The Adjective "Hot"

Question

Hello, I'm making English worksheets for Korean children.
One of my colleagues sent me some sentences to use as examples, and there was something like this:

I am hot.
I am thirsty.

I felt a bit uneasy when I read the sentences, because I think it's better to say "It's hot" when somebody feels it's hot. Of course, I think it may possible to say "I am hot", but the word 'hot' has many other meanings like "she is hot (attractive) and fun", "he is hot (sexually)", or "I am hot with rage". So I think it may not a good idea to simply say "I am hot" to express someone feels the heat. But I am not a native speaker of English, so I'd like to ask you what comes up to your mind first when you read the sentence. Am I being too particular?

Thanks in advance.

Nona the brit · Accepted Answer

hot is a normal everyday word to describe temperature and you are reading too much into it.

While it is true that it may also be used in other ways, no-one confuses the situations and it is certainly very safe and ordinary for children to use it in the way suggested. In fact, I really just said to the guy sharing my office 'I'm hot, please open the window'. This was not mistaken for a sexual come-on. My iron was hot when I used it on my shirt this morning - I don't think it is an attractive iron, it was just hot. We had a chat in the office about how it is strange that although the weather is now hot we still enjoy our hot drinks (we drink lots of tea).

How else would anyone say they are hot (with regards to heat) anyway? I am at an uncomfortably high temperature?

Thethenothere123 · Answer

Nona The BritHow else would anyone say they are hot (with regards to heat) anyway? I am at an uncomfortably high temperature?

I'm not sure why, but I found that to be quite funny. I actually laughed for several seconds after reading it.

Joeviee · Answer

hehehehe.....laughing uncontrollably for no reason

I normally don't get the joke from a native speaker, but i do this time:)

Siggy · Answer

Sunny DavisI felt a bit uneasy when I read the sentences, because I think it's better to say "It's hot" when somebody feels it's hot. Of course, I think it may possible to say "I am hot", but the word 'hot' has many other meanings like "she is hot (attractive) and fun", "he is hot (sexually)", or "I am hot with rage". So I think it may not a good idea to simply say "I am hot" to express someone feels the heat. But I am not a native speaker of English, so I'd like to ask you what comes up to your mind first when you read the sentence. Am I being too particular? Thanks in advance.

As Nona says, you are reading too much into the sentence. "I am hot" as a sentence to describe physical temperature has, I suspect, been around for hundreds of years before it became associated with the other meaning you mention. This is a good example of where perfectly regular words and phrases take on a new meaning, usually as a type of metaphor.

For example, less than 30 years ago, describing someone as "gay" meant that they were happy and carefree. Now it has a different meaning. Similarly, referring to someone as "crippled" was originally nothing more than a way of using an adjective to pre-modify a noun.

Using "I am hot" is a prefectly valid way to teach the adjective, and better to also teach it with "I am cold" so you can also point out the nature of opposites. Similarly, teaching "I am hungry" along with "I am thirsty" also provides a chance to talk about similar adjectives.

Siggy

MrPedantic · Answer

Welcome to EF, Sunny!

In addition to the other comments...

"It's hot" and "I'm hot" don't always mean the same thing. I'm not always hot when it's hot; and sometimes I'm hot when it's not.

MrP

Sunny Davis · Answer

Wow, thanks everyone who posted answers. Actually, I didn't expect to have a lot of replies like this. Thank you again.

Sunny

Davidrock65 · Answer

I have a few questions for Siggy here

1.......with the other meaning you mention. --> the other meanings?

2......with the other meaning you mention--> mentioned?

3. What's perfectly regular words mean?

Thanks for answering!!

Siggy · Answer

Hi David

1. Yup, that's true.
2. Could be. I might want to claim that I was using the Historic Present, where you use the present tense to describe an action that happened in the past, just to make it more vivid. This is a narrative technique, as in the conversational "So, I was sitting at the bar when I see this bloke come in an order a pint." The shift in tense seems wrong, but in speech, this happens a fair bit - especially when telling tales.
3. Hmm, I think what I meant (and I do NOT spend hours composing a reply!) was that most words have a common or regular meaning, but they can take on new meanings with use. So the word dog is regularly used to name an animal with four legs that goes "woof," but can take on the meaning of an ugly person ("What a dog!")

Hope this helps. Feel free to dissect this response

Siggy

The Adjective "Hot"

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