How to say ” Studying Chinese is so boring; it bored me to death” in Mandarin: Xue2 zhong1 wen2 fei1 chang2 wu2 liao2, rang4 wo3 wu2 liao2 si3 le5. 学中文非常无聊，让我无聊死了。Xue2 (学 verb, learn or study) zhong1 wen2 (中文 noun, Chinese) fei1 chang2 (非常 adverb, very) wu2 liao2 (无聊 adjective, boring), rang4 (让 verb, let) wo3 (我 pronoun, I or me) wu2 liao2 (无聊 adjective, boring) si3 (死 verb, die) le5 (了 particle to show the emphasis of emotion).
Place 死 si3 (to die) after an adjective, 死 si3 can serve as a complement to indicate an extreme degree of the condition named by the adjective.
For example,
Wo3 du4 zi5 teng2 si3 le5.
我肚子疼死了。
My stomach is aching to death. (extremely arching)
Jin1 tian1 leng3 si3 le5.
今天冷死了。
Today’s weather is cold to death. (extremely cold)
Ta1 de5 gong1 ke4 huai4 si3 le5.
她的功课坏死了。
Her homework is bad to death. (extremely bad)
Usually using 死 si3 as a complement to signify an extreme degree is used to refer to the negative side of meaning.
Usually we don’t say:
Ta1 hao3 si3 le5.
她好死了。
She is good to death. (extremely good)
Instead we say:
Ta1 hao3 ji2 le5.
她好极了。
She is extremely nice.
wo3 de3 nv3 peng2 you3 mei3 li4 si3 le5.
我的女朋友美丽死了。
My girlfriend is beautiful to death. (extremely beautiful)
Instead we say:
wo3 de3 lv3 peng2 you3 mei3 li4 ji2 le5.
我的女朋友美丽极了
My girlfriend is extremely beautiful.
Wo3 men2 de5 lao3 shi1 xie3 de3 shu1 fa3 hao3 kan4 si3 le5. (extremely good looking)
我们的老师写的书法好看死了。
The calligraphy that our teacher wrote is good looking to death.
Instead we will say:
Wo3 men2 de5 lao3 shi1 xie3 de3 shu1 fa3 hao3 kan4 ji2 le5.
我们的老师写的书法好看极了。
The calligraphy that our teacher wrote is extremely good looking.
However, with rules come exception, sometimes we can hear someone says:
Wo3 zhong4 le5 cai3 quan4, wo3 gao1 xing4 si3 le5.
我中了彩券，我高兴死了。
I won the lottery, I was happy to death.
Ta1 kao3 shi4 kao3 yi4 bai3 fen1, ta1 le4 si3 le5.
她考试考一百分， 她乐死了。
She got 100 points on the test, she was happy to death.
Speaking of si3, there are a few phrases you might be interested to know:
Yi2 ming4 wu1 hu1.
一命呜呼
一命 mean one life, 呜呼 (interjection, alas) is the sigh or the sound people uttered when they heard something very sad and very unfortunate. 呜呼 Wu1 hu1 is widely used in ancient elegies. Later, people used this sighing to express the meaning of “died.” Thus, 一命呜呼 means a life died or to die.
The other slang also means got killed or died.
翘辫子 qiao4 bian4 zi5
In the 清 Qing Dynasty, men wear pigtails （辫子， bian4 zi5). If a man committed a very bad crime and got sentenced to death. When the time came, the executioner raised up the braid (queue) and decapitated the prisoner. Later, 翘辫子 became to die, to kick the bucket.
Keep in mind that the above two usages of saying “to die” all are not formal and with a bit of joking and disrespect in nature. The normal way to say it would be:
去逝 qu4 shi4 pass away.
过逝 guo4 shi4 pass away.
There is another term refers to an extremely person passed away, for example. A savior of a nation died, you can use:
撒手人寰sa3 shou3 ren2 huan2 releasing the hands from the human world or to leave one’s mortal frame / to die .
When you are studying Chinese, have you ever felt that Chinese is so boring? What can you do to make the learning fun, easy and effective? I would say: learn to sing Chinese songs, try to love the language you are learning, go beyond the language to dip more into the culture, compare the cultural differences, and have fun …
Paramore – Brick By Boring Brick – Lyrics