Do you know how to talk about your emotions in English?
Hi everyone, I'm Oliver and welcome back to the Easy English Podcast.
This podcast helps you learn real useful English in a relaxed and natural way.
And today's episode is all about emotions, but not just the basic everyday words like happy or sad.
Often in courses or in school, in textbooks, in lots of English learning materials you will learn to say the basics.
For example, I feel happy, or I'm happy, I'm sad, I'm tired.
But today we are going deeper.
We're going to look at some richer, more expressive ways to talk about how we feel in English.
This is a great way to grow your vocabulary sound more fluent and express yourself better in conversations, writing or even in your own thoughts.
So let's grab a cup of tea or coffee, get comfortable, and today we're We are going to talk about our feelings.
Exciting.
So let's get started.
So first, as usual, before we jump into the main talk, the main speech in today's episode, we are going to go over the vocabulary list.
I'm going to read each word or phrase, explain what it means and give a quick example.
These are just a sample of some of the words from today that I think might be new for you.
And therefore I want you to focus on these words, to listen for them and to try to review them as well at the end of today's episode.
Okay, you got it?
Great.
So we have 10 words.
The first is OVERWHELMED.
Overwhelmed, feeling like everything is too much.
She felt overwhelmed by the amount of work that she had.
The second word, ecstatic.
Ecstatic and this means extremely happy, even joyful.
He was ecstatic when he found out he got the job.
It's a great word and it's used for more intense happiness.
If you feel even more than very happy.
The third word, frustrated.
Frustrated.
Feeling annoyed or upset because something isn't working.
I felt frustrated when I couldn't fix the computer.
You're annoyed, you're frustrated.
The fourth word, anxious.
And that means worried or nervous about something.
He's anxious about the exam tomorrow.
You might have heard that one before.
The fifth word, content, content, quietly happy or peaceful.
After dinner, she felt content and relaxed.
So this word is spelt the same as content, which means what something contains.
Like the content of this podcast is English learning.
But in this context and this pronunciation, content, it means quietly, happy, or peaceful.
Our sixth word, so we're more than halfway for today, is embarrassed, embarrassed.
And this is uncomfortable because of something awkward or silly.
I was so embarrassed when I fell over in front of everyone.
Word number seven, resentful, resentful.
Feeling angry because you've been treated unfairly.
For example, he felt resentful about always having to do the housework.
Number eight, hopeful, hopeful.
Feeling positive that something good will happen.
For example, she's hopeful about the future.
And number nine, grief.
Grief is deep sadness, especially after a loss.
So after someone dies or an animal or anything, this would be grief.
For example, he was in a state of grief after his dog died.
And the final word that I want you to look out for today is relieved.
Relieved.
And this means happy because something bad didn't happen.
For example, I was so relieved when the test was over and it went well.
Now keep these words in mind.
You will hear them again as we explore different emotions more in depth.
Great, let's move on.
If you need to replay that section again, of course you can as many times as you want.
So why are we doing this?
Why should you learn more emotional vocabulary?
Well, in my opinion, here is the thing.
Life is emotional.
Every day you probably feel a mix of different things.
Excitement, worry, calm, stress, pride, confusion, joy.
And if you only know how to say I'm happy or I'm sad, that's not really enough.
Think about it in your own language.
You have a depth of words, so many words to describe how you feel.
And when you speak in English, of course you are going to be more limited in how you express your emotions.
So we do always, when we learn another language, have to work on that.
I am the exact same when I speak Russian, for example.
I have a very small number of words to describe my emotions.
The main categories of emotions generally, but not anything in detail.
Specific types and styles of emotion, I guess.
So recognizing that in myself, I want to help you. improve how you can describe your emotions.
And knowing how to describe your emotions will clearly help you in some ways.
It'll help you to communicate better in conversations.
And by doing that, you can let people know how you feel and react to things based on how you actually feel.
I am sure that you have had many times when you've expressed something in English but it doesn't quite represent how you actually feel.
It's a much more simple emotion.
So this will help.
The next point is it will help you to understand what others are feeling.
The more you interact with native speakers, the more you're exposed to English, the more you hear it, the more you see it, the more you will see a wide range of emotions.
And this wide range of emotions exist in every language pretty much, but you just have to learn them.
It will also, I suppose, learning more emotions help with your writing as well as speech.
You can add more personality, more of yourself.
And finally and most importantly, why you should increase the range of your emotions in English language is to connect more deeply with people.
So it will allow you to understand each other more, understand each other's emotions a lot more.
Think about it for a second.
When someone says, you know, i feel drained of energy, so that's another way to say i am tired.
Or if someone says i'm buzzing with excitement, You instantly understand much more than just I'm fine or I'm good, I'm tired.
It adds so much more description, so much more image to what you're saying and what they are saying for you to understand.
