Please DONT Say IM TIRED 23 Better Phrases for English Vocabulary
I’m so tired!
I’m just completely exhausted!
I didn’t sleep well last night at all.
You know, there’s actually a lot of different
ways in American English to say
“I’m tired.”
Today we’re going to go over 23 different
things to say instead of this phrase.
Let’s up your creativity and expand your
vocabulary in speaking English.
Now even though I’m really tired, I think
I should probably head to the studio to make
this video.
Let’s go.
Okay here we are.
So one of them, I already said and it’s exhausted.
You have absolutely no energy.
I’ve heard that a lot of people after they’re
getting the Corona virus vaccine end up feeling
completely exhausted the next day.
Next we have “drained’.
I love this one because you can think of water
or something draining out of a sink, going
down the drain, there’s nothing left and
this is what happens with your energy throughout
the day, you’re working hard, you’re going,
going, going.
And at the end of the day, you’re so tired,
you’re just drained.
The next one, “I’m beat.”
Let’s say you just played in a basketball
game and some of your friends are going out
to get pizza and they invite you to go along.
But man!
You really played hard in that game.
You just don’t have energy, you’re so
tired.
You might just say “I’m beat, I’m just going to go home.”
The next one is kind of funny!
It’s “pooped.”
Poop?
Pooped?
Where does this even come from?
But it’s just another way to say “I’m
really tired”, “I’m exhausted”.
Man!
Today, I just feel “pooped!”
A lot of the phrases we’ll go over today
have a word with an ED ending and in this
particular word the ED ending is pronounced
as a T. Pooped.
I’m pooped!
The next one, “Wiped out.”
It’s sort of like drain, your energy has just
been completely wiped out of your body, you
have nothing left.
You’re so, so tired.
You know that’s really how I’m feeling
today.
I’m just wiped out!
Again, the ED ending here is a T. Wiped.
Wiped out.
The next one is “worn out.”
You know, not just people but things can be
worn out.
I’m thinking of Stoney’s shoes.
Stoney is my five-year old son and he has
this pair of shoes that are sort of a rubbery,
plasticky material.
And it really looks like they’re worn out.
There are some places where it seems like there’s
hardly any rubber left.
And it makes sense.
He’s constantly running around on them,
on the asphalt, on streets, sidewalks,
in playgrounds, I get it.
Actually, Stoney’s shoes are fine but Sawyer’s
are little worn out.
Okay, let’s look and see if it’s getting worn
out.
Oh yeah, see there?
Where?
Right there on the tip it’s getting worn
out.
The soles all gone.
Goodness.
Uhhh.
You’ll need some new shoes soon, won’t
you?
Speaking of worn out, sometimes when I’m
playing with Stoney, doing all of that running
around, I end up feeling pretty worn out.
Speaking of running,
The next one is “run down.”
This is like you’re just tired.
I feel like when we’re really run down from
working too hard for a month or something
that our body’s are sort of more susceptible
to getting sick.
Have you ever noticed that?
If you’re really worn down from overwork,
stress, a stressful family or life situation
that you get sick?
I really hate that.
I hope you’re not feeling at all run down.
The next one is “fried.”
ED ending, the D makes the D sound fried and
it’s just like what it looks like, what
you think it would be.
Fried like after long day of meetings.
Can you imagine you’ve done all that thinking
and now your brain is just fried.
I could also see saying this after a long
day of studying or test-taking, your body
or your mind, you’re just fried.
The next one is “spent.”
Think of spending money.
Once it’s spent you have none left.
And we use this to refer to energy.
If you’re spent, you don’t have any energy
left.
This makes me think of this one time in college.
I was taking a Physics class.
And I had a really big lab due the next day
and I hadn’t known, I have completely forgotten.
So I had to pull an all-nighter.
That means stay up all night working on something.
I pulled an all-nighter, I didn’t sleep
at all, I got the lab done but that next day,
I was completely spent.
Now we’re going to go over two: Sleepy and
Drowsy.
Do you remember the dwarf Sleepy from Snow
White?
This refer to lack of sleep and being tired
in that way, really needing to fall asleep.
It’s a little bit different than some of
the other ones that we’ve talked about that
are more like tired from energy leaving the
body.
Sleepy.
Drowsy.
When I think of this, I think of one time
in college, I went to go see the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra right after lunch and it was a really
good performance but I was just kind of tired!
And as I said, I just eaten lunch, it was a big meal, I remember it was Thai and
it was so good.
And you know what?
As I sat there listening this beautiful music,
I started to feel kind of sleepy, drowsy,
and you know what I did?
I nodded off.
If you nod off, that’s like when you fall
asleep without necessarily meaning to.
Next the word “fatigued.”
ED ending making a D here.
This usually relates to the body and again
it’s just when you have absolutely no energy
but it can also refer to the mind like after
a long day of test-taking or other hard mental
work.
When I think of the word fatigued, I think
of when I was pregnant with Stoney.
For the first four months, I was so fatigued, some days I literally didn’t get
out of bed, I worked on my laptop in bed,
I had no energy, I was completely drained.
