Expand Your Vocabulary: Say More Than “HAPPY” & “SAD”

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If I was the richest man in Babylon, if I was the richest man in...

James from engVid, reading a book about being the richest person.

I have feelings about that; I'm sure you do.

Some of you will say, "I'm happy.

I would be very happy.

I'd be extremely happy."

Well, that's kind of limited.

Some people also say "sad" or "tired" or "bored", and I want to give you a rainbow

of words to use to express how you feel, because learning a language is great, but

being able to express yourself is even better.

So I want to do a lesson today, or Ian and I want to, on how you feel, and I'm going

to try to introduce to you other words that

can help you express your emotions so people

can really know you.

And besides, you'll sound smarter, too.

Let's go to the board.

The first one we're looking at is "peaceful" and "satisfied".

You probably don't know this word, but it's a word you've seen many times for different

reasons, and it means, you know, you're generally happy.

Everything's kind of going okay for you.

Now, this word is "content".

You've probably seen it before, like "contents

of the bottle", "content this and that",

but it just means you're content because if you were a bottle, everything is okay.

Imagine a bottle of Coke, if you shake it, it explodes.

The contents, what's inside comes out, explodes.

But if you keep it just nice and, oh, calm,

the contents stay stable, nice, little bubbles

It's very pretty to look at.

That's you when you're content, sitting at home, watching a soccer game with a beer,

or a Coke and a piece of pizza with your favourite friend, content.

But let's move it up a notch.

You're content, which is great, but you know what makes me feel better?

When someone does something nice for me.

Or you do something nice for someone else.

You get a feeling, a different feeling than content, because it makes you a little bit

happier because you're not just happy because

you're happy, you're happy because another

person has come into your life, or you've gone into their life, and you've given them

something to make them happy.

When that happens, you get to be grateful.

It's like saying "thank you", but in your heart you feel the thank you.

So you're grateful if someone makes a meal for you and you're sick.

You're sick, you've got to take care of yourself,

your mother makes some soup for you, or your

dad makes some bread for you and brings it

to you, you're like, "Oh, thank you, I needed

You did it for me."

And that is a step above being content,

because content is just happy with yourself.

Now you're happy because someone has done something for you.

Isn't that cool?

And if you look at our picture, I almost forgot, this is the good side.

There's always a bad side.

So...

Now, what could be better than being grateful and, you know, being content?

Do you remember I said when you're content it's about you or I, right?

And I got too excited and I put an extra "I" in there.

It's not always about me and I.

But let's move down to number three.

Something has happened that gives you great pleasure.

What would that be?

Well, when you feel good, it's kind of funny, you feel light.

You feel light.

You feel like there's no weight on your shoulders, everything feels good.

You feel like you could just fly away, it feels so good.

So, I like this word because "delighted".

And you can use it in so many ways.

If your friend comes over to your house or says, you know, "I'm coming to Toronto, I

want to visit you", you say, "I would be delighted,

that would make me feel so good, it would

make my heart just sing and raise up", this is going to give you great pleasure.

So when you're delighted, you get great pleasure.

We said we're content, you're just peaceful.

You're happy just being you, like a rock.

When you're grateful, someone has done something

for you to make you feel good, or you have

done something for someone else and they are grateful.

But when something makes you delighted, it brings you pleasure.

So something, once again, on the outside is coming to give you pleasure.

A visit from a friend, if someone invites

you somewhere, "Could you come to my house?",

"Oh, I would be delighted.

It would give me pleasure."

We look at pleasure, it has the word "please", "pleasing" to make you happy.

We say "please" using our manners to say, you know, work with us, yeah?

"Pleasure", we get pleasure from doing whatever

it is, visiting someone, getting a gift, going

on vacation, being asked out on a date.

So, we're happy being alone, we're happy when

people do something for us, we're happy when

something gives us pleasure.

But this word is very interesting, because

it says here, "intense pleasure", so you go,

this is great pleasure?

Well, what's intense?

When I have a light and I shine a light on you, that's bright.

You know, like if I have a light, I shine it on you, like Doctor Who.

But when you look into the sun, don't do it during an eclipse like some people.

But when you look at the sun, it's very intense,

and you have to kind of close your eyes because

the light is too much.

But it's powerful.

So, when something's intense, it's got lots of power, yeah?

Some people are intense when they talk to you, they don't close their eyes ever, they

just stare at you.

It's kind of intense, right?

Well, this one, we have this, "ecstatic".

I'm not just happy, I'm just not delighted.

It means I've got the sun blowing out of me, I've got light coming...

I'm having a hard time with this word because

many people use it in religion to feel ecstasy,

and it means great pleasure or delight.

More than this.

So, you can be ecstatic to see someone, it means extremely happy.

You could be ecstatic to get on a vacation, right?

A vacation, going someplace, because it's a

place you've never been, you could be ecstatic.

You could be ecstatic to have a child, you

probably are, or hear great news that someone's

being born or you got a new job.

So we've gone up here, we've gone from

simple to lots of energy, but you know what?

Even though we're learning how to express

our emotions, because these are really cool.

You say I'm delighted, it's so much better than I'm very happy.

Very, very happy.

We have, you know, a little variation which makes you a much more interesting person to

speak to, and you get to let the person know how you're really feeling.

You tell me you're ecstatic to come to my

house instead of delighted, I'm so happy now

You've helped me become happy.

I'm grateful about that.

But, in every...

Every perfect, you know, weather there's always going to be some rain.

