| Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha. |
| In this lesson, I'm going to talk about some expressions that you can use when you feel tired. |
| Let's get started! |
| Okay, the first expression is the basic expression, the most basic expression, "I'm tired," |
| So, "tired" here is an adjective and we therefore need to use "I am tired." Here, I have the contracted "I'm tired." I notice sometimes, learners say, "I tired" or I see it sometimes in writing like in comments on YouTube, "I tired" or "I sleepy." Please make sure to use, "I'm tired," I'm tired. I'm tired! |
| So we use, "I'm tired," it's kind of our basic expression we use, usually, at the end of the day. So we finish work or we finish school, we finish some kind of activity and it's nighttime, it's evening. So we use it maybe after playing sports or some kind of strenuous, so "strenuous" means it requires a lot of physical effort. So, we use this at the end of activities, we use it after work, after school, just after a long day. |
| "I'm tired." It's a casual expression, very common. It means like just your body is tired or your mind is tired, also. So, you could use after a test like, "Ah, I'm tired," maybe mentally tired. So "mentally" refers to your mind. |
| Okay, let's move on to the next expression then. |
| Next is "I'm exhausted." |
| So the pronunciation of this word, this E-X-H makes an /exh-, exh-/. So this E-X sounds like "eg," actually. It's making like a G sound, almost. So not /ex-hausted/ but /eg-hausted, eg-hausted/. "I'm exhausted." |
| "Exhausted" means very tired. "Exhausted" means very tired. "I'm exhausted." So, this expression is stronger than "I'm tired." Opps, I have a mistake there, "I'm tired." So, "I'm tired" is like the basic level. "I'm exhausted" means like I am extremely tired, I'm very tired. Maybe, I had a very long day or a very busy day, I'm exhausted. |
| So we would use this after, maybe a particularly difficult day or maybe like we've just run a marathon or done some really strenuous activity. So, "I'm exhausted" is another very common word that we use. You can also use this to talk about someone else, if they seem like they had a long day. You can say, "You look exhausted," for example. That's going to sound really, really strong now. |
| So, "You look tired" and "You look exhausted" are a little bit different, but exhausted shows like there's a lot of like effort that went into your day, perhaps. Okay, so "I'm tired" and "I'm exhausted" are two good words to know, good phrases. |
| Let's move on to this one, "I'm beat." |
| "I'm beat" is a very casual way to say "I'm tired." So "beat," so "beat," this comes from the verb "to beat." So, to hit something is what to beat can mean. So, for example, like "to beat a drum" means to hit a drum. So when we say "I'm beat," it's like saying, "I have been hit," like something hit me, not physically, but it's like today, like there were so many things to do today or I had so many activities to do, I feel like my body or my mind has been hit, has been beaten. |
| So we use this expression, "I'm beat" to mean I'm very tired, but it's a very casual expression. So when we say "I'm beat," it's like a rough kind of friendly version of I'm exhausted, but I'm beat, we might say like after, after like a day of happy activities like maybe after snowboarding or skiing or maybe, we're spending lots of time with friends, but we feel tired, we could say, "I'm beat," I'm beat! |
| So, it means the same thing as "I'm tired," really or "I'm exhausted." It means I'm very tired or I'm quite tired, but it sounds friendly, it sounds rough, it sounds casual. So, "I'm beat," "I'm tired," "I'm exhausted" are great expressions to know. |
| Let's move on to the next one then, "I'm sleepy." |
| So you can see here, "sleep" is inside this word, "sleepy." So this word is more specific than these three; "I'm tired," "I'm exhausted," and "I'm beat," these are kind of general words. They can mean like I'm sleepy, I feel a little sleepy, but this word, "sleepy," is specifically related to sleep. So, "I'm sleepy" means not just that you want to relax which is like with "tired," but "I'm sleepy" specifically means you want to sleep, "I'm sleepy." |
| So, as a result, this is something I've heard learners use the word "I'm sleepy" in lessons. So we tend to use, "I'm sleepy" more like at the end of the day as we're preparing to go to bed, like I'm a little sleepy maybe at the end of the day or perhaps at the very beginning of the day, like when you get to the office or you get to school, you might say, "Ah, I'm a little sleepy today" or "I feel sleepy today." |
| But sometimes, I would ask my students, like "How are you?" in lessons and they would say, "I'm sleepy," and that's okay. I mean, like there's no communication error, but I think in the middle of the day, we might say, "I'm a little tired" or maybe "I'm a little sleepy" to make it a little bit softer. I feel like we tend to use this more at the very beginning or at the very end of the day, like just after we wake up or just before we go to bed. So, try to use it in a softer way like, "I'm a little bit sleepy." Maybe after lunch, you could use this if you had a big lunch. |
| But "sleepy," it tends to sound like you are ready to go to sleep, so, as a result, we don't use this so much in, like, work settings, like in a meeting, for example, or when you're speaking with your colleagues. You might say "tired," instead of "sleepy" because we can't go to sleep in the office, in most cases. So "sleepy" refers specifically to wanting to go to sleep. I'm ready for sleep is what it means. |
