Tired in Spanish: Cansado, Agotado, Tener Sueño and Harto
“Tired” in Spanish is cansado (kahn-SAH-doh) for a man or a masculine noun and cansada (kahn-SAH-dah) for a woman, used with estar: Estoy cansado or Estoy cansada, “I’m tired”. The plural is cansados / cansadas: Estamos cansados.
For “very tired” or “exhausted”, say agotado/a; for “sleepy”, Spanish switches to tener sueño; and for “tired of” in the sense of fed up, harto/a de. This page shows which to pick, why it is estoy and not soy, the strong and slangy options (hecho polvo, molido, muerto), what a “tired” joke or “tired” eyes become in Spanish, and the mistakes learners make. More everyday words are on the Spanish vocabulary hub.
Which word do you need?
| You want to say | Spanish |
|---|---|
| I’m tired | Estoy cansado / cansada. Me siento cansado/a. |
| I’m a bit tired | Estoy un poco cansado/a. |
| I’m very tired / exhausted | Estoy muy cansado/a. Estoy agotado/a. |
| I’m wiped out (informal) | Estoy rendido/a, molido/a, muerto/a; in Spain, hecho/a polvo |
| I’m sleepy | Tengo sueño. |
| I’m tired of waiting | Estoy cansado/a de esperar. |
| I’m sick and tired of it / fed up | Estoy harto/a. Estoy harto/a de esto. |
| I get tired easily | Me canso fácilmente. |
| I got tired of it | Me cansé. |
| Work tires me out | El trabajo me cansa. |
| a tiring job | un trabajo cansado / agotador; in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, cansador |
| tiredness | el cansancio |
Cansado and cansada: agreement
Cansado is an adjective, so it agrees with the person who is tired, in gender and number:
| Masculine | Feminine | |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Estoy cansado. Él está cansado. | Estoy cansada. Ella está cansada. |
| Plural | Estamos cansados. Están cansados. | Estamos cansadas. Están cansadas. |
A woman says estoy cansada, whoever she is talking to. A mixed group uses the masculine plural: Mis padres están cansados (my mother and father are tired). When you speak to someone, the ending matches them: ¿Estás cansada, Laura? ¿Está usted cansado, señor?
The same rule applies to every word on this page that ends in -o: agotada, rendidas, molidos, muerta, hecha polvo, harta.
Why estar, not ser
Being tired is a state you are in right now, so it takes estar. With ser, cansado changes meaning and describes what something is like:
- Estoy cansado. I’m tired.
- Este trabajo es muy cansado. This job is very tiring.
- Es cansado tener que repetirlo todo. It’s tiring to have to repeat everything.
So *Soy cansado does not mean “I’m tired”. Spanish speakers would read it, at best, as “I’m a tiring person”. For “tiring”, agotador (exhausting) is very common everywhere, and in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile people also say cansador: un viaje cansador. Me siento cansado/a (“I feel tired”) is a good alternative that sidesteps the choice entirely.
Cansado or tengo sueño?
English “tired” often means “sleepy”. Spanish separates the two:
- estar cansado/a: your body or mind has run down. After a long walk, a hard day, a difficult conversation.
- tener sueño: you want to sleep. Literally “to have sleep”, built like tener frío and tener hambre. Only people and animals have sueño.
Estoy cansado pero no tengo sueño (I’m tired but not sleepy) is a perfectly normal sentence after a workout. After lunch, when your eyes start closing, it is tengo sueño. Note that sueño is a noun, so “very sleepy” is mucho sueño, not *muy sueño. The verbs for sleeping and falling asleep are on sleep in Spanish (dormir, dormirse).
