Ever wanted to say “I am bored” in German and ended up saying Ich bin langweilig (I am boring) by accident? This post will help you express yourself clearly without ending up telling people you’re boring!
“I am boring” Photo by Quinn Dombrowski on Flickr under CC BY-SA 2.0
In English it’s pretty easy if we want to express ourselves, we just say “I am …” for everything, however in German there are different ways of expressing yourself:
Ich bin I am
Mir ist (short version from Es ist mir) It is …… to me
Here are examples of when to say Ich bin:
Ich bin müde I am tired
Ich bin grantig I am grumpy
Ich bin glücklich I am happy
Ich bin traurig I am sad
Ich bin böse I am angry
And some examples of when to say Mir ist:
Mir ist langweilig I am bored (Literal translation: It is boring to me)
Mir ist heiss I am hot (Literal translation: It is hot to me)
Mir ist kalt I am cold (Literal translation: It is cold to me)
You could say that Ich bin is used to express which stimmung (mood) you are in, and Mir ist is used to express how you are physically feeling.
Here are some meanings if you use Mir ist and Ich bin the wrong way round:
Ich bin heiss I am hot – however this doesn’t mean the temperature, instead you are saying you are attractive.
Ich bin langweilig I am boring
Ich bin kalt I am cold (emotionally)
There is also another word for when you are thirsty, hungry etc and that is Ich habe. Let’s see some examples:
Ich habe Durst I have thirst
Ich habe Hunger I have hunger
Ich habe Schmerzen I have pain
Ich habe Ruckenschmerzen I have back pain
Ich habe Kopfschmerzen I have a headache
Ich habe Bauchschmerzen I have a tummyache
And the last words to help you is saying „I feel“ – Ich fühle mich:
Ich fühle mich krank I feel ill
Ich fühle mich einsam I feel lonely
Ich fühle mich wohl I feel comfortable
Ich fühle mich toll I feel great
When I was a child I often got confused between English and German, and one time I said in English “By the way, I’m boring!” but really I just wanted to point out to my family that I was bored (they still laugh at me for this)! Hopefully you can use these examples to help express yourself exactly the way you want. If you know any more examples then feel free to leave a comment below!
Larissa
Comments:
Allan Mahnke:
This is part of what I love about German. The language will not allow itself simple solutions. Italian uses similar expressions, which like German are idiosyncratic. Ich habe Hunger/Ho fame or ich bin müde/Sono stanco. But Mir ist heiss is very different from ich bin heiss. (By the way, I am old, so the new new rules for Rechtschreibung are also still very very confusing.)
paolo colombo:
I am so deepl offended by the German’s government treatment of Greece.
I will never again buy a German car, nor come to Germany as a visitor ever again.
Susi:
Hi there. I’m Susi. I’m writing from Trieste (Italy) where I teach German. I am a native speaker of German from Berlin. I’m really fond of you blog and I usually chance upon your new articles on twitter. In the above post, though, check the “Ich habe… ” expressions carefully. In “Ich habe Durst/Hunger” the latter two words should start with a capital letter since they are nouns. And “Ich habe Schmerz” and “Ich habe Rückenschmerz” do not really work unless you put the nouns in the plural, i.e. “Schmerzen/Rückenschmerzen” (again with a capital initial). By contrast, in “Ich fühle mich krank” you should spell “krank” with a small initial since it is an adjective. Hope this could be of some help. Keep up the great work you’re doing! Thanks so much!
Larissa:
@Susi Hi Susi,
I’ve updated the post so everything is correct, thanks for your input and taking the time to look at the German blog! 🙂
Larissa
Aby:
Wonderful !
You really cleared things up for me, thanx 🙂
faith:
thanks its helpful..am taking my degree in German under teaching ..my native language is English ..I feel I need to know more before I set myself to teach but am caught up by time..I now gain trust that I will deliver proper information to my students through reading German blog☺
Larissa:
@faith Thank you for the lovely comment Faith! Good luck with your degree 🙂
Larissa
Sunil:
What is the difference between these two german words ‘von’ and ‘aus’?
Spencer:
I wish I knew about this when I was taking German years
ago. The teacher never taught us this. Hmm.