Let's Learn English! Topic: Describing How You Feel! 🤵👍🙏
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Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson about describing how you feel. As human beings, sometimes we feel happy, sometimes we feel sad. Those are simple descriptions. I'm sure you know those already. In this lesson, I will describe some more advanced but very common ways of describing how you feel. Some of these words will help you describe how you feel physically. Some

whether you're extra tired or whether you're starting to feel sick. Some of them will help you describe how you feel emotionally. Whether you're happy or sad and again, I will teach you some more advanced English vocabulary to describe some of those feelings. So, once again, welcome to this English lesson about describing how you feel. I think you'll enjoy it. Blah,

It's kind of a funny word and this is an informal word. By the way, every word I'm teaching you today can go in the sentence starting with I feel. So, I feel blah. I don't actually feel blah but when you feel blah, it means you don't have a lot of energy. It means you don't feel like doing something. It means you probably just want to sit at home. So, it can mean that you physically feel

tired and don't have a lot of energy but you're also mentally tired. So sometimes after a long week at work on a Friday night I feel blah. I

don't feel energetic. I don't want to go out and see a movie. I just want to sit on my couch and drink tea and watch a basketball game or something because I feel blah. So, low energy, not energetic and then mentally you don't feel like doing things.

Lethargic. Now this is a very similar term to feeling blah. When you feel lethargic it also means you don't have a lot of energy. If you stay up late sometimes the next day you feel lethargic. Now this isn't lazy. Lazy means you don't want to do work. Lethargic means you're you're literally tired and you don't have enough

energy or stamina to do the work you're supposed to do or to do what you're supposed to be doing that day. Uh should I say it a couple more times? Lethargic. It has the TH in it. Makes it a little hard to pronounce for um people learning English but lethargic. Oh I'm feeling lethargic. You might also feel lethargic just before you get sick. Sometimes you've don't feel lethargic

yeah, you don't feel right. Something's wrong and you feel lethargic and then the next day, you have a sore throat or a fever. So, it sometimes can be how you feel before you get sick. Inept. So, you can see this person is trying to put a nail into whatever surface this is using the hammer backwards. So, this person would probably say, I feel inept. I'll say it again. Inept. I feel inept.

When you feel inept it means you don't know how to do the thing you're supposed to be doing. Sometimes you go to do something with a bunch of people. Maybe you're going to play basketball for the first time and they all know how to play basketball. You might feel inept because you you don't know how to dribble the ball or shoot the ball. So when you feel inept it means you feel it means you don't know how to do something that

And it also kind of means you think people can see that you don't know how to do it. Like, oh, I feel inept. When I first started teaching, I felt inept, okay? When I first started teaching, I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing. I didn't feel like I was doing a good job that very first semester way back in, it's a 97 or 98. I don't remember. I felt inept. So, you could also say inadequate would be another way to describe it.

down. When you feel down, I would say, I don't like to say it's the same as being depressed because I think depression is kind of a a term a doctor would use but when you feel down, it's like a minor depression. Like, I

You're not super enthusiastic. There's another big word. You're not energetic. You're it's a little different than feeling blah. Like I would say you feel blah and then stronger than blah is you're feeling down. Like you're kind of sad a little bit as well and then even a stronger description would be depressed. So I feel down. Sorry I feel blah. I feel down. I feel depressed. So this guy he looks down. He doesn't look super happy. He

Maybe he has a lot of work to do. He looks a little bit sad and not super eager to do the work that he has to do that day. So, he feels down. I feel empty inside. So, this is an interesting one. This is a very dark emotion. A very sad emotion. The opposite would be to feel full of life.

sometimes when I'm doing these live streams I feel full of life. Like I'm I'm excited. I'm happy. Um I like doing it but sometimes people might feel empty inside. Surprisingly I

really wealthy celebrities sometimes aren't very happy. They have all the money in the world and they have fame. They're very famous but they don't feel good about themselves. They're not happy about themselves and they might feel empty inside. So again, this is a very sad, dark emotion but this yeah, you would use it to describe the opposite of feeling super happy. The opposite of

of um yeah like I feel very valuable when I do this. So empty inside. Invisible. So sometimes when you go to a social gathering, everyone else has fun but no one talks to you and then you would say, I feel invisible.

By the way, I should talk about the past, present, and future. So, you could say I felt invisible. That's the past. I feel invisible or I'm going to feel invisible if I go to that party. I picked this one because this guy at the front seemed a bit older than the other people. I don't have this myself but I know sometimes when older people go to something where there's a lot of younger people, they feel invisible.

Because the younger people talk to each other but they don't talk to the older person. So, you feel invisible. And by the way, invisible means no one can see you. Like some superheroes, oh, here's a good one. When Frodo or Bilbo put on the ring in the Lord of the Rings, they were invisible. You literally couldn't see them. But we also use this to describe someone who feels like they're left out. That's the other way you could describe it.

