With spring comes… spring fatigue

Welcome to another edition of SoundCzech, Radio Prague’s Czech language course in which you can learn new phrases with the help of song lyrics. Today’s song is “Den jako obrázek“ or “A picture perfect day” by the singer duo Hana Zagorová and Helena Růžičková. The expression to look out for is “byl konec s jarní únavou” or “spring fatigue was finally gone”.

The expression “jarní únava“ in Czech means spring fatigue – something you may recently have been experiencing due to Daylight Saving Time.

Of course, there are many other ways to express that you are tired. “Jsem unavená” or, in the male form, “Jsem unavenej” is probably the most common way of saying you are tired, be it during spring time or any other season. If you want to say that you are suffering from spring fatigue, you could say “Dostihla mě jarní únava“. Have another listen.

Illustrative photo

There are plenty of other ways of saying you are tired or exhausted in Czech. “Jsem utahaná“ or, in the male form, “Jsem utahanej” translates as “I’m wrung out” and comes from the verb “tahat”, which means to pull or carry. If you’re really exhausted, you might say “Jsem utahaná jako kůn” or, literally translated, “I’m tired as a horse”.

“Jsem vyřízená” means something along the lines of “I’m wiped out” Men would use the form “Jsem vyřízenej”. Or you could simply say “Jsem hotovej” or “Jsem hotová” which translates to “I’m done”.

Another great expression is “Vyplivla jsem duši” which can be translated as “I spat my soul out” but means something like “I gave all I had to give, and I’m dead tired now”.

There are many colloquial ways of saying you’re spent, such as “jsem udřenej” which is used most often when you talk about being tired because of overworking yourself.

A very powerful expression is “Jsem vyplivanej” or “Jsem vyflusanej” meaning “I am dead beat”.

Around this time of the year, spring fatigue or jarní únava is likely to hit all of us, but with a bit of luck, that will soon be over, and we will have the kind of picture perfect summer day that Hana Zagorová and Helena Růžičková are singing about. With that, I leave you. Enjoy your weekend and na shledanou!