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  • Hi. I'm Gill from engVid

  • and today in this lesson we're going to be looking at some moods,

  • emotions, feelings, and state of mind which means what your... What state your head is

  • in. Okay? Whether it's good or bad. But in this lesson it's all the not so good examples.

  • In fact, we're looking at three areas of feelings: Anger, fear, and confusion. So it's a little

  • heavy. We call that heavy.

  • Heavy, but it's important to know this vocabulary. And you

  • probably already know the basic words: "angry", "afraid" or "scared", "confused". But again,

  • it's useful to have a wider vocabulary for use in everyday life talking to people, to

  • friends, to other people. If you're taking exams, whether it's written or spoken, again,

  • it's good to have a good range of different words that mean the same things or similar

  • things. Okay, so...

  • And it's important. I mean, these are difficult subjects. Like, I say heavy. When we say "heavy"

  • it means it's a difficult subject to talk about, but it's important to talk about feelings

  • like this because say you're talking to a friend about it, it's helping you to understand

  • yourself and if you have a good friend who is a good listener, they will help you by

  • listening and understanding. So it's really good to be able to explain your feelings in

  • a very precise way, not just saying:

  • "Ah, I felt angry. I felt scared. I was confused."

  • But to be able to say more... More than that. Okay. In English. So, anyway, let's start

  • with the angry words.

  • So, anger: "angry". Okay? You probably know that word already. "Mad", that's a more colloquial,

  • informal sort of word but means angry. "Mad" can also mean someone who's, you know, they're

  • not very... Oh dear.

  • They have a problem in their mind. They're... They're not thinking

  • rationally. But in this meaning, this casual meaning, "mad" can mean angry.

  • "Oh, I was so mad with that woman. She was so rude to me. She makes me so mad."

  • It means the same as angry.

  • "Irritable". Now, if you're irritable it's just everything annoys you. Irritation.

  • Okay, sometimes it can be just irritation can mean something on your skin that you have

  • to scratch, that's a kind of an irritation. There's also people can irritate you by the

  • things they do, the things they say. And if you're feeling more irritated than usual,

  • then that's maybe because you're tired or something else has upset you earlier, or whatever.

  • So, "irritable" is just everything, everything makes you angry. Okay.

  • "Prickly" is a bit similar.

  • "Prickly", it means... Oh dear. There's an animal called a hedgehog. I don't know

  • if you know this animal, but I'm going to attempt to draw it.

  • People love hedgehogs.

  • They're so cute. They have a lovely, little face. But they also have very sharp, like,

  • needles sticking out to protect them. So, they have all these points sticking out, and

  • if you touch them it's probably: "Ouch", like touching the end of a needle or a pin. They're

  • very sharp. But they're called prickles.

  • These sharp things are called prickles. So if someone's

  • prickly, it's as if they got these sharp things all over them and if you say... You can say

  • anything to them and they will react in a bad way as if you've said something rude when

  • you had no intention to be rude. They just react badly. That person is prickly. So it

  • helps to be able to say:

  • "That woman I work with, she is so prickly. I can't say anything to her.

  • I've stopped talking to her because it's impossible."

  • "Prickly", okay.

  • "Touchy" is similar. You touch... To touch. "Touchy" means like "prickly", you just say one thing

  • to someone and they react badly as if you've touched them and it hurt or something. Okay?

  • Okay, we're back to something a bit more normal now. "Upset". If you're upset you're probably

  • about to cry. You're going to be crying any minute with tears if you're upset. Okay. "Upset".

  • "Furious" is a more extreme word for "angry". We have the word "fury".

  • "Fury", it's extreme

  • anger, so very, very angry. "Furious". I was furious when that woman said that to me. Okay.

  • And similar, now we're getting into some idioms. Here's an idiom. "Blowing your top". If you

  • blow your top... This is your top, your head, and if you blow your top you just shout very

  • loudly at somebody and lose your temper. Ah, there's another one: "lose your temper".

  • If you lose your temper you stop being a nice, calm person, and you get angry and you shout,

  • and all of that. So, "blowing your top" it's like if you think of a pressure cooker, something

  • that you cook things in and the stream comes out at the top when it gets hot or it explodes.

  • If something explodes, that's blowing your top. It's like an explosion.

  • Just exploding everywhere. Okay? "Blowing your top".

