暑い vs 熱い
JLPT N5 vocabulary · what is the difference?
暑い is hot air around you — the weather, a room, the summer. 熱い is a hot thing you touch or drink, like tea, a bath or a frying pan, and by extension something passionate. If you could fix it by opening a window, it is 暑い.
When to use each
暑い
あつい
Use 暑い for the air temperature you are sitting in: weather, seasons, a stuffy room, and how you feel because of that air. Its opposite is 寒い.
夏はとても暑いです。
なつはとてもあついです。
Summer is very hot.
部屋が暑いので、窓を開けます。
へやがあついので、まどをあけます。
The room is hot, so I'll open the window.
熱い
あつい
Use 熱い for the temperature of a specific thing — food, drinks, bathwater, metal — and figuratively for strong feeling, as in 熱い試合 or 熱い人. Its opposite is 冷たい.
このお茶は熱いです。
このおちゃはあついです。
This tea is hot.
お風呂が熱すぎます。
おふろがあつすぎます。
The bath is too hot.
Sentences where only one works
今日は暑いですね。
きょうはあついですね。
It's hot today, isn't it?
The weather is the air around you, so 暑い. This is the everyday greeting spelling.
熱いスープを飲みます。
あついスープをのみます。
I'm having hot soup.
A specific hot thing that touches you, so 熱い — even in the middle of a hot summer day.
暑い日に熱いコーヒーを飲むのが好きです。
あついひにあついコーヒーをのむのがすきです。
I like drinking hot coffee on a hot day.
Both spellings in one sentence, read the same way. The day is air (暑い); the coffee is an object (熱い).
彼らの試合は熱かった。
かれらのしあいはあつかった。
Their match was intense.
The figurative burning-with-feeling sense belongs to 熱い only.
Common mistakes
この部屋は熱いです。
この部屋は暑いです。
A 熱い room suggests the walls themselves are hot to the touch, as in a fire. For ordinary stuffiness it is 暑い.
スープが暑いです。
スープが熱いです。
暑い cannot describe a single object. To a native reader it looks like a typo, which is exactly what it is.
Frequently asked questions
Which one do I use when I say "I'm hot"?
暑い — 暑いです, or 暑がりです if you mean you feel the heat easily, because you are reacting to the air. If your body is hot from a fever, that is 熱がある, using the noun 熱 rather than the adjective.
Is 厚い the same word?
It sounds the same but means thick — 厚い本, a thick book. Three kanji share あつい, and this is the third one; it has nothing to do with temperature.
What about a hot bath or a hot shower?
熱い, because you are talking about water you touch: お湯が熱い, シャワーが熱い. 温かい is the pleasantly warm level in between.