Name: English Lesson - 10 Ways to Respond to Bad News in English
Uploaded: 2019-04-24T03:14:26.000Z
Duration: 7 min 37 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

To-infinitive

In this English lesson I'll help you learn
10 ways to respond to someone in English if

they share news about their life that's kind
of disappointing.

So I'll look at 10 different scenarios, 10
different examples and then I'll give you

an English phrase for each of those 10 that
you could use in that situation.

The first thing you could say if someone shares
disappointing news with you is, "That's too

So let's imagine a situation where you have
a friend who, they applied for a job, they

went and interviewed for that job and they've
been waiting to hear back whether they got

the job or not, and then they just called
you and said they didn't get the job.

It would be very nice of you to say, "Ah that's
too bad!"

When you say, "That's too bad!", especially
in that situation it makes them feel, of course,

that you're their friend and it makes them
feel that you are being sympathetic to them.

So number one you could say, "That's too bad!"

The second thing you could say if a friend
shares disappointing news with you is, "That

It's kind of a little bit of English slang,
but let's imagine a situation where a friend

So they had a job and they weren't doing a
very good job and now they have been let go.

So when you say someone's been let go it means
they've been fired.

Maybe they phoned you up and they say, "Oh,
I just got let go from my job today!"

You could respond by saying, "That sucks!"

Which is actually a perfect response in that
situation to say, "That sucks!" because you

like your friend, you think your friend's
probably a good worker and you really feel

So, "That sucks!", is the second way that
you could respond.

The third way that you could respond to disappointing
news is to say, "That's a shame!" or "What

So let's imagine again that you have friend
and they call you and they say, "My son just

got kicked out of his school for doing bad
things."

You could say to them, "Ah, what a shame!"

Because maybe in this situation you know the
kid.

Maybe you know this person's son and maybe
he's really smart and you feel like even though

he did something bad it would of been better
if he stayed in school.

So you could say to them, "Ah, that's a shame!"
or you could say, "What a shame!"

A fourth thing that you could say to someone
if they express something disappointing to

you is just say, "Oh, that's so disappointing!"

So we're, we're using the actual word here.

Maybe your brother is talking to you and he
says, "Yeah I went to a party the other day,

and when I got there all the food was already
gone.

That would be a great time to say, "Ah, that's
so disappointing!" or "That must have been

so disappointing!" because no one likes to
get to a party late and not get any snacks.

A fifth way to express that you agree with
someone that something's disappointing is

And this is a little bit of slang again, but
let's imagine a situation where a friend of

yours plays on a football team and they almost
won the championship.

That would be a, a great time when they tell
you that, that would be a great time to say,

"Ah, what a bummer!" or "You must have really
been bummed out!"

Because it's pretty disappointing to be one
point away from winning a championship.

A sixth that you could say in response to
disappointing news or when someone shares

something is just to say, "That's stinks!'

So we smell with our nose, when something
doesn't smell good we say, "That stinks!",

but we can also say, "That stinks!" when we're
talking about something that isn't going well

So let's say someone says to you, "My cousin
borrowed my car and he got in an accident."

A really good response would be, "That stinks!"
because that does stink.

I would be really annoyed if my cousin borrowed
my car and then smashed it up or got in an

So another way to respond is to say, "That
stinks!"

A seventh way to respond when someone shares
disappointing or bad news with you is to just

We usually use this in situations where it
really isn't good.

So a good example would be, maybe a friend
says, "My brother got arrested for stealing

A great response then would be, "That's not
good!" because you're, you're expressing some

sympathy, you feel bad that that person has
a relative who committed a crime, so you feel

bad for that person but you could definitely
in that situation just say, "That's not good!"

Hopefully none of you are in that situation.

An eighth way to respond to someone is to
say, "That's a pain in the butt!"

If you go a little further down it's the back
end here.

It has another word in English which is A-S-S.

But we do say that things are a pain in the
butt.

So maybe someone has a brother who's constantly
borrowing their car and bringing it back with

That, that would be a good time to say, "That's
a pain in the butt!" or "That must be a real

If my brother was borrowing my car and bringing
it back empty, that would be a pain in the

Another way to respond to someone if they
say for instance that they keep losing their

car keys would be to say, "That's annoying!"

So when something's annoying it means it bugs
you.

So if someone said, "Ah I just, I keep losing
my car keys and I can never find them back

A good way to respond to that would be to
say, "That's annoying!" or "That would be

And again it's, it's sympathetic, like you're
actually saying to the person that you agree

with them that the situation they are in is
annoying.

A tenth way to respond when someone shares
something with you that's not good news could

So a good example of this would be if you
have a huge cake for someone's birthday and

as you're carrying it to the table you drop
it on the floor and someone, maybe someone's