And now we're going to talk about life's not

always good, and you're not always going to

be happy, and sometimes, you know, well, you've got to deal with it.

But what are some words besides "I am sad", and "I am tired", and "I am bored" can we

use to express our feelings?

Well, we'll go back to the first one.

Remember what "content" means, peaceful and satisfied?

What happens if your life gives you no satisfaction?

What would you say then?

Well, you would be this.

So, discontent, you're not happy with your life.

And I said life, job, lover, what have you.

But picture this, okay?

This is number two.

Imagine you're eating food.

You eat here, you eat here.

The food is coming up.

Now you can feel the food here.

You're still going to eat.

Now, you're feeding yourself, but the past tense of "feed" is "fed".

And once you get to a certain level, you just

can't eat anymore because there's too much.

You're just fed up.

I cannot take any more.

Not another bite.

Not another bite.

So, I am fed up.

So, that's when you have a problem, and

you're tired of the problem, you said no more.

I do not want to deal with this problem anymore.

"Not anymore", and that's "fed up".

So, you're fed up, or sometimes, sometimes we say this, you know when people say this?

Sick and tired.

Parents in North America love to say this.

"I'm sick and tired of you not cleaning your room.

I'm fed up with you making a mess in the house."

Your boss could say that to you as well.

You might be discontent, but they're fed up with your bad attitude.

Personally, I think you've got a great attitude.

You're still here.

Next, number three.

Have you ever pushed on something?

Like imagine I'm pushing on a door or a wall,

and it won't move, and I'm trying and I really

want it to move, but it won't move, it won't change.

You get frustrated.

That's this word here.

You are not able to do something that you want to do.

You want to go to another country, but I don't

know, your passport is expired, or you don't

have enough money, and you're like, "I'm so frustrated.

All the things I want to do, I'm not able to do them."

See, this is better than sad.

Like, "Teacher, I'm so sad.

I cannot go home to my country.

No, I'm frustrated.

I want to see my friends and my family.

Something is stopping me from doing what I want."

And I can feel it.

Like, you being sad, especially when you're sad

about everything, but when you're frustrated,

I can feel frustrated.

Like, sometimes I talk too fast for you, and

it gets you frustrated, but you're smart enough

to come back and learn and push, because

you can always change frustration with work.

But frustrated.

Try and think of things that frustrate you.

Trying to listen to fast talkers, trying to speak without an accent.

Can be frustrating, because you're working and you want it to change, but maybe it's

not changing yet.

Now, the last one is really serious.

Funny enough, when I talked about ecstatic over here, and I said, like, you're full of

energy and it could be almost a religious experience, you know, or, you know, giving

birth to a child, someone having a baby, there...

We don't seem to think there's a limit to you being ecstatic.

You're allowed to be happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy.

As much as you like.

However, if you're fed up, you can't deal with another problem, you're done with it,

you're frustrated because nothing changes, you might be sad.

Day, two days, three days.

But if this goes on for weeks or months, you go into a place depressed.

Now, you notice when I wrote "depressed" here,

it says you are miserable for a long time.

"Miserable" is like another word for "sad",

so there, I taught you one I wasn't planning

But for a long time, so you need medical treatment.

If you tell people you're depressed, they will give you medicine.

So be careful with that word.

But you should have it because if you have to go to a medical professional and you say

I've been depressed for a few days, they will

take you seriously and they will try to help

you as much as possible.

I mean, hopefully you're not depressed, and I don't think you are, but you might find

a family member that may be depressed because

they've been sad for a long time, and then

And this is what proper expression does, you

will have the power to get them the help that

So look out for that.

Look out for each other.

Now, here's one and it's in purple, and you'll

go, "You've got the red and the black, what's

the purple one for?"

Well, this one happens because sometimes, right, we get...

Or...

Well, this is when you have what we call conflicting emotions, confused or mixed up.

Conflict is when you're fighting.

One side is fighting the other, like our emotions are fighting here.

When you have conflicting emotions, something

bad has happened, but you kind of feel good

because it kind of helps, but you feel bad about it happening to someone else, and you

feel mixed up inside or confused.

You look here and it's like you have conflicting

emotions, fighting emotions about a situation,

or you don't understand.

Sometimes you don't understand something, so you're confused by it.

I'm confused that I like this person here, I

like this girl, but she doesn't really like

me and I don't know why I like her, so I'm confused by my liking her.

Or I mixed up emotions, I got the promotion,

but now I will spend less time with my family,

I'm not too sure how I feel.

So you can use this or these expressions to show to people that you have two different

emotions from being content from where you are, but discontented in another situation.

Sometimes these things happen, and we don't have what we call a pure emotion.

You can have a good one and a bad one at the same time.

And when you're having conflicts, it leads to confusion about how you want to express

yourself or be understood by others.

Anyway, I'm hoping this lesson was not a confusing

one for you, and that you've got nine different

ways now to express yourself.

Get out of the happy, sad, bad, boring box

that you've been in and say, you know, "Today's

been a pretty good day.

I'm content with the work I've done", or "I'm

ecstatic that my buddy's coming to come see

I'm a little frustrated at work because they're

not letting me do the stuff I want, and I'm

fed up with my boss.

But you know what?

All these mixed up emotions have made me think

about my place in my life and what's going

on, and hopefully it's given you an opportunity

to think through things that are going on

Anyway, listen, hope you enjoyed the lesson on how do you feel about things.

Please go to www.engvid.com as in English, vid as in video to check out this video and

other videos from other great teachers that we have there.

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Anyway, take care.