| Okay, so let's move on to a related phrase then which is this, "I'm ready for bed." |
| So, this is a less direct way to say, "I'm sleepy." I have it written here as well. This is less direct than I'm sleepy. So, you can use this to show you are tired or to show you are sleepy and you are preparing to go to bed. So this, "I'm ready for bed" or "I'm ready to go to bed," you could use that as well. I feel I'm ready for bed is a little more common. So that means I'm ready to go to sleep. That means I'm tired, I'm sleepy, I'm ready, I'm at that point in the day when it's time, I'm ready to go to bed. I'm ready to sleep, in other words. |
| So, we use this instead, "I'm ready for bed" or "I'm ready for sleep." I feel I'm ready for bed is a little more common though. So "I'm sleepy, I'm ready for bed." You could put those two together if you like. So, again, a little bit less direct, just "I'm ready for bed" at the end of the day. |
| Okay, let's move on to the next expression. |
| Next, actually, this is an idiom, a very common idiom. There are two variations I want to introduce here. First, "I'm gonna hit the hay" and second, "I'm gonna hit the sack." So these two right here, these are the idioms, "hit the hay" or "hit the sack," hit the hay or hit the sack." |
| So here, we see "hit." The verb "hit" is in both of these expressions. "Hit" here means like your body physically hitting, physically contacting another object. So what is "hay," what is "sack" here? These two things have kind of like historical references to the way that we slept in the past or rather, the materials we slept on in the past. So, in the past, "hay," hay was used inside of things like we use, mattresses today, but maybe mattresses today don't have hay inside them. Hay is used to feed, like cows and horses and other farm animals, so it's like long, kind of rough pieces of fiber. |
| So hay was used inside cloth to make softer sleeping surfaces. So, this was used to create something like a big sack. So, a "sack" is like a bag, a rough bag. So, "to hit the hay" refers to putting your body on top of hay or hay inside a cloth that made a soft sleeping surface or this one, "hit the sack," refers to that mattress-like object that our bodies land on to go to sleep. So, that's where these expressions come from, "hit the hay" and "hit the sack." And this "I'm gonna" is just "I'm going to." So this means, I'm going to go to bed. That's all that this means, I'm going to go to bed. Both of these mean the same thing. |
| So to refresh, these are both idioms that just mean "go to bed," I'm gonna go to bed; "I'm gonna hit the hay," "I'm gonna hit the sack." That's what this refers to. These have a couple of interesting historical points behind them. |
| Okay, let's move on to the next one, the next one and an alternative. It is, "I've gotta call it a day," call it a day. So I want to focus on this one, call it a day. So, I have here, "I've gotta." This is, "I have got to," I have got to, or you might hear native speakers say, "I gotta." We often drop this /'ve/ sound, but we should use it, "I've got to call it a day" or "I have to call it a day." |
| Another way we use this expression is, "I'm gonna call it a day." So again, "I'm gonna" means "I'm going to." "I'm going to call it a day." "Going to call it a day" or "I have to call it a day," "I've gotta call it a day." |
| So what does this "call it a day mean?" So "call it a day" is used to mean to decide the day is finished. So, "to call it a day" means, at this point in my day, usually in the evening, we say this phrase, we decide, I'm done. Today is finished, I'm done, I feel tired, so I'm going to decide today is finished here. |
| So, we can say, to decide the day is finished for this phrase or just to end the day. So we use this when we are finishing our activities for the day and we feel tired. So this means we use this expression when we are finishing work or when we're finishing like homework, school activities or sports. We sometimes use this before bed, a little bit before bed, I supposed, but this is more commonly used when we are completing our activities for the day, so that's why we say call it a day, like today's work or today's progress is finished right here. I'm going to call this point, one day, so I'm going to call this activity that I did today, one day, so I'm gonna call it a day or I have to call it a day. |
| We would use "I have to call it a day" often, more often when, like there's something else we have to do, so like maybe you have a dinner appointment. So you could say, "Sorry, I have to call it a day," like that means I have to finish here, maybe because I have another appointment. "I have to call it a day." That sounds maybe more like there's some other thing you need to do. Otherwise, you can say, I'm gonna call it a day, so I'm gonna finish today here. |
| So, these are a few expressions that you can use when you are tired or when you're sleepy or when you're finishing your activities for the day, so I hope that this was helpful for you. Of course, if you have questions or comments or if you want to practice these, or if you have an interesting idiom or expression in your language that you use when you feel tired, please share it with everyone in the comment section. Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon. Bye-bye! |
Comments
Hide