Word Detail

The Japanese word 眠い (読み方: ねむい - *nemui*) means "sleepy" or "drowsy". It describes a state of feeling tired and wanting to sleep. It’s an *i-adjective*, meaning it conjugates like other adjectives ending in い (*-i*). It expresses the physical sensation of wanting to sleep.

⚫︎授業中、とても眠いです。 Translation: I am very sleepy during class. ⚫︎昨夜は遅くまで起きていたので、眠いです。 Translation: I’m sleepy because I stayed up late last night.

⚫︎You use 眠い when you want to describe your feeling of sleepiness. ⚫︎It's common to use it to explain why you are not concentrating or why you might have made a mistake. ⚫︎It's usually used to describe the speaker's own feelings, but can be used about others as well, especially if it's obvious, or someone is complaining about being 眠い.

⚫︎The word 眠い is typically written in hiragana as ねむい. ⚫︎The kanji is 眠, followed by the hiragana い. ⚫︎The okurigana (the suffix い) is standard.

There aren’t many direct synonyms for "sleepy" that are perfectly interchangeable, but here are some related words: ⚫︎だるい (*darui*) - feeling sluggish or listless (can sometimes be used when 眠い, especially when the sleepiness is due to fatigue) ⚫︎疲れている (*tsukarete iru*) - tired (a more general term for being tired)

⚫︎起きている (*okite iru*) - awake ⚫︎元気な (*genki na*) - energetic (also a na-adjective) ⚫︎目が覚めている (*me ga samete iru*) - awake (lit. eyes are awake)

試験勉強で寝不足だったので、ずっと眠かった。 ・Translation: I was sleepy the whole time because I didn’t get enough sleep studying for the exam. ・Explanation: The adjective 眠い has been conjugated into the past tense, 眠かった, to indicate that the feeling of sleepiness was present in the past.

赤ちゃんが眠そうにしています。 ・Translation: The baby looks sleepy. ・Explanation: 眠そう is a more polite form of saying "looks sleepy". The suffix そう (sou) means "looks like" or "seems like".

The origin of 眠い is related to the verb 眠る (*nemuru*) which means "to sleep." The adjective 眠い evolved to describe the state of wanting to sleep or the feeling of being tired and ready to sleep.