Fantastic. So, I thought I should do a few positive emotions. I think I have a few in a row here. Yes, I feel fantastic. I feel great. I went for a run and afterwards, I felt fantastic. Um today, the sun is shining and I feel great. So, these are two very positive emotional states that

guess it can also be physical. Like after you do go for a good walk or a run you usually feel fantastic. Like you feel really really good. And so that's how you would describe it. If someone said how are you feeling today? I would literally right now say I feel fantastic. I I'm I slept good. I have a lot of energy. I don't have to go to work early. I feel fantastic. I have a really nice day ahead of me. And then I feel great in

This is often used after you're sick. So, a few weeks ago, I was sick but now I feel great. You can also use this to describe how this person is feeling like, oh, I I was outside. I I um add a cup of tea with a friend. Life is good. I feel great. So, it's a very positive emotion, a very positive way of describing how you feel.

Honored. If you say I feel honored it means that someone has asked you to do something that that makes you feel like they like you. So when my friend asked me to be the best man at his wedding I felt honored.

felt like it was a great honor. I felt like it meant he liked me, he trusted me, and he wanted me to stand up beside him when he married his wife. So, I was honored. I felt honored. Um when you feel honored, it's a nice thing, okay? Um if someone asked you to speak,

at the next English class you're taking. Just said, you know, you have an interesting life and an interesting story. We would like you to speak. You would feel honored and you would feel nervous probably but you would feel honored because the teacher picked you. So, when you feel honored, you feel appreciated, you feel liked, you feel like the person trusts you to do something.

jittery. So, this is something that happens. It's a physical reaction. Usually, after you drink too much coffee, after you have too much caffeine, you might feel jittery. It's a state of being where you have lots of energy. It's not the same as shivering. Like if I'm cold, I'm like but if I'm jittery, I'm like I have I

Sorry, that looked really funny on the screen. Uh if you have a lot of energy um from the caffeine um I'm just watching. Yeah, that's definitely jittery how I just acted it out. Um caffeine makes you very alert and you feel jittery if you like if I had three cups of coffee, I would feel jittery. I'd be like, I would wanna run everywhere instead of walk and that would just be kinda funny.

knackered. We do not use this word in Canada very often but I hear this word quite often when I watch British television. I feel knackered means you're incredibly tired. Usually at the end of the work day. Someone might say oh that was a long shift at work. I feel knackered. Uh I am extremely tired. I'm knackered. Lucky. Sometimes you feel lucky when

because you actually were lucky. If you had a lottery ticket and you won a million dollars, you would say, I feel lucky. Like, I won the lottery but we also use this word to talk about just being happy about something in life. My boss gave me a raise. I feel really lucky. No one else got a raise or let me see another example. Um I was in school and

I wrote a test and I feel lucky because I got 90% on the test and I didn't study. So it just means you're feeling happy about a positive situation and you feel lucky. I felt lucky the other day because I drove to school and it was really slippery out and I still got to school on time. So the roads were slippery. So I felt lucky. Um I should have been late but I got to school on time. Nauseous.

Some people say this word differently but I say nauseous. This is how you feel when

you're getting sick or maybe after you eat food that doesn't agree with you. That's what we say when like if you eat food that's bad. You might feel nauseous afterwards. It means that you might throw up. You might actually get physically sick. I know two and a half, three weeks ago, Jen was like, I'm feeling nauseous and I'm like, I don't feel very good either and then we got really, really sick. We had the stomach flu and

it was not very very nice but yes it's not fun when you feel nauseous. You can also feel nauseous if you smell something and

that that you don't where you don't like the smell. It can make you feel nauseous. Um and maybe a little bit like if you go on a roller coaster, you might feel nauseous afterwards. Like you might feel like you need to throw up that you need to vomit. I hate that word by the way. I like saying throw up instead of to vomit. Vomit just has a really weird sound to it. It means when everything in your stomach comes out of your mouth. There we go. Now we all know.

overwhelmed. This is something that I think almost every human being on the planet has felt. I feel overwhelmed and

the new school year starts. The first few days of school I feel overwhelmed. What that means is there's too much work to do and I don't have enough time to do it. Um sometimes Jen and I feel overwhelmed at market because there's so many customers. We can't take care of everyone fast enough. We feel overwhelmed. So anytime there's more work to do and I

Let me put it this way. When there's a lot of work and not enough time, you will feel overwhelmed. I'm sure all of you have felt that at some point in your life. It's not a very nice feeling. Okay, so here's an interesting one. By the way, I should mention um that a lot of these words might be new for you or used in a new way but all of these are very common. I

