I have recognized that some of you who practice their German on Facebook try to convey their feeling of boredom by saying:

“Ich bin langweilig.”

I assume that you simply wanted to express “I am bored.” But what you really said was this:

“I am boring.”

Whereas English distinguishes the precise meaning of whether you are “bored” or “boring” by adding a particular ending or grammatical morpheme to the verb ‘to bore’, German displays the same distinctive meaning by using the pronouns “mir” (me) and “ich” (I), respectively.

So, when you want to say that you are bored, you have to say:

“Mir ist langweilig.” = “I am bored.”

Consequently, you literally say: “Me is boring.”

And when you want to say that you are, in fact, boring – what I do not believe – you have to say:

“Ich bin langweilig.” = “I am boring.”

 

Following, you can find a list of common German expressions using forms that convey your feeling, activities, or state of mind.

 

Again, when you want to say that you are bored, you simply say:

1. “Mir ist langweilig.” – “I am bored.”

2. “Mir war langweilig.” – “I was bored.”

 

You alternatively can say:

3. “Ich bin gelangweilt.” – “I am bored.”

4. “Ich war gelangweilt.” – “I was bored”

The past tense form ‘gelangweilt’ corresponds to the English past tense form ‘bored’. Although, it is an acceptable expression to declare that you are bored, it is not as common as the expression ‘Mir ist langweilig.”

 

5. “Ich langweile mich gerade (zu Tode).” – “I bore myself (to death) at the moment.”

You can say this when you have nothing to do or do not know what to do, that is, no one else is responsible for that you are bored. The literal translation is: ‘I am boring myself (to death) at the moment.’

 

6. “Ich mag es nicht gelangweilt zu sein.” – “I don’t like it to be bored.”

7. “Ich mag es nicht Langweile zu haben.” – “I don’t like it to have boredom.”

8. “Ich mag keine Langweile.” – “I don’t like boredom.”

Although, all three expressions are quite common, no. 8 is probably the most common one among the three of them.

 

9. “Ich hasse Langeweile.” – “I hate boredom.”

A harsher way to say that you don’t like boredom.

 

10. “Ich bin nie gelangweilt.” – “I am never bored.”

11. “Ich habe nie Langeweile.” – “I never have boredom.” (lit. I am never bored.)

Germans prefer to use nouns in their expressions. Thus, sentence no. 11 is more often used that sentence no. 10.

 

12. “Deutsch lernen langweilt mich nicht.” – “Learning German doesn’t bore me.”

13. “Es langweilt mich nicht Deutsch zu lernen.” – “It doesn’t bore me to learn German.”

14. “Deutsch langweilt mich nicht.” – “German doesn’t bore me.”

15. “Hausaufgaben machen langweilt mich.” – “Doing homework bores me.”

16. “Es langweilt mich Hausaufgaben zu machen.” – “It bores me to do homework.”

17. “Hausaufgaben sind langweilig.” – “Homework is boring.”

18. “Ich finde Hausaufgaben langweilig.” – “I find homework boring.”

These are some example sentences with regard to sentence constructions.

 

19. “Er ist ein Langweiler.” – “He is a bore.”

20. “Er langweilt mich.” – “He bores me.”

21. “Sie ist eine Langweilerin.” – “She is a bore.”

22. “Sie langweilt mich.” – “She bores me.”

A reference to people who you find boring and who bore you.