Extremely fatigued.
Next we have “sapped.”
ED ending makes a T here.
This comes from a word in old Italian that
means to dig away around the foundation of
a building to make it weak.
When I think of being sapped, I think of a
time David and I as adults went to Disney
together.
And we went for 8 hours, we got in at 4, we
stayed until midnight and we walked the entire
time.
And I just remember walking back to our hotel,
my feet hurt so bad, my body was so, so tired.
I was completely sapped.
Next, “I’m bushed.”
A bush or a shrug but in this case and again
means to be really tired.
Let’s come up with a sample sentence that
relates to a bush.
Let’s say you’ve spent all day weeding
your garden, pruning bushes and that kind
of thing, can’t you imagine? You’d be really
tired.
You would be really bushed.
The next one is a British bonus!
Because we don’t use it in American English.
I’ve never heard it used.
But I know it’s fairly common in British
English and it’s “knackered.”
Again, the ED ending makes a D sound and
it means tired, exhausted.
I’m knackered!
The next one is “dog tired.”
Are dogs tired?
I guess so.
I guess like a really old dog might be tired.
Or a dog who’s been running around all
day but this is just another way of saying
very tired.
You’re just not tired.
You’re dog tired.
It’s almost like you need to go to sleep
right away.
The next one is “taxed.”
ED ending is a T here.
If you’re taxed, you’ve really spent a
lot of what you have.
Energy, resources, you’re really stretched
thin, you don’t have much left.
Let’s say it’s after work and some friends
are going out for a drink.
They might say “Rachel do you want to join?”
But I’m feeling so stressed out, low on
energy, I might just say, “No guys, I’m
sorry I’m really taxed.
I’m just going to go home and rest.”
The next one is the phrase something really
to it out of me.
For example, I was at the beach last week
with Stoney and Sawyer.
Sand, sun, salet, lots of running around,
heat.
You know, that makes me really tired.
The beach just kind of took it out of me.
Next is the word “frazzled.”
You’ve been working really hard on a project
and maybe it hasn’t gone that well and you’re
just frazzled.
You’re almost running out of things to try,
you’re really tired, you’re exhausted
by the project.
Let’s come up with a scene.
We’re at work and we’re going to ask a
co-worker to join our team and help us with
a project and someone says “Hey, should
we ask Sarah?”
I might say, “You know what?
She’s been frazzled with her other projects,
I think maybe we should ask someone else.”
Next the word “tuckered out.”
Ed ending here makes a D. It’s the end of
the day, you’ve been working so hard, you’re
just so tired, you don’t have much energy
left.
You know, this is sort of how my boys go through life.
They run, run, run, they spent so much
energy and then at about 7PM, they start to
get a little bit grumpy and they are just
tuckered out.
They want to be tucked into bed.
Next the word “burned out.”
This happens when you get really tired and
worn down from doing too much work on one
thing.
You know, some Youtubers try to post so frequently
and it takes so much energy to make one video
that they really hit burnout after years
of doing it, they just can’t do it anymore.
It’s really having a negative impact on
their health.
That’s actually one of the reasons why I
only make one video a week.
I want to make sure to avoid burnout.
I’ve been doing this for 13 years and I
don’t want to stop.
Next, “dead on my feet” or “dead tired.”
Dead tired, that’s sort of like dog tired,
it’s another level, a higher level of tired,
of being worn out.
My cousin’s a nurse.
And after she works several days, long shifts
to the hospital, she is just dead tired.
Next, “done in.”
You just can’t do anymore.
For example, let’s say it’s a Saturday.
We’ve had the boys all day, we’re trying
to entertain them, keep them happy but also
get stuff done on the house, do our chores,
dinner comes around and you know what?
We’re done in.
We’re so tired we don’t even make dinner,
we decided to order delivery!
So we call up Han Dynasty.
By the way, if you’re ever in Philadelphia,
you should absolutely go to Han Dynasty and
get the double-cooked fish, it’s to die
for.
Our last one.
It’s actually funny that it’s the last
one because it’s finished, done, donzo.
So donzo is slang and I’ve seen a couple
of different spellings on it but all three
of these things mean the same thing.
There’s no more, you have nothing left to
give, you’re just finished, you’re just
donzo.
Let’s come up with an example.
Let’s say there’s somebody and it’s
New Year’s Eve and he’s out all night
partying, doing all the things and he wakes
up the next day with a horrible hangover.
And his friends say, “Hey!
Do you want to go get breakfast?” and he
says, “No way.
I am donzo.”
Aren’t these phrases fun?
There are so many different ways to express
being tired as in sleepy or tired as in physically
tired, lacking energy maybe from running around
all day, running errands or from working so
hard.
And there are so many things in life that
wear us out.
So it’s great to have a whole bunch of phrases
to use to express all of these different feelings
and states that you may find yourself in.
Now, even though we’re done, we are finished.
You don’t have to be finished.
You can keep your learning going right now
with this video.
Also please, don’t forget to subscribe with
notifications.
I make new videos here on my Youtube channel
every Tuesday and I love to see you back.
That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s
English.