Please DON’T Say I’M 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.