眠ねむたい

ね

む

た

い

Common wordJLPTN1Freq.FrequencyTop 50,000

眠たい · i-adjective

Form	Positive	Negative
Dictionary	眠ねむたい	眠ねむたくない
Polite	眠ねむたいです	眠ねむたくないですalso 眠ねむたくありません
Past polite	眠ねむたかったです	眠ねむたくなかったですalso 眠ねむたくありませんでした
Past	眠ねむたかった	眠ねむたくなかった
Te-form	眠ねむたくて	眠ねむたくなくて
Adverbial	眠ねむたく
Conditional	眠ねむたければ	眠ねむたくなければ
Tara conditional	眠ねむたかったら	眠ねむたくなかったら

Meanings

i-adjective

sleepy; drowsy

Describes the feeling of wanting to sleep; used in everyday conversation. The reading ねぶたい is a rare dialectal or old-fashioned variant.

昨さく夜やあまり寝ねられなかったので、今日きょうはとても眠ねむたい。
I couldn't sleep much last night, so I'm very sleepy today.
暖あたたかい部屋へやで本ほんを読よんでいたら、眠ねむたくなってきた。
Reading a book in a warm room made me feel drowsy.

See all 7 example sentences ›

Usage patterns

〈事こと〉で眠ねむたくなるto become sleepy because of ~
退たい屈くつな授じゅ業ぎょうで眠ねむたくなった。
The boring class made me sleepy.
眠ねむたい目めをこするto rub one's sleepy eyes
眠ねむたい目めをこすりながら起おきた。
I got up rubbing my sleepy eyes.
眠ねむたそうな〈人ひと〉a person who looks sleepy
眠ねむたそうな顔かおで電でん車しゃに乗のった。
He got on the train looking sleepy.

Kanji

眠sleep, die, sleepy
睡drowsy, sleep, die

Related words

眠ねむいN5
眠い is the more standard, slightly formal word for 'sleepy', while 眠たい is a colloquial variant heard mainly in casual speech.

Don't confuse with

眠ねむるN4
眠たい describes the feeling of wanting to sleep, whereas 眠る is the verb meaning 'to actually sleep'.

Written forms

眠たいUsage91%
- ねむたい
  Standard kanji spelling; the most common written form.
- ねぶたい
  rarely-used kana form
ねむたいUsage6%
Kana spelling is common in casual writing and when the kanji is not needed.
睡たいUsage3%
rarely-used kanji form
- ねむたい
  Rarely used kanji form; 眠たい is overwhelmingly preferred.
- ねぶたい
  rarely-used kana form
ねぶたい
rarely-used kana form

Etymology

Derived from the verb 眠る (ねむる, 'to sleep') with the adjectival suffix たい, which expresses a desire or sensation. The form 眠たい is a colloquial variant of 眠い.