Stronger and slangier words
| Spanish | Strength and register | Example |
|---|---|---|
| muy cansado/a | neutral | Hoy estoy muy cansada. |
| agotado/a | exhausted; neutral, fine at work | Después de la mudanza estábamos agotados. After the move we were exhausted. |
| fatigado/a | fatigued; formal or medical | El paciente se siente fatigado. |
| rendido/a | beat, worn out; everyday | Llegué a casa rendido y me dormí en el sofá. |
| molido/a | aching all over, “ground down”; informal | Estoy molida del gimnasio. |
| muerto/a | dead tired; informal, very common | ¡Estoy muerto! Llevo doce horas trabajando. |
| hecho/a polvo | shattered; informal, typical of Spain | El viaje me ha dejado hecho polvo. |
| reventado/a | wrecked; informal | Terminé la carrera reventada. |
| no poder más | can’t go on; everyday | Vamos a parar, no puedo más. |
Agotado has two other common meanings worth knowing: “sold out” (Las entradas están agotadas) and “used up” (La batería está agotada, though for a phone most people say descargada or No tengo batería). Rendido describes people, not batteries.
“Tired of”: cansado de and harto de
For “tired of” something, use de followed by a noun or an infinitive:
- Estoy cansada de esperar. I’m tired of waiting.
- Estamos cansados de la lluvia. We’re tired of the rain.
- Me cansé de sus excusas. I got tired of his excuses.
When the feeling is irritation more than fatigue, Spanish reaches for harto/a (“fed up”, “sick and tired”):
- Estoy harto de este ruido. I’m sick of this noise.
- Estoy harta de que llegues tarde. I’m fed up with you being late. (After de que the verb is in the subjunctive.)
- Estoy hasta la coronilla. I’ve had it up to here (informal).
Be careful: Estoy harto on its own never means physically tired. After a long run you are cansado, not harto. And de also covers “from”: Estoy cansado del viaje is “I’m tired from the trip”. Do not use con here.
The verbs cansar and cansarse
- cansarse (with me, te, se) is “to get tired”: Me canso cuando subo escaleras. I get tired climbing stairs. ¿No te cansas nunca? Don’t you ever get tired?
- cansar is “to tire someone (out)”: Los niños me cansan. The kids wear me out. Me cansa repetir lo mismo. It tires me to say the same thing over and over. Here me is the person being tired, not a reflexive pronoun.
- agotar works the same way, more strongly: Esta semana me ha agotado. This week has exhausted me.
Because the verb exists, Spanish often says “I got tired” with the preterite: Me cansé y me fui a casa. The noun is el cansancio (tiredness); stronger, el agotamiento (exhaustion).
Tired yesterday, tired for weeks: tenses
Because cansado goes with estar, the tense of estar carries the time:
- Ayer estaba muy cansada, así que no salí. I was very tired yesterday, so I didn’t go out. The imperfect estaba describes how you were at the time; it is the usual choice for background states.
- Estuve cansado toda la semana. I was tired all week. The preterite estuve treats the period as closed and finished.
- Últimamente he estado muy cansado. I’ve been very tired lately.
- Llevo días cansada. I’ve been tired for days. (llevar + time + adjective is a very natural way to say “for”.)
- Mañana vas a estar agotado si no te acuestas ya. You’ll be exhausted tomorrow if you don’t go to bed now.
- Si estás cansado, descansa un rato. If you’re tired, rest for a while.
To say you became tired at a moment, use the verb instead: Me cansé a mitad del camino (I got tired halfway along the path).
Real sentences by situation
| Situation | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| after work | Llego tan cansado del trabajo que no tengo ganas de cocinar. | I get home so tired from work that I don’t feel like cooking. |
| after a trip | Con el cambio de horario estamos todos agotados. | With the time difference we’re all exhausted. |
| sport | En el kilómetro treinta ya no podía más. | By kilometre thirty I couldn’t go on. |
| studying | Tengo la cabeza cansada de tanto estudiar. | My head is tired from all this studying. |
| small children | Los gemelos no duermen y sus padres están rendidos. | The twins don’t sleep and their parents are worn out. |
| feeling unwell | Desde que tuve gripe me canso enseguida. | Since I had the flu I get tired very quickly. |
| noticing it in someone | Te veo cansada. ¿Has dormido bien? | You look tired. Have you slept well? |
| being polite at work | Disculpe, hoy estoy un poco cansado; ¿puede repetirlo? | Sorry, I’m a little tired today; could you repeat that? |
To describe the look of tiredness, Spanish talks about ojeras (dark circles under the eyes) and cara de cansancio: Tiene ojeras; se nota que no ha dormido. He has dark circles; you can tell he hasn’t slept. A gentle way to tell someone to stop for the day is Descansa, que te lo mereces (rest, you’ve earned it).
