Expressions to use When you Feel Down

Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha.

In this lesson, I'm going to talk about some expressions you can use when you feel down. I'm going to talk about some ways that you can express your own emotions and some things that you can say to try to fix someone's down mood.

So, let's get started!

Okay, the first expression is “I'm feeling lonely.”

“I'm feeling lonely.”

Here, I'm using “feeling” in this progressive tense, so this means like in the moment of speaking, you have this lonely emotion. You can say, “I'm feeling lonely,” I'm feeling lonely. So, “lonely” is an adjective we use when we feel apart from other people. We don't feel connected to other people. Maybe we didn't meet our friends or we didn't see our family members or we've spent a lot of time alone. We can describe that feeling with “lonely,” the adjective “lonely.”

For example:

“I didn't see my friends last weekend. I'm feeling lonely.”

“I’m feeling lonely.”

So, “lonely” is an adjective specific to being disconnected from people.

Let's compare this to this expression,” I'm sad.”

“I'm sad.”

You can say “I'm feeling sad” too as well, if you like.

But “I'm sad” is a more general expression for that kind of down feeling. So, we use “sad” when something unhappy has happened. So, maybe we lost something important to us or a family member or a pet or something passed away which means they died or perhaps if we lost our job or something really unpleasant happens in our lives or even just something small that's unpleasant happens, like we watched a sad movie, we can describe that feeling with “sad.”

So, different from “lonely,” “sad” doesn't mean like you feel disconnected from another person. It's just the general kind of down emotion, that down feeling, an unhappy feeling and it's usually caused by something. So, some people might feel sad because of, like, the weather. The weather is unpleasant. It's rainy, stormy, so people might say I feel sad or I'm sad.

Another example:

“My pet died, I'm sad.”

So, “sad” refers to this unhappy feeling. It’s a very general unhappy feeling.

Okay. Let's go to the next expression which is “I'm disappointed in…” or

I'm disappointed with…” and then [a person]. So we tend to use this expression when some person has caused us to feel disappointed. So, “disappointed” is different from sad and lonely, in that “disappointed” is used to express unhappy feelings when someone did not fulfill our expectations.

So, for example, if we thought our co-worker would finish a project or finish a report on time or something we really needed, but they didn't, we can say we feel disappointed. We had some expectation for someone and they didn't meet the expectation. They didn't do the thing they said they would do. So, we describe that sad feeling, that down feeling with the adjective “disappointed.”

And we use the preposition “in” or we use “with” after this.

“I'm disappointed in [person].”

Or, “I'm disappointed with [person].”

So there are perhaps some cases where you might use a situation like a specific circumstance instead of a person here, but in a lot of cases, we use this to talk about a specific person like we had an expectation for this person and they did not meet it.

For example:

“My friend didn't come to my birthday party. I'm disappointed in him.”

So, notice here, “I'm disappointed in him” is okay. “I'm disappointed with him” is also okay.

For a woman, we would say:

“I'm disappointed in her.”

For a group of people:

“I'm disappointed in them.”

So, you can use “in” or “with” here and we usually use this to talk about people who did not meet our expectations.

Okay, let's move on to the next expression.

The next expression is “I don't know what to do about (something).”

So, this is generally a noun phrase and it's a problem of some kind.

“I don't know what to do…”

“What to do” is like I don't know what the next action should be or I don't know what my next step should be in this situation.

So, for example:

“I don't know what to do about my horrible boss.”

So here, “my horrible boss,” it’s a pretty strong statement. The speaker has a problem with a really bad boss. So, I don't know what to do. So, I don't know how to fix, in other words. I don't know what the next step is in this situation. I don't know what to do about this thing.

And we usually say this with this very downward intonation.

“I don't know what to do about my horrible boss.”

So, we're kind of looking for advice when we use this phrase.

Okay. The next expression is “I'm tired of…”

[I'm tired of] + [a noun phrase]

You can use a person here, like “I'm tired of him” or “I'm tired of her” or “I'm tired of you.” You could also use “this” or “that,” maybe. More commonly, I feel like this, like “I'm tired of this,” this task, for example.

So, this can be used to describe a down feeling, yes, and you can also use it, sometimes if you just feel angry like you've been doing the same task over and over all day and you feel like so bored, you can say, “I'm tired of this” with kind of an angry voice.

For this lesson, we're focusing on this kind of down feeling.

So, for example, you might say:

“I'm tired of worrying about my co-worker’s mistakes.”

So here, “worrying,” “I'm tired of worrying.” This -ING part of the verb, this shows us that this is actually the noun form. We've made a noun out of the verb to worry by using the -ING form.

“I'm tired of worrying about my co-worker’s mistakes.”

So, we can use some kind of, like, complaint in this pattern as well.

All right. The next one, “I'm frustrated with (something).”

So, notice, we're using “with” after “frustrated” here. Different from disappointed, we do not use “in.” We don't say, “I'm frustrated in (something).” We say, “I'm frustrated with (something).”

So, “frustrated” is different from disappointed, sad, and lonely, because “frustrated” refers to something we've tried to do many times and we continue to fail. So, even though we give our best efforts or even though we're trying very hard, we continue to fail like, usually, many times. We describe that unhappy feeling with “I'm frustrated.” So, it can feel, like, very sad and it can feel angry sometimes too.

