12 Stronger English Nouns to Describe Feelings Clearly [520]

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In this episode, you’ll learn more precise English nouns for describing emotions. Instead of repeating simple words like happiness or anger, you’ll build a richer emotional vocabulary. I explain how these words are used in conversation and writing so you can express yourself more clearly and confidently.

Whether you're learning English for daily conversations, business, travel, or exams like IELTS, CAE or TOEFL, these vocabulary words will improve the way you describe feelings and emotions. By the end of this lesson, you’ll know how to use these emotion words correctly, avoid common vocabulary mistakes, and make your English sound more advanced.

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Transcript

0:09

Hi there, this is Harry. Welcome back to Advanced English Lessons with Harry, where I try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language, to help you with your conversational skills, your business English skills, interview skills, whatever your goals are, we're here to help. And for those of you and your friends or family who want one-to-one lessons, well, you know what to do. Just get in touch, www.englishlessonviaskype.com and you can apply for a free trial lesson and we'll be very happy to hear from you and very happy to help you. In this particular lesson, we're going to look at advanced nouns relating to emotions and feelings. So we've got 12 in this particular case and I'll go through them one by one, give you an example of what they mean and how you can use them. Okay, let's go through them one by one and try to explain them to you and give you an example. Agitation. Well, when somebody is agitated, they're usually anxious. There's a sign of anxiety about something. They are sitting there moving the hands and getting up, sitting down, getting up again. They're agitated for some reason. There's some excitement. Maybe they're agitated because they're waiting to get that letter telling them about their promotion. Maybe they're agitated because they're waiting to see have they had their offer for that house accepted. These are all reasons why people would be anxious, showing signs of anxiety or agitated. So that sign of agitation. There was a sign of agitation in his voice when he picked up the phone. Yes, who is it? Yeah, he was agitated because he was waiting for that all-important call to tell him that his offer for the house had been accepted. Agitation. Boastfulness. Well, when somebody is boastful, they're talking about something in a better light, that they are much better and greater than anybody else. So when somebody is full of boastfulness, it's full of this pride about how many sales they were able to capture this month, how great their car is, how big their bank balance is, how wonderful the holiday was. So full of boastfulness. Okay, so this really annoys people. It certainly annoys me. And most people don't like people who are boastful, who are there just to tell other people how good they happen to be. Much better being humble and full of humility. So boastfulness. Infatuation. Well, infatuation is usually a short-term love affair about something. Infatuated with the girl in the office, even though he knows he's never going to be able to ask her out because, in fact, she's got a boyfriend or she's married, but he just is infatuated. But it's short-term and he'll leave the office or she'll leave the office and then the infatuation will disappear. So when somebody is infatuated, it's usually something that lasts over short term. It's just something that they can't get out of their minds, that they think about that or they dream about that all the time, an infatuation. Humiliation. Well, we can all feel humiliated at times, you know, when somebody humiliates us deliberately in front of other people. So they, you know, they say something, they mock what you're wearing, they mock the work you're doing, they mock you openly in front of your colleagues. This is all about humiliation. Or perhaps you haven't been as successful in the job as he or she has and they say it causing you deep humiliation. Okay. Or the boss comes out of his office and he slams the file down in front of you and everybody looks around and the boss really rips into you because you didn't like the report or we'd lost the account or you didn't do what you'd promised to do and you're sitting there looking at him thinking, oh my God, I wish the ground would open up and swallow me here. Everybody's looking around and when soon as the boss goes away, they all turn around sheepishly, sheepishly, I should say, sheepishly, and they don't look at you in the eyes because, yeah, they can feel the humiliation that you have suffered. Humiliation. Indignation. Well, when somebody is full of indignation, they're really angry, they're really annoyed that something has happened. Perhaps they're full of indignation because they got a letter from the council telling them that they're going to take some land from the front of all the houses on the street. It's going to be a compulsory purchase order because they have to widen the road because the road is too narrow. So when you get the letter, you slam it down on the table. Look at that. This is preposterous. This is absolutely, I mean, how can we just sit here and take it? I'm going to get on to my solicitor and see what we can do. We're going to stop this happening. So full of indignation, full of anger, full of threats. We really worried, but getting very, very upset about the letter that arrived from the local council. Full of indignation. Sorrow. Sorrow is that feeling of sadness. Yes, we feel sorrow when something won't work. We feel sorrow when we lose somebody nearest and dearest to us. We feel deep sorrow when our pet dog has to be put down because they've got to that age when they're just not able to get around anymore. So a feeling of sorrow, a feeling of sadness that something inevitable has happened, something has happened, some news we've got that gives us that feeling of