I feel blah. I feel lethargic. I feel inept. All of those words are used all the time in English. These are not like strange words that only get used every once in a while. This is pretty common. So, if you use the phrase, I feel off, it means you don't feel the way you normally feel. It usually means you're getting sick. Maybe you're gonna get a headache but if I said to Jen, oh, I don't know what's wrong. I just feel off today. It means that

can't think as clearly as I normally think or maybe we're working out in the field and we're lifting heavy things and it's really hard. I might just say you know I feel off like I don't feel as strong as I normally do or I can't think as clearly as I normally do. So you could say I don't feel normal but that doesn't quite describe it as well. If you say I feel off it usually means I

you're probably going to be sick or something's wrong. Something's not working right with your brain or your body. Queasy, this is the same as nauseous. When you feel queasy, something's wrong down in your stomach and something bad is going to happen. Um you can, I think I would use queasy more to refer to, yeah, I'm trying to think. Like, if I see something that

If I'm walking along the road, sorry, this is going to be kind of gross. If I'm walking along the road and there's a dead animal on the road, I feel queasy. I don't look at it. I don't want to see that. If someone else is

throws up. I feel queasy even if I'm not sick. The smell of someone being sick close to me makes me feel queasy and then I almost get sick. So, um I think that you've probably experienced this before where you know maybe oh here's a good one. If you have old food in the fridge and you lift the lid and you smell and you're like that is not it might make you feel queasy.

relieved. So, this person is doing, some people think these are either the thank you hands, thank you so much or prayer hands but this person is relieved. You are relieved when something ends up going well that maybe you thought was going to go badly. Um I studied for chapter three and then I wrote the test and the test was on chapter three. I was so relieved or um I

hurt my arm and I thought it was broken. I went to the hospital and it's just a bruise. I was so relieved. I feel relieved because I don't have to wear a cast. So, it usually means you think something is going to go badly but then it goes well and then you feel relieved. It's a great feeling for sure. Useless. So, this is the same thing

basically is feeling inept. The best picture I could come up with for the phrase, I feel useless is sometimes when Jen and I buy furniture, should I name the store from IKEA? I

Sometimes I feel useless when I'm trying to put it together. Sometimes there's not enough screws or there's too many screws or I'm pretty good at building stuff but sometimes I feel useless when I try to put together furniture. Um so when you feel useless it means you don't have the skills you need to do what you want to do. I've heard English learners say when I speak English I

I sometimes feel useless. Like I I don't know enough but I would use it more for a skill like a physical skill. Like when I try to build something out of wood, I feel useless cuz I'm not very good at it.

weird is similar to off. So, weird has a lot of meanings. Like if you say, that guy is weird. It might mean that he doesn't dress the same as other people and maybe his hair is really long and it just, I don't know, you might say, oh, that guy looks weird. It's an insult. But if you say, ah, I feel weird. It means you're not feeling well. The last time I heard someone say this was at a long distance running event.

runner finished the race and the runner did not look very good after running seven or eight kilometers and uh they said, oh, I I feel weird. So, very quickly, they got that person some water and some Gatorade because if you say, I feel weird, it usually means you

maybe you're going to be sick. Maybe you're going to, I think this guy was going to pass out like become unconscious but it certainly means you're physically not feeling normal like um another example might be if you yeah I don't usually talk too much about it but if you drink too much or if you um yeah if

you can just say you feel weird. It means you don't feel normal. If you feel weird, you don't feel normal. Inadequate. I I tried to find a picture of a parent who who looks tired and kids who are hyper. This is I think a good picture. Parents often feel inadequate. When you feel inadequate, it means you don't know what to do

the situation you're in. Parents are always learning how to be good parents while they're parenting. It's kind of a weird situation and you often feel inadequate. Uh especially if one of your kids has a big problem in their life. You might feel inadequate. You don't know how to help them. So it's similar to inept and useless but it kinda has like a feeling of like

Um you know you should know how to do it but you you just feel inadequate. Jen and I I think have done a fairly good job as parents but there have been many times where we felt inadequate. Where we didn't know what to do in order to help our kids in whatever situation they were in.

free. So here's a couple of retired people. If you say I feel free it's something you can use to describe a day off a weekend retirement. It means you have no obligations. So when you feel free

are having a very nice life. You are enjoying things. So in the summer I feel free. Uh when I visit Brent in the summer we feel free because as teachers we do not work in the summer. So we feel very very free and it's nice to be able to enjoy life at that time. Not that work is bad but it is nice to feel free once in a while. Awful.

you say I feel awful like if a person well let me not say that yet. If you say I feel awful it usually means you're sick. How you doing? I have a bad cold. I feel awful. My nose is stuffed up. My throat is sore. I'm coughing all the time. I feel awful. So when you feel awful it simply means you feel sick. If I call in sick to work and the next day um my mom calls me and says oh I

