To be/feel out of it

[wakdjunkaga]

Hi there!

The other day I was trying to say "I'm out of it, today" but I had no idea how to do it in Mandarin. A native speaker tried to help but came up with a blank, although he said he felt there was an equivalent expression that just wasn't coming to mind at the moment. Anybody got any ideas?

(What I mean by being out of it, in case it helps, is when you're not with it, you're not in the zone, nothing flows, you probably can't concentrate, you may speak or act awkwardly...)

Thanks!

[roddy]

Does 不在状态 work?

[Guest realmayo]

Out of interest, would 不对劲 do?

[tooironic]

I was also going to suggest 我今天不在状态. It's a great phrase, just note it is not used in Taiwan.

[Flying Pigeon]

今天我感觉有点儿不对劲儿。

I feel kinda out of it today.

[wakdjunkaga]

wow, thanks a ton!

After reading your replies, I asked a different friend today (also Taiwanese) and he agreed with “我今天不太对劲” and added a couple: “我今天状况外” and “我今天状况不好”. In keeping with tooironic's post, he hadn't heard about 不在状态.

thanks everybody!

[semantic nuance]

or try 心不在焉 (absent-minded) or 恍神 (means that you'r not focusing).

我今天有點心不在焉。 我今天老是恍神。

To me, if you're just not with yourself, 我今天狀況不好 can imply that you don't feel right (mentally or physically). However, if your mind is on something else, and totally out of where you're at, I think 狀況不好 is not appropriate. 狀況外 is ok but 狀況外 can also mean you have no idea of what happens in certain situation. Hope it helps!

[count_zero]

I once asked a Chinese person how to say "Sorry, I was miles away!". This is a useful sentence for when you're not concentrating and make a mistake like pressing the wrong button on a lift (elevator) or perhaps don't listen to someone properly. It lets them know you weren't trying to be rude and aren't a complete moron. They came up with 我心不在焉.

As you can see, upstairs also mentioned this with the translation "absent minded". There are lots of examples of usage on nciku.com

http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/%E5%BF%83%E4%B8%8D%E5%9C%A8%E7%84%89/1316891

One of them is: His mind was somewhere else, and he just wasn't concentrating. 他心不在焉，精神不够集中。 Sounds useful!

[wakdjunkaga]

thanks for all the suggestions, they're great, I'm learning loads! Unfortunately, I'm the kind of person to whom they're likely to come of use more than once or twice...

I've kept doing my homework of asking Taiwanese peeps about it and today I've been told that 状况外 has more of a "being absent-minded" kinda nuance to it (as I think semantic nuance was pointing at). Also, apparently it's something one very seldom will say of oneself; rather, somebody will tell you that if your mind's somewhere else.

[Demonic_Duck]

I often just say “我的大脑迟钝”, that seems to convey the right message.

[semantic nuance]

There's a few Taiwanese phrases for that situation wakdjunkaga described.

Please look at 失神 1 or 恍神 (踅神). 2 (Cannot go to the direct links, so I just quote them below, if you're interested in learning their sounds, type these phrases, then you'll be able to hear them.)

1

詞目 失神 音讀 sit-sîn　 釋義 形容一個人精神恍惚，魂不守舍。例：伊規工攏失神失神。I kui kang lóng sit-sîn-sit-sîn. (他一整天都魂不守舍。)　 近義詞 踅神、戇神

2

詞目 踅神 音讀 se̍h-sîn　 釋義 神情恍惚的樣子。例：一暗無眠，三日踅神。Tsi̍t àm bô-bîn, sann ji̍t se̍h-sîn. (一個晚上睡不好，會導致連續三天精神恍惚。)　 近義詞 失神、無神、戇神

Also, there're similar expressions to describe that:

你在發什麼愣?

你在發什麼呆?

有什麼事嗎?怎麼整個人放空的樣子？

Hope it helps!