So today, let's open up this emotional vocabulary toolkit.
And we're going to explore more nuanced emotions, more complicated emotions.
Let's go beyond happy.
So we'll take the emotion of happiness.
Happy.
Okay.
Happiness can be quite a complicated emotion.
And why is it complicated, you might ask?
And I think it's complicated because how we define it, what we think it is, is very different from one person to the next.
For some, they see happiness as having success in their job, in family and in other areas of their life.
But if we talk about it as an emotion, so what we feel, okay?
So stay with me.
What we actually feel.
It is an emotional state, a feeling, right?
And when we say I'm happy, usually it is about this feeling, this emotional state, right?
And these are usually feelings of joy, feelings of satisfaction, contentment, and fulfillment.
So, while happiness has many, many of these different definitions, I would say in general, we can describe it as having positive emotions, positive feelings and life satisfaction right.
So when we're talking about that, we feel positive.
We feel good, I guess we could say, in its simplest form.
So in the simplest form, you could say, I feel good or I feel happy.
And that's simply describing that positive feeling.
But how else can we say this in a more complicated way?
So instead of saying, I'm happy, you can try these four following ways to express happiness.
And each of them mean slightly different things.
For example, you could say, I'm feeling cheerful.
And this is more of a light, happy mood.
It's not so intense.
It's just, oh, I feel good this morning or I feel good this evening.
I feel cheerful.
For example, she is always cheerful in the mornings.
It's a light, happy mood.
The second is ecstatic.
I said this one earlier in the vocabulary list and it means extremely happy.
So very, very happy.
And that's exactly what it means.
It's a very intense way to describe your happiness.
For example, I was ecstatic when my first child was born.
So you felt ecstatic, extremely happy, very happy in that moment.
Another way you can describe happiness is that you're grateful, you're grateful.
So you feel good, you feel positive, but with the meaning of feeling thankful.
So I'm so grateful for your help, for example.
You're feeling happy, but thankful.
You're thanking someone or you're appreciating someone or something.
And the final, which is a form of happiness.
Maybe it's less intense.
It's less, wow.
It is content.
Content.
I think we had this as well in the vocabulary list.
And this is a quiet, peaceful happiness.
No shouting, just calm joy.
It's that feeling that you have when you look around, you see what you have, maybe family, perhaps a life that you've built for yourself, and you feel a quiet, peaceful happiness.
You're content.
You're satisfied.
It's a great, great phrase and a different emotion, and i hope you can see from even these four words how each of them have a very different meaning about happiness, very different ways to describe that emotion, to describe i'm happy, okay.
So before we move to the next emotion, i just want to quickly remind you.
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Back to the podcast.
So the next emotion for today is i'm sad.
I'm sad, that's a very um, a very a phrase let's say.
That can mean a lot of different things.
We can say i'm sad or i'm feeling sad for so much.
So I'm going to give you once again four ways that you can express that you feel sad.
And each of them have a slightly different meaning as well.
But first, in general, what is this emotional or this emotion of sadness?
And sadness is an emotional state that is usually we can say it's associated with feelings of unhappiness, feelings of low mood.
And it is definitely one of the basic human emotions.
It's totally normal to feel this way when you're upset or you have a situation that's painful, upsetting or maybe even disappointing too.
We don't get this confused with the likes of depression, which is more of a long lasting issue condition and emotional state.
So this is more of the emotional reaction of sadness that you have in response to something.
So let's look at four ways for unique, different ways to talk about sadness.
So instead of I'm sad, you could say I'm disappointed.
And this is that negative, low feeling when something doesn't go how you hoped it would.
So I'm disappointed with my exam results.
I hope they would be better, but I'm disappointed that they're not.
A great phrase that you should definitely try to use instead of just I'm sad.
The next one, I'm heartbroken.
Okay, so I'm sure you might have heard this one before.
Heartbroken is extreme sadness and it's usually in the context of relationships.
But it can also be in the context of like outside of romantic relationships.
So for example, if a pet that you love has died, you could be heartbroken that they're gone as well.
But of course, if you've broken up with someone, you can say I am heartbroken that I've lost my girlfriend or boyfriend or another person in your life.
Another way to say that you're sad is I'm down.
I'm down.
I'm feeling a bit down.
And to feel down is a little bit sad.
It's less intense.
You're feeling a bit down.
And maybe it can be without a clear reason.
You might have just woken up today and felt a bit down.
You're not sure why, but you feel a wee bit down.
And the final way is grieving.
Grieving.
I'm grieving.
This is a deep sadness.
A very deep sadness.
Usually after loss.
So after someone has died or passed away.
She's grieving after her grandfather passed away, for example.
So that is a more intense phrase.
So you can see there, very different ways to say that.
Now let's move on to anger, the emotion of anger.