sorrow. Empathy. Well, this is a wonderful feeling to have. We should all show empathy to people who have some problem. We show empathy to people who are less well off than we are. We show empathy to refugees who have to take refuge in our country because of war in their own country. So we are very conscious of the problems they have and we want to show empathy by helping them out in any way that we can. So we show empathy for those people who are less well off than we are. So we show them kindness, we show them an open heart, we show them love and we give them and offer them help, empathy. And we empathize with them for the loss that they have suffered and that we hope that they will be able to get back to their own country soon. So empathy, a feeling of understanding, a feeling of wishing to help, to help them through the difficult situation that they are facing. Empathy. Adoration. Well, adoration is all about adoring something. We can have adoration for our boss. You know, we've worked with him for 20 years and he's been a kind boss. He's been a helpful boss. He's developed the company. He's developed your career and you're full of adoration for him because he really is a great guy. But unfortunately, he's announced that he's going to retire next year. And everybody's going to be really sad to see him go. And everybody's going to be wondering who's going to replace him. There'll be nothing like Bill. No one can replace Bill. Bill was amazing. So everybody is full of adoration for Bill because he was there when they needed him. He was always kind and generous, but he was a fair man and he got the work done. So we adore or we are full of adoration for the work that he has put in to leave the company in the way it is. Adoration. Fury. Fury is a deep anger. Yes, he was wild with fury. His eyes were burning red with fury. So he was really annoyed, really, really aggressive. Something was wrong. So somebody crashed into the back of his car and he jumped out and his eyes were wild with fury when he marched up to the other car and said, what do you think you're doing? Look what you've done to my car. You've destroyed it. This is going to cost thousands to repair. So you could hear the fury in his voice. The anger was there. The fires were burning and the other person in the other car was pretty scared. Yeah. So fury. Gratitude. Well, when we have a feeling of gratitude, we are grateful. We are thankful for what somebody has done for us. So somebody could have been very generous and lent you money when you really needed it. So you were full of gratitude, full of thanks, and you were constantly saying to them, look, I'm really, really appreciate what you did. Nobody else would have done that for me. You show your gratitude. Perhaps you buy them a present. So you do something to as a sign of your gratitude for them helping you out of a little bit of a hole. So the gratitude that we show to our workers when they work an extra bit harder than they normally should to get the proposal done so that we could stand a chance of winning the new contract. You would show your gratitude to them in an appropriate way, a little bit of a bonus, whatever it might be, a free lunch, whatever it takes to show and demonstrate that you're happy and grateful and thankful for what they have done. Gratitude. Irritation. Well, when something irritates us, it annoys us. It's like somebody sitting beside you and constantly poking you. Poke, poke, poke. That's irritating. Or somebody who has a squeaky voice or somebody who constantly drums their fingers on the table, that will be irritating. So irritation is a feeling we get when there's something happening that we just don't like. We get irritated because the postman never drops the letters into the letterbox. He just throws them on the mat at the door. He doesn't care. We're full of irritation because the delivery never comes in time. The guy from the supermarket said he'd be here between 7 and 8. It's 8.30 and you were hoping to go out. So you're really irritated that he hasn't arrived yet. You don't want to leave the food sitting outside. So you're irritated. Irritated means annoyed. And then finally, remorse. Remorse is that deep feeling of sadness for something that we have done. We feel remorse because we didn't help somebody when they really needed it and now it's too late. We feel remorse because we did something that perhaps wasn't the nicest thing to do. And at the time, we felt we had no choice. But now we are full of remorse, full of sadness that we feel we could have done things a little bit better. So we are remorseful when perhaps we said something to a close friend, we had a bit of an argument and the friend has gone off and you haven't spoken to them for three or four days and you wake up in the night thinking, oh, what did I do that for? It was only just a bit of a joke. So you're really full of remorse. So you promise to the next morning to ring him or her or send them a text and say, look, I'm really, really sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. It just came out. Please forgive me. And you're really feeling guilty. So remorse is that feeling you want to make things better. You want to put things right. You want to say sorry to the people that you have offended or affected in the biggest way. Okay, so remorse, remorse. Okay, so let me give you those words again. As I said, there are 12 of them. Just be careful on the pronunciation. Agitation. Boastfulness. Infatuation, usually with somebody. Fury. Gratitude. Indignation. Irritation. Empathy. To feel empathy. Empathize with somebody. Adoration. To adore adoration. Sorrow. Humiliation. And then finally, remorse. Okay, so they're all advanced nouns, all dealing with feelings and emotions. There's quite a number of them there. You won't remember them all. You know the drill by now. Try to practice them. Try to put them into sentences. If you have a problem, come back and I'll give you some more examples where we can probably help. As always, we really, really appreciate when you listen and watch. This is Harry saying goodbye for now. Join me for the next video.