Other meanings of “tired”
English also uses “tired” for things that are worn out or overused. Spanish does not use cansado for most of these:
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| tired eyes | ojos cansados (this one does use cansado), or la vista cansada for eyes that have trouble focusing up close |
| a tired joke, a tired old argument | un chiste gastado / trillado; un argumento muy trillado |
| a tired old sofa | un sofá viejo / gastado |
| to look tired | tener cara de cansado/a: Tienes cara de cansada. |
A short dialogue
Elena: ¿Qué tal el turno?
Diego: Agotador. Llevo diez horas de pie y estoy muerto.
Elena: ¿Tienes sueño o solo estás cansado?
Diego: Las dos cosas. Y además estoy harto de hacer horas extra.
Elena: Pues siéntate. Yo hago la cena, que tú ya no puedes más.
Elena: How was the shift? Diego: Exhausting. I’ve been on my feet for ten hours and I’m dead. Elena: Are you sleepy or just tired? Diego: Both. And I’m fed up with doing overtime. Elena: Well, sit down. I’ll make dinner; you can’t take any more.
Common mistakes
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| *Soy cansado. | Estoy cansado. | The state takes estar; ser cansado means “tiring”. |
| *Tengo cansado. | Estoy cansado. | Cansado is an adjective; tener goes with nouns like sueño. |
| Estoy cansado. (said by a woman) | Estoy cansada. | The ending matches the speaker. |
| *Estoy sueño. / *Tengo muy sueño. | Tengo (mucho) sueño. | Sueño is a noun: tener + mucho. |
| Tengo sueño. (after a run, meaning worn out) | Estoy cansado/a. | Tener sueño means you want to sleep. |
| *Estoy cansado con mi trabajo. | Estoy cansado de mi trabajo. | “Tired of” is cansado de. |
| Estoy harto. (meaning physically tired) | Estoy cansado / agotado. | Harto is “fed up”, not worn out. |
| *La batería está rendida. | La batería está descargada / agotada. | Rendido is for people. |
| Estoy aburrido. (meaning tired) | Estoy cansado. | Aburrido is “bored”. |
Practice
- A woman says: I’m very tired.
- Translate: We’re tired (a group of men and women).
- Choose: Son las doce de la noche y (estoy cansado / tengo sueño); me voy a la cama.
- Translate: I’m tired of waiting.
- Translate: I’m fed up with this noise.
- Fill the gap: Mi abuelo ______ (cansarse) mucho cuando camina.
- Correct it: Ellas son cansadas.
- Translate: This job is very tiring.
Answers: 1. Estoy muy cansada. 2. Estamos cansados. 3. tengo sueño (both can be true, but going to bed points to sleepiness). 4. Estoy cansado/a de esperar. 5. Estoy harto/a de este ruido. 6. se cansa. 7. Ellas están cansadas. 8. Este trabajo es muy cansado or muy agotador (cansador in the Southern Cone).
Quick answers
How do you say “I’m tired” in Spanish?
Estoy cansado (man) or Estoy cansada (woman).
How do you say “I’m very tired” in Spanish?
Estoy muy cansado/a, or Estoy agotado/a for “exhausted”. Informally: Estoy muerto/a or rendido/a.
Is it estar cansado or ser cansado?
Estar cansado is “to be tired”. Ser cansado describes something tiring: Es un trabajo cansado.
What is the difference between cansado and tener sueño?
Cansado means worn out; tener sueño means sleepy. You can be one without the other.
How do you say “tired of” in Spanish?
Cansado/a de (Estoy cansada de esperar), or harto/a de when you mean fed up.
What does “hecho polvo” mean?
“Shattered”, “dead tired”. It is informal and heard mostly in Spain: Estoy hecha polvo.
How do you say “tiredness” in Spanish?
El cansancio. For exhaustion, el agotamiento; in medical contexts, la fatiga.
Other feelings follow the same estar pattern: see sad in Spanish (triste) and happy in Spanish (feliz, contento).
