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Hello English learners. Welcome back to another lesson here at EnglishPod. My name is Marco

and my name is Catherine. Hello everyone. Today Marco, what are we talking about?

Well, today we are not really in the best mood.

What do you mean?

We’re kind of sad, kind of nervous. We’re not feeling very well. Yeah, it’s a cloudy day. Maybe that’s why.

the blues

the blues. So, yeah, that’s what we’re talking about today. We’re gonna have a lot of different descriptive words to express maybe feeling sad or maybe you’re angry or you’re nervous or something like that.

Okay, well. This is a very useful lesson. Hopefully you’re not feeling is way but if you have to talk about someone who is, got lots of words for you. But first we’re gonna preview a couple in today’s vocabulary preview.

Vocabulary preview

All right, so today on vocabulary preview we’re gonna look at two words. And the first one is a way of saying that you feel sad. So basically, I’m feeling down.

Okay down. You might’ve heard this before, because it’s the opposite of the word up.

exactly. So, you’re not feeling up happy, looking up, you’re feeling down. This is another word for sad like Marco said.

Or you can also say, I’m a bit down today, right?

Yeah, I’m a bit down today. Or, you look really down. Are you okay?

Yeah, so you sad, is everything okay? So down, so now another feeling or a way that a person is feeling, maybe that person is grouchy.

Would you please stop talking so loud Marco.

I think you—

seriously

Don’t be grouchy.

So, grouchy is a way someone acts. Usually when they’re in a bad mood.

Right, so it’s not like really angry, