Mandarin Monday: "It’s so Hot I Don't Recognize My Parents" and 24 Other Ways to Complain About the Heat

After a rainy weekend, we're back to saying, "Blimey, it's hot!" 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.

Now you've mastered the lingo, learn how to pull through the dog days of summer

Photos: Thought Catalog, Giphy, Pixabay