Sorry, this story isn't making sense. If I tell my mom I'm sick and she calls me two days later and I'm still sick, I'm just going to say, oh, I feel awful. I'm not getting better. Not a nice feeling at all. Tense. If you say I feel tense, I'm

It means you're nervous about something. Here's a big word. It means you're apprehensive about something. It means you're not excited about something. Anytime you have to talk in front of a large group of people, you will probably feel tense. So, and you can even be physically tense. Like, you're like, this is relaxed. You know, if I'm driving in my car, I'm really relaxed but if I'm like,

this like my I'm actually almost flexing my muscles and I'm really tense. It means I'm nervous. It means I'm not excited about what I'm going to do or what I'm doing. Um the first live stream I ever did, I felt tense cuz I I didn't know how it worked. I didn't know if anyone would watch it. Um I think, can't remember the stats on that one but I think there were only two people there was uh kind of funny.

was fun though. Hopeful. So when you feel hopeful you are excited and happy about something that is going to happen. So if you're going to have a baby you're hopeful. If you're going to go on a trip you're hopeful that you're going to have fun. If you it basically means that you are excited about the future. If your favorite team is playing in the playoffs you are hopeful. You hope that they will win. You will feel hopeful.

grateful. So when someone does something for you and it helps you, you usually feel grateful. When you're grateful, you will say thank you to that person. Many of you are grateful for these lessons. So, I make lessons and in the comments, I regularly see people saying, thank you. You are grateful. So, I did something you liked and to show that you are grateful, you say thank you. So, um

And then I say you're welcome. I say you're welcome a lot in the comments because there are a lot of thank yous. So, optimistic. This is similar to hopeful.

means that you are thinking that something will go well. This morning I was planning to do this live stream and I was optimistic that the internet would work well. Our internet has been working very well for the last couple of weeks. Two weeks ago the internet stopped working during the English lesson. But this morning I was optimistic. I I didn't think I was going to have any problems and knock on wood we haven't had any problems. I was very optimistic.

energized. I have not done this. I am curious to know if any of you have done this. Let me know in the comments or chat but this is an ice bath. It's a tub filled with cold water and ice cubes and you sit in it for one or two minutes and afterwards you're supposed to feel energized.

supposed to make you feel like you can do anything. Um I'm I'm not sure I could do this. Jen would love to try this. She would love to try an ice bath to see if it will make her feel energized. So we'll see. Someday we

Maybe we'll try it. Maybe Jen will try it. I'm not sure I will but there are many things that will make you feel energized. A good night's sleep will make you feel energized. A nap like sleeping for 10 minutes might make you feel energized. It just means you have a lot of energy and you're ready to do anything.

Kids are sometimes hyper. Sometimes I feel hyper even as an adult. Sometimes before you do something fun, you feel a little bit hyper. Um I think the last time I felt hyper was um where did I go? I

I went to an event with my colleagues where we played games. It was a social event for me and my colleagues. Um and I was I was feeling hyper. Like I was excited. I was energetic. Uh I was happy. Um but normally kids are we usually use this word to describe kids like ah those kids were running around. They were so hyper. They were loud and running around. They were hyper. They so they were feeling hyper. I feel hyper.

I feel hyper right now a little bit. Just a little bit. Awake. This person is drinking a cup of coffee. After I drink coffee, I feel awake. Like I feel awake. I feel like I do not need to sleep at all. Caffeine has an incredible effect on me. It makes me feel awake. After a good night's sleep, you might say, oh, I feel so awake. Um and then, you might also say, you feel alive.

If I ever jumped out of an airplane with a parachute, when I landed, I would probably say, oh, I feel alive. Like sometimes you feel blah and lethargic and sometimes you feel down but when you do something like this and when your adrenaline is flowing, you feel alive. After I went zip lining, I certainly felt alive. That was an incredible experience. I think it I probably would say this. I felt

energized, I was tense before the zip lining but when I was done, I felt alive. Again, past tense there. I felt alive and motivated. If you run long distances, you are very motivated. When you're motivated, it means you want to do something and you do something. You plan to do it and you do it. My biggest wish is

English learners is that they stay motivated. I hope that every Monday morning you you wake up and say I feel motivated. It means you want to learn English. Like if you say I feel motivated to learn English. It means you want to learn English. You have energy. You're excited. It's fun. You look forward to it. You are excited and motivated. It's a good feeling. I

I'm not motivated right now to grade student work, but I have a pile of it to look at. So I'll have to do something so I feel motivated. So I want to do it. Hi, Bob the Canadian here. Thank you for listening to this English podcast lesson. If you would like to support me in the work that I do as an online English teacher, please visit patreon.com slash bobthecanadian.