  • And this is a bit similar and I think this is

  • a more recent term: "going off on one" just means getting annoyed about something and

  • just talking, and being angry, and saying things, and it continues for quite a long

  • time. You just keep saying how angry you are.

  • "Going off on one". I don't know what one

  • is, but it's sort of just you just start and you don't finish because you're so angry,

  • you just keep complaining. Okay, so those are a few terms for anger. Right.

  • So, let's move on then to fear. "Afraid" you probably know. "Scared". "Scared" is a bit

  • more colloquial, more informal, more casual. So, in conversation you'd say you were scared

  • about something, about an exam or something. "Frightened", you probably know that one.

  • These two: "timid" and "timorous", that's usually somebody who is always like that.

  • A timid person, someone who is always quiet and shy, and they're not very brave so they don't...

  • They don't complain to people in shops if they've been given a bad product

  • or anything. They're too timid. They're a bit like a mouse. People say:

  • "As timid as a mouse." So if you think of a mouse, and the way it runs away and hides, that's timid.

  • And "timorous" is the adjective. Okay? Oh, more extreme again:

  • "terrified". If you're really, really frightened, absolutely terrified.

  • This comes from the word "terror", "terror"

  • and "terrified". That is the more extreme version of fear. And if you're "spooked",

  • you may have seen a ghost or something, or something's frightened you and you don't know

  • what it is, but just totally spooked and you can't get back to normal for a while. So,

  • because "a spook" is another word for a ghost.

  • If you've ever seen a ghost, perhaps you were

  • spooked. I've never seen a ghost and I don't really want to. Okay, so that's fear.

  • So then finally, looking at "confusion", and this is your state of mind, how things are

  • inside your head. Okay? "Confused", maybe sometimes the English language you find...

  • You feel confused to do with grammar and all of that. And "puzzled". Puzzle.

  • You also get in newspapers and magazines there's often a puzzle or a quiz that you do. Like we have

  • the quiz on engVid, but a puzzle is usually something difficult that you have to work

  • out. So if you're puzzled, your mind is not understanding something. Okay.

  • "Muddled", and again, the noun is "muddle".

  • That is when things are sort of mixed... Just mixed up.

  • Did we put "mixed up"? No. So that's another one.

  • "Mixed up". Okay? If things are all mixed

  • up and you can't think clearly in one straight line, it's all mixed up in your head. Okay?

  • "In a muddle", "muddled", "in a muddle", it's all confused inside your head. You can't think

  • straight. "Mixed up", oh, it's there. Okay. Sorry. Now I'm "feeling stupid" because I

  • didn't see that there and I've written it again here. Feeling stupid. Ah, I feel so

  • stupid and I did it on camera, too. That's terrible. Okay. If you say:

  • "Aw, I'm feeling so stupid"

  • because there's something you can't understand, your head is so confused. Okay.

  • "Out of my depth", that's a useful idiom. Idiom. It's a little bit like if you're in

  • a swimming pool and you maybe... You go in at the shallow end where you can get your

  • feet on the ground and your head above the water, but if you start going towards the

  • deep end of the pool your feet come off the floor and you're sort of floating, and you're

  • trying to keep your head above the water but you can't put your feet down anymore. And

  • that means, you know, you're not tall enough to touch the floor of the swimming pool anymore.

  • That means you're out of your depth, the depth of the water. Okay? So if it's a new subject

  • that you... Or a subject that you don't understand very well... I mean, for me, it would be science.

  • I don't understand a lot about science, so with quantum physics I would be out of my depth.

  • Okay. So, right. You can say: "I'm lost" or "I feel lost". It doesn't mean you're

  • just out in the street and you don't know where you are. You're lost inside your head.

  • Okay? And: "My head is all over the place."

  • Oh, my head is all over the place. It's as

  • if all your thoughts are in different places, and you can't bring things together properly,

  • you can't think clearly. "My head is all over the place." "I don't know where I am." Again,

  • it's not in the street where you're lost and you can't find where to go. It can mean inside

  • your head you don't know where you are with a subject. You could say:

  • "I don't know where I am with the English language at the moment. It's all very confusing."

  • But I promise you:

  • If you keep coming to engVid and watching all our lessons, it will get less confusing.

  • Okay?

  • So, that's a range of vocabulary then on anger, fear, and confusion. I hope that's been useful.

  • There's a quiz on the website: www.engvid.com. Please go and give it a try.

  • And see you next time. Bye.

Hi. I'm Gill from engVid

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