Pronunciation of 悶

[meatie]

The chinese word for "bored" is 悶.  But should it be pronounced "men1" or "men4" ?  The defintions for both listing seem to work.  

[Guest realmayo]

The ABC Chinese to English dictionary says:

 

悶[闷] mēn s.v. ①muffled (of sound) ②stuffy; cut off from air circulation ◆v. ①cover tightly; seal ②shut indoors
悶[闷] mèn s.v. ①bored; depressed | Wǒ tài ∼ le, chūqù sànbù ba. I am bored. let's go for a walk. ②sealed; tightly closed

[Vildhjerp]

When I hear people use 闷 in this context, which isn't that often, it always seems to give off a more negative and bleak tone than the common English interpretation of being "bored." This might also have something to do with the fact that 闷 is used to form the Chinese compounds for being "depressed" and "gloomy," which are my immediate go-to adjectives when I hear or read the character 闷.

 

When referring to the "lack of interest in something," I hear 无聊 used a lot more, usually after 得, as an adverb to describe that whatever they are doing is boring or uneventful. Similarly, I also hear the phrase (I really want to call this an adjective, but I'm not sure whether verb+noun descriptions like this can be classified as such) 没(有)意思 used to describe things that are boring and uninteresting.

 

Other than that, realmayo is spot on with the pronunciation issue. "Mèn" is correct.

 

Perhaps you could provide a sentence in English to show how "bored" is being used.

 

Edit: If you're interested, I just found this: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/29474-无聊-vs-闷-for-'bored'/

[889]

Is it mēn or mèn? That depends on your meaning.

When the fuwuyuan shows you one of those cheap, no-window rooms, you can say 好闷气!  But you'll probably get a strange look from her if you use mèn instead of mēn. (This is said from experience.)