (taikutsu) which is both a na-adjective and a suru verb depending on how it’s used.

• 退屈で死にそうになるわ。
• taikutsu de shini sou ni naru wa.
• I’m gonna die from boredom.

Hopefully you all aren’t dying from boredom while reading this post (-.<).

Time For A Nap?

Thanks for reading today’s lesson on being sleepy.

If you’ve got any questions or comments, let me know by leaving them down below.

I’ll catch you all next time!