无聊 vs 闷 for ‘bored’?

[Wang Yao]

For a while now I have been using 无聊 to express boredom (e.g. 我很无聊的), but a friend recently brought it to my attention that 无聊 also carries the meaning of 'nonsense' which I hadn't noticed before, and told me that my sentence wasn't making sense to him. He instructed me to use 闷 (ie. 我很闷的) instead. I figured this could also work.

However, this friend was from HK -- and when I use 无聊 as 'bored' with my mainland friends there doesn't seem to be a problem.

Is this a geographic/tone/language difference between the mainland and HK (mando/canto)? Or am I missing something?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[creamyhorror]

To me 无聊 means doing stupid or pointless things out of boredom, restlessness or social idiocy. It's usually used as a mild insult here in Singapore: 你很无聊耶 (you're really wuliao, [stop doing whatever pointless or irritating thing you're doing]). But you can also just say 我觉得很无聊, meaning you're feeling really bored and restless. Saying 我很无聊 is tantamount to insulting yourself, I think.

edit: but I should note that I might easily be wrong and people might also be saying 我很无聊 for 我觉得很无聊, maybe in a slightly self-deprecatory tone. And usage between Singapore and China can be very different.

[Wang Yao]

Ahh... well that's definitely good to know. >_<; Thanks for the heads up.

Interesting, though, how it can be used 你觉得很无聊, whereas just 无聊的 is an insult. Hmm. *Makes notes.*

Thank you~.

[fanglu]

My understanding is that 无聊 normally refers to something being boring, rather than the state of being bored.

So you can say:

这本书很无聊 - The book is boring

But if you say 我很无聊 it sounds quite self-depreciating, like you're explaining why you have no friends.

People often express being bored (in the sense of sitting around with nothing to do) with the expression 闲的无聊:

A:你最近怎么样？

B:闲的无聊

So in this case its the having nothing to do (闲) that is boring.

I think 闷 is ok too, but its a bit stronger than bored in English and has a connotation of being unhappy, which bored doesn't necessarily.

[daofeishi]

闲的无聊

Shouldn't that be 闲得无聊?

[fanglu]

Sorry, yes.

In my defence there are lots of hits for 闲的无聊 on google.

[siqi_cn]

Both 无聊 and 闷 have many meanings.According to different situations have different meanings. Under normal circumstances 无聊 is same to 闷。It means that 我很无聊 is same to 我很闷 in usual time.

[Kenny同志]

In my defence there are lots of hits for 闲的无聊 on google

The number of hits doesn’t necessarily justify its correctness. Of course, in ancient times, 闲的无聊 was correct, but it’s wrong from a point of view of modern grammar.

To me 无聊 means doing stupid or pointless things out of boredom, restlessness or social idiocy. It's usually used as a mild insult here in Singapore: 你很无聊耶 (you're really wuliao, [stop doing whatever pointless or irritating thing you're doing]).

Totally agreed!

But you can also just say 我觉得很无聊, meaning you're feeling really bored and restless

To me, it could either mean ‘ I am bored’ or ‘I think this is pointless or stupid’(some one did this out of boredom)depending on the context.

Saying 我很无聊 is tantamount to insulting yourself, I think.

The meaning of this expression is dual. It could mean ‘I am bored’ in as many cases.

[creamyhorror]

Thanks for the info, kennywoo!

[Kenny同志]

叫我Kenny就行了。再叫我Kenny Woo，我就叫你Mr. Horror

[creamyhorror]

那也好 ：） 请多多指教！

[Kenny同志]

指教万不敢当，我还要向你多多请益呢！