Learn how to use the verb "Feel"
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| Hi, everybody. Welcome back to "Know Your Verbs." My name is Alisha. And, in this episode, we're going to talk about the verb "feel." Let's get started. |
| The basic definition of the verb "feel" is to experience a physical sensation or an emotion. Some examples, "I felt awful today," "She must feel great after her jog." |
| Now, let's look at the conjugations for this verb. Present, feel, feels. Past, felt Past participle, felt. Progressive, feeling. So, now let's talk about some additional meanings for this verb. The first additional meaning is to use the sense of touch to understand the characteristics of something. Some examples, "Feel this fabric! It's so soft!" The doctor felt the patient's forehead." So, these examples show us that someone is using their sense of touch to understand like the characteristics or the features or like the situation in some way. |
| In the first example sentence, it's a command. Like, “feel this fabric,” in other words, touch this fabric. Come understand the way this fabric feels by touching it. So, to "feel" something in this way, like you're trying to get an understanding of that material. So, you use your sense of touch. In the second example sentence, "The doctor felt the patient's forehead," it refers to a doctor placing his or her hand on the patient's forehead to understand like the patient's temperature or maybe some other like condition of the patient. So, it's touching in order to understand something. |
| The second additional meaning is to seem, to seem. Let's look at some examples. "This doesn't feel right," "It feels like summer!" So, this use of "feel" doesn't refer to an actual physical sensation. It doesn't refer to touching something. Actually, we use it in the way we would use the word "seem." So, we are using "feel" and "seem" to mean like kind of something that's maybe similar to something else, or something that we get kind of an impression of but we can't always confirm. So, let's look at the examples then. |
| "This doesn't feel right," “This doesn't feel right.” So, here, we could replace "feel" with "seem." So, we use this expression when we're in a situation where something seems strange, or maybe negative or dangerous, "This doesn't feel right." So, "This doesn't seem right," is the meaning. So, it seems like something might not be good or might not be correct in the situation. So, there's no physical sensation there. It's just kind of our thinking, just our opinion. |
| In the second example sentence, there's not necessarily a physical sensation. When we say, "It feels like summer!" Like, we can talk about perhaps the surrounding area there. Maybe there's like a festival, or there are lots of people out, or it's a hot day but it's not actually summer. So, it feels like it's not necessarily just a temperature statement. It's just kind of a general experience-related statement. So, today feels like summer. It, like overall, the experience is similar to summer here. |
| The next additional meaning is to have sympathy or understanding for someone. Examples, "She really feels for her roommate. He lost his job," "I feel you. Don't worry, we'll fix this problem." One quick point here is about the expression "to feel for someone." You saw this in the first example sentence like, "I feel for you," or "She feels for her roommate." We commonly use "feel" for someone when we're talking about expressing sympathy. So, in the first example sentence, "She feels for her roommate. He lost his job," that means she is expressing sympathy or understanding for her roommate. She has some kind of emotional response, wanting to support that person. We use the verb "feel" to express that. |
| In the second example sentence, we see the very casual expression, "I feel you," I feel you. "I feel you" is used when we're listening to a close friend. We're understanding their story, understanding their situation. We are giving them sympathy giving them support. You could say, "I feel you. Don't worry, we'll fix this problem." So, typically, it's in a situation where the other person needs some help or needs some advice. You can say, "I feel you." It's very casual, perhaps younger people would say this more often. But, when you're talking about someone else like, "I feel for you," it sounds a little bit more like you're expressing sympathy. In the expression, "I feel you." it's like I understand you. I got you. "I feel for you," sounds like I feel sad or I feel bad about what happened to you. With, "I feel you," it doesn't have that same nuance. |
| The next additional meaning is to have an opinion about something. Some examples, "How do you feel about this change?" "She feels strongly about personal privacy laws." So, this use of "feel" is related to having an opinion about something. In the first example sentence, "How do you feel about this change?" It means, what are your opinions about this change? What do you think about this change? "How do you feel about this?" also suggests like, do you have an emotional reaction to the situation? So, it's like, what do you think and what is your emotional response here? So, "How do you feel about this change?" You could say, "I think it's a good idea, but I'm really unhappy," for example. So, it's like opinion and emotions are together here. |
| In the second example sentence, "She feels strongly about personal privacy laws." It means she has a strong opinion about personal privacy laws. So, again, that sounds like an opinion. She has a strong opinion about personal privacy laws, yes. And, maybe there's some kind of emotional component. There's like a part of her opinion that is also related to an emotional reaction. So, "feel" used in this way for opinions is like, yes, there's a thought, an opinion, and an emotion combined here. So, we can use the word "feel" to describe that. |
| Let's move along to some variations with this verb. The first variation is "to feel out." "To feel out," or "to feel something out," means to try to understand something without being direct, like without directly asking a question. Let's look at some examples. "When you meet with management, see if you can feel out how things might change next year," "She's feeling out the situation before making any big decisions." So, both of these example sentences use "feel out" to mean try to get information in an indirect way. |
| In the first example sentence, it's about meeting with management. So, the person who is going to the meeting is going to try to get information about something, like changes in the following year. But, they're not going to ask direct questions. We know this because the expression "feel out" is used. So, "try to feel out" means try to just kind of gently gather information. Instead of saying, "What are the plans for next year?" Maybe you ask very indirect questions, or you take notes carefully, or you listen carefully to small things people say that give you hints about the situation. So, "to feel out" means not to be direct but to try to gather information. |
| In the second example sentence, "She's feeling things out before making any big decisions," it's referring to the same thing. She's trying to gather information in an indirect way. So, she's not asking direct questions, she's just trying to kind of quietly get the information she needs before she makes a big decision. So, "to feel something out" means to take this indirect approach to information gathering. |
| So, the next variation is the expression "to feel somebody up," to feel somebody up. This means to touch someone in an intimate way, and we typically use this in inappropriate situations. So, maybe somebody does not want to be touched in an intimate way, but someone does. So, this is something that you might hear in casual descriptions of like news stories where someone has touched another person inappropriately. Some examples, "The news mentioned a serious problem of a man feeling up women on a crowded commuter train," "She felt me up at the bar! I was shocked!" So, both of these example sentences show typical uses of the expression "to feel someone up." So, it means that someone is being touched very closely in intimate parts of their body, and typically without permission or without having a close relationship with that person. So, it's often a stranger, someone you do not expect, who touches inappropriately. So, in the first example sentence, it's a strange man who "feels up," who touches inappropriately women on a commuter train. In the second example sentence, it's a woman who touches someone inappropriately at a bar. We see, "I was shocked!" in the second example sentence. So, this shows that the behavior was inappropriate, the behavior was unexpected and inappropriate. We use "feel up" in this way. So, when you want to talk about a positive experience, if like of an intimate physical contact, we typically do not use the expression "feel up." When we're describing inappropriate physical contact, we do use the expression "feel up" to refer to very close touching of someone. Typically, in like they're very intimate places. So, it's not a word with a positive nuance at all. |
| Alright. So, those are a few new ways I hope that you can use the verb "feel." Of course, if you have any questions or comments, or if you know a different way of using the verb "feel," please feel free to let us know in the comment section of this video. Thanks very much for watching this episode of "Know Your Verbs," and we'll see you again soon. Bye. |
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