Vocabulary to talk about your feelings in English: anger, fear, and confusion

We often talk about our feelings, but how many words do you know to talk about anger? Fear? What about confusion? In this video, I’ll explain many different words, expressions, and idioms we use to talk about these emotions in English. Some are serious, some are funny, and others are extreme. We have so many different emotions! Learn to express how you’re feeling accurately. Knowing these words will improve your overall English comprehension and help you out in social situations. Take the quiz: Want even more vocabulary? Watch my video on 23 words you can use to talk about feeling good or bad: TRANSCRIPT 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.