Mandarin Monday: 25 Ways To Complain About the Heat in Chinese

We're in the midst of summer here in Beijing, and if you're looking for ways to say, “Blimey, it's hot!” in Chinese, then this post is for you! Luckily, Chinese comes preloaded with dozens of fun and creative hot-weather phrases, making it the perfect language to huff, swear and complain incessantly about the heat. So, ditch the “hǎo rè” and learn these creative ways to really express how damn hot it is! (We recommend adorning these phrases with several exclamation marks for full effect but didn't do so here for the sake of readability.)

For beginners

• 太热了 tài rè le – It’s so hot.
• 热死了 rè sǐ le – It’s so hot that I’m gonna die.*
• 热晕了 rè yūn le – It’s so hot that I'm passing out.
• 热疯了 rè fēng le – It’s so hot that I'm going crazy.
• 热傻了 rè shǎ le – It’s so hot that I'm losing my mind.
• 热爆了 rè bào le – It’s so hot that I'm going to explode.
• 热炸了rè zhà le – I'm so hot I'm frying.

*If you've been learning Chinese for a while now, you'll know that 死了sǐle (“dead”) is a favorite phrase in oral Chinese and is used to exaggerate the degree of something (heat, hunger, tiredness). The sentence structure usually goes as adjective/verb + 死了.

For HSK 3 and above

• 热得不得了 rè dé bù dé liǎo – It’s hot as hell.
• 热得不行了 rè dé bù xíng le – It’s so hot that I can’t handle it anymore.
• 热得快融化了 rè dé kuài róng huà le  – It’s so hot that I’m melting.
• 热得快变形了 rè dé kuài biàn xíng le – It’s so hot that I’m becoming deformed.
• 热得像蒸笼一样 rè dé xiàng zhēng lóng yī yàng – It’s as hot as a (baozi) steamer.
• 热得像蒸桑拿一样 rè dé xiàng zhēng sāng ná yī yàng – It's like a sauna in here. 
• 快被烤焦了 kuài bèi kǎo jiāo le – It’s scorching.
• 快被蒸熟了 kuài bèi zhēng shú le – It’s as hot as an oven.
• 热到没脾气 rè dào méi pí qì – It’s so hot that I'm losing my character.
• 热得找不着北 rè dé zhǎo bù zháo běi – It’s so hot that I don’t know which direction north is.
• 热得六亲不认 rè dé liù qīn bù rèn – It’s so hot that I don't recognize my parents.

For dirty-mouthed jokers

• 热成傻逼 rè chéng shǎ bī – It’s so hot that I look like an idiot.
• 热懵逼了 rè měng bī le – It’s so hot that I feel like a dizzy idiot.
• 热成狗 rè chéng gǒu – I'm as hot as a dog (I'm sweating like a pig).

Internet slang

• 热skr人 (This one is more used in texting as an equivalent of 热死个人 rè sǐ gè rén, which also means “It’s so hot I’m gonna die.”)
• 热到没朋友 rè dào méi péngyǒu – It’s so hot that I don’t have any friends.
• 热到怀疑人生 rè dào huáiyí rénshēng – It’s so hot that I'm starting to doubt what life is all about.
• 我的这条命都是空调给的 wǒ de zhè tiáo mìng dōu shì kòngtiáo gěi de – My life is given to me by the air conditioner.

READ: Mandarin Monday: Essential Vocab To Survive the Beijing Summer

Photos: Unsplash, Giphy, Pixabay