X得要命 and X得要死 for “Extremely” in Casual Speech
Put 得要命 or 得要死 after an adjective or feeling verb to exaggerate, like “to death” or “terribly” in English: 累得要命, 热得要死.
Muster
adjective / feeling verb + 得 + 要命／要死
得要命 and 得要死 push a feeling to the extreme in a lively, exaggerated way; 要死 sounds stronger and more negative.
今天爬了一天山，累得要命。
When to use X得要命 and X得要死 for “Extremely” in Casual Speech
得要命 and 得要死 are degree complements: they come after an adjective or a feeling verb, joined by 得, and push it to the extreme. Literally they mean “enough to kill you”, but, like English “I’m dying of boredom” or “scared to death”, they are just lively exaggeration: 累得要命 “dead tired”, 热得要死 “unbearably hot”, 忙得要死 “crazy busy”. They are mostly used for unpleasant states (累, 热, 冷, 饿, 忙, 难, 吵), but 得要命 is also common with happy or strong feelings: 高兴得要命, 想她想得要命. With a verb and its object, repeat the verb first: 想家想得要命.
这几天热得要死，空调一直开着。
It’s been unbearably hot these past few days; the air conditioner has been on non-stop.
听到这个好消息，她高兴得要命。
Hearing the good news, she was thrilled to bits.
一天没吃东西，饿得要命。
I haven’t eaten all day; I’m starving.
期末考试快到了，大家都忙得要死。
Final exams are coming up, and everyone is crazy busy.
Häufige Stolperfallen
- 得 is required: 累得要命, not 累要命.
- Don’t use them in formal writing; in an essay say 非常累 or 十分炎热.
- Don’t mix the patterns: say 冷死了 or 冷得要死, not 冷得死了 or 冷极得要命.
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