So what is anger?
So anger is a very intense emotion and it's something that you feel when something has gone wrong or someone has done something wrong to you.
And usually we can characterize, we can describe this emotion by feelings of stress, frustration and irritation.
That type of feeling.
And everyone has anger from time to time.
But I think that people experience anger in different ways.
Some people express it a lot more.
Some people express it physically.
Some people express it verbally with their words.
And some people put it inside.
They go very quiet.
They don't express it.
And that's their way of expressing anger.
But yes, there are different ways to express anger.
Not all anger is the same.
There are different degrees of it.
Some intense angers, some long-lasting angers.
So instead of just saying I'm angry, here are some different ways.
You could say I'm annoyed.
I'm annoyed.
And it is a small irritation.
It's about something small.
I'm annoyed by the noise from next door.
For example, I'm trying to sleep.
I'm annoyed by the noise.
Frustrated.
So you're frustrated when things don't work out how you want.
I'm so frustrated with my progress in English.
I thought it was going to go better, but it's not, so I am frustrated.
Furious.
This means really, really angry.
So very, very angry.
It's a little bit like ecstatic for happiness.
So it's very happy.
Furious is very angry.
Great word.
Resentful.
Resentful.
This is more of a long-term anger, especially if something feels unfair.
So I'm feeling resentful.
I'm resentful.
I have a long-term anger.
Okay, so we'll not stay on anger too long and we'll move on to the last emotion that I want to talk about today.
And it actually, it's kind of more like two.
So two different emotions, fear and anxiety.
Both are quite similar.
So fear is that feeling where you're kind of nervous, you're a little bit anxious about something happening.
So it is, I guess, an unpleasant, maybe an unpleasant feeling, I could say, a negative feeling.
But it is natural.
It's a natural feeling that we have here.
And scientists say that it is a primal emotion.
It's there to protect us.
But of course, we don't always need to feel it.
And when we feel fear or anxious about something that is you know we shouldn't.
Of course, it's not good for us.
But anyway, here is four ways to talk about fear or anxiety.
Instead of saying I'm scared or maybe We could say I'm worried.
So I'm worried is for general concern.
And this is a general phrase.
It's probably the one you're most likely to say or already use.
So I'm worried.
If you want to talk a bit more specifically about being nervous.
So often with physical symptoms.
If your stomach feels a little bit nervous, you feel bad, a little bit you're sweating, you feel quite nervous physically.
You can say I'm anxious, I'm feeling anxious.
And the third is panicked.
So I'm feeling panicked.
And panicked is sudden fear.
Fear that happens quickly.
You're panicking.
You're feeling very quick fear.
And finally, terrified.
I'm terrified.
That's extreme fear.
So something very intense.
So it's amazing, as you can see, how many words we actually have for feelings.
And these are only a few to help you with different angles for each of these emotions.
There are so many more and you can explore them.
You can take a look at them and you can see how best to describe exactly how you're feeling.
And I would really invite you to do that, to explore emotions and ways of saying things.
So let's imagine a few situations and how we can describe emotions more clearly.
So let's say we have situation number one.
You're about to give a speech in English.
So based on what we've learned there, you could say, I'm scared.
But you could also now say, I feel anxious.
I feel nervous but excited.
Hands are shaking and I feel anxious.
Maybe situation two you have just finished your exams and you feel good about it.
Right, instead now of saying I'm happy, you might be able to say I feel relieved, I'm very proud of myself.
Or honestly, I'm tired but I feel content.
Great word, content.
Situation three.
You might, in this situation, feel pretty bad.
So your friend has forgotten your birthday.
Instead of just saying, I'm sad, you might say, I am disappointed.
Disappointed.
Disappointed.
I wanted him to remember but he didn't.
I'm disappointed.
Okay, so hopefully this shows you just a few situations that you can use these new phrases and ways of expressing yourself.
And today we have learned a wide range of emotional vocabulary.
It might be worth checking out the vocabulary list.
It's in the description below the link.
It's totally free.
You just get it on the website.
This will allow you to review the words easily that we have set out to learn today.
And I would recommend putting them into a vocabulary app, a flip card app or something else that you use to learn.
We've also looked at how to express our feelings a little bit more clearly and naturally.
So using emotions which are more specific, they describe how we actually feel.
And we've seen that language gives us this power to connect, to understand and reflect properly how we feel.
So do not be afraid to practice these words.
Try using one or two new ones today whenever you speak or write.
So do try, have a look at some of these words and try to use them.
Of course, i couldn't cover every single emotion today because you would have way too many um pieces, way too many words of new vocabulary, so i didn't want to give you guys um hundreds of words for you to learn.
So hopefully this is a good start.
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Thank you so much for listening.
And I hope you have an amazing rest of your day.
Goodbye.
