Describing Emotions

 When you meet family and friends, even strangers at times, they will ask about your well being. It’s a polite thing to do. When talking about your well being, you may not only discuss your physical condition, but also your emotional state of mind. There are hundreds of words that are used to describe or identify emotional states. Look at some of the more common ones below.

happy	elated	sad	gloomy	depressed
down	angry	peeved	embarrassed	excited
anxious	bored	content	unsatisfied	satisfied
shocked	nervous	scared	frightened	over-whelmed
flustered	quiet	shy	demure	moody
cheerful	bold	passive	offensive	aggressive

 

At times we all get upset or angry at someone or something. It’s only human. If you happen to interact with someone that appears upset there are a number of expressions that can be used to ask the person what the problem is. Look at the examples below.

English Expressions- Describing Emotions

Expression: What’s wrong with you?
Response: I’m very upset with you for not telling me mom was sick.

Expression: Are you OK?
Response: No, I’m really ticked off that you dated my girlfriend.

Expression: What’s the problem?
Response: I’m fit to be tied. How could you approve the Jameson account without my approval?

Expression: You look upset. Is any thing wrong?
Response: Yes, I’m really annoyed that you did not come to my party.

Sometimes when people are upset they say and do things that they later regret. The polite thing to do in those situations is to apologize for your behavior. Apologies are appropriate not only for things you may have said or done to offend others, but also for things that may happen that are out of your control or things that happened by accident. Look at the expressions below that can be used in those situations.

English Expressions- Apologies

Expression: Please forgive me, ( … I didn’t mean to imply that you were stupid).
Response: No problem.

Expression: I apologize for ( …calling your father fat).
Response: That’s OK, I forgive you

Expression: Will you ever forgive me?
Response: Of course I forgive you.

Expression: I’m so sorry ( … I spilt the milk on your new carpet).
Response: Don’t worry about it.

Expression: I’m sorry for ( … being late).
Response: Think nothing of it.

Dialogue- Describing Emotions

Kevin: How is you new job Gertrude?
Gertrude: Well, it could be better.
Kevin: Why, what’s the problem?
Gertrude: One of my subordinates isn’t very nice. He seems to think that he should have got the job instead
     of me so he has a big chip on his shoulder. How are things in your life?
Kevin: Couldn’t be better. My wife Mary just got a promotion, our daughter was accepted into Harvard, and
     I just made a killing in the stock market.
Gertrude: That’s great.

Conversation Activities- Describing Emotions

1. Pair work- discussion
      When did you last experience some of the emotions listed above? Tell your partner about it,
     using some of the ideas for discussion below. Your partner should ask questions to get more information.

when it was
where it was
who you were with
what caused you to feel that way
what you did to overcome that feeling (if it was a negative feeling)

2. Pair work- discussion
      Have you done something recently that you regretted and later apologized for? Tell your partner about it,
     using some of the ideas for discussion below. Your partner should ask questions to get more information.

when and where it was
what did you do
who was involved
why you regretted it
what you did or said to apologize
was your apology accepted

3. Pair Work- Role Play
      Working with a partner, role play the situation, using the information below

The situation: The three emotions below

The roles: See below

A. Anger You are a college student and your partner is your parent. You want to go to the beach for a one week vacation with some classmates.Your parents are adamant that you stay home and study English.
Student’s ideas	Parent’s ideas
? need a break	? need to be fluent if going to study abroad
? have not had a vacation in 5 years	? need to get very high scores on English proficiency tests
? got A’s in English last semester so don’t need to study	? afraid you might get in trouble if
? your friend will pay for everything	? don’t like the people you are going with (they are bad influences)
? need to recharge your batteries so you will not burn out	? you can’t swim and are afraid you will drown
? have worked hard all semester and deserve a reward
B. Fear You are afraid of heights and your partner is trying to convince you to look over the edge of the Grand Canyon.
Person 1 ideas	Person 2 ideas
? you will fall over the edge and die	? the railing will protect you
? you can see well enough where you are	? you should over come your phobia
? you will have nightmares if you look	? you will regret it forever if you don’t look
? you will buy a post card for the memory	? young children will laugh at you and make fun of you
? you will get sick and throw up if you look over the edge	? don’t be a chicken
C. Greed You are an eight year old child and your partner is your friend. You are at a candy store and you have lots of money, but your friend has none. You buy a big bag of candy, but refuse to share with your friend
Child 1 ideas	Child 2 ideas
? you bought it, so you will eat it all	? if he/she doesn’t share, you won’t like your friend anymore
? you are very hungry	? you are very hungry too
? if you share, your friend will get fat	? your friend will get fat
? if you share, it will ruin your friend’s teeth	? will ruin your friend’s teeth
? your friend didn’t share her ice cream the day before	? you will tell his or her mommy
	? will tell all their friends that she or he is greedy and mean