So, for example:

“I'm frustrated with my computer.”

This is a very common source of frustrated feelings.

“I'm frustrated with my computer.”

So maybe, I tried to fix my computer or I've tried to do something on my computer and I can't. It kept failing, so we can use “frustrated” to describe that. The noun form is “frustration,” frustration.

Okay. Let's move on to one more expression, “I've been feeling down lately.”

So, this is similar to the first expression, “I'm feeling lonely.” You'll notice, in the first expression, I said “I'm feeling lonely.” Here, “I’ve been feeling down lately.” So, the difference in grammar here shows this feeling, “I've been feeling,” I have been feeling, this started in the past and continues to the point where the speaker is talking now. This, “I'm feeling lonely” means now, in this moment, I'm feeling lonely. So, maybe it didn't start in the past and continued to now. It's just in this moment. Here though, “I've been feeling” means from a point in the past until now, the speaker has felt down. So, this “lately” is another clue, in the recent days.

So for example:

“I've been feeling down lately. I haven't had much time away from work.”

So, when we use “down,” it's again a very general feeling, kind of like sad, so it's like there was no specific thing that happened, but our mood is down. So, when I say our mood is down, I mean we don't feel happy. So, this is a situation you might feel down. I haven't had much time away from work, so I'm just working, working, working, working, I can't see my friends or I can't see my family, I don't have free time, I'm feeling down or I've been feeling down lately.

So, this is a good expression to use for that kind of general unhappy feeling, if there's not like a specific reason for it maybe, but it's just maybe kind of your general feeling, I guess.

So, let's talk then a little bit about some expressions you can use to try to fix the situation. So, these are some supportive phrases that you can use. So, if someone, like in your office or your friend or your family member says one of these expressions, you can try to be supportive with one of these.

So, the first expression here is “to take one's mind off of (something).”

“To take one's mind off of (something.”

So, this means to remove someone's focus on a problem. So, “to take one's mind,” take someone's mind, so a mind is your brain, so your focus, in other words, your thoughts. “Off of,” so if you imagine your brain is on (something), a negative situation or a problem, this means to remove someone's focus from that problem.

For example:

“Let's watch a funny movie. It will take your mind off of work stress.”

So here, “let's watch a funny movie.” So, the funny movie is the method to remove focus from work stress. We express that with, “It'll” so this, “it” is “it will,” it being the movie. It will take your mind off- off of (removing), so off of work stress. So, work stress is the cause of the problem or is the problematic situation. The funny movie will remove your focus from that. So, we express that with “take someone's mind off of (something).

Okay. The next expression is “to cheer someone up.”

“To cheer someone up.”

Please note that “to cheer” and “to cheer someone up” are different.

“To cheer” as just a plain verb means like to support someone and we use it in sports a lot, like to cheer for a team, like to cheer for a player.

“To cheer someone up,” this expression means to try to improve someone's mood.

For example:

“Risa seems down today. Let's try to cheer her up.”

“Let's try to cheer her up.”

So, I've replaced someone with her. You can use him or them for more than one person. “Let's try to cheer her up” means let's try to improve her mood. So make sure you use “to cheer up,” to cheer someone up, not to cheer, it's not quite right.

“To cheer (someone) up.”

Okay. The next expression is “to lighten the mood.”

“To lighten the mood.”

We use this expression, as you can imagine, when the mood usually in a room or in a conversation becomes dark. So, like the conversation topic gets very dark and unhappy and people feel uncomfortable or nervous or very sad, or maybe people feel lonely. So, “to lighten the mood” means to improve the mood, to make the situation feel happier, to make the situation a little bit better.

For example:

“Everyone was disappointed after the meeting, so I bought the team donuts to try and lighten the mood.”

So, this “to try” means to attempt to lighten the mood, to try and lighten the mood. We could say “to try to lighten the mood” as well. So, I wanted to lighten the mood, I wanted to improve the feeling in the conversation in the situation, so I bought the team donuts. So, it's trying to bring up a down mood, in this case, a disappointed feeling, trying to improve that disappointed feeling. So, “to lighten the mood” refers to this.

Finally, this expression, “to be a good friend.”

“To be a good friend.”

You might hear this after you cheer someone up or after you lighten the mood.

“Thanks for being a good friend.”

So, for many people, you can be a good friend just by listening to someone, like hearing their problem or you can just give them some advice or maybe you can offer to help them fix a problem somehow. So, there are many different things you can do to support someone. You can be a good friend. So, that's what this means.

It doesn't mean, like, to be best friends with someone. It means to actively try to help someone, to be a good friend. So, you're supporting them in some way.

So, these are some positive phrases that you can use to try to support someone who may be feeling down.

So, I hope that this lesson had some useful expressions in it for both those down feelings and for kind of supporting someone who is feeling down. Of course, if you have any questions or comments or if you want to practice making sentences with some of these expressions, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video. Also, if you like this lesson, please don't forget to give the video a thumbs up, subscribe to our channel, if you have not already, and check us out in EnglishClass101.com for some other things that can help you with your English studies.

Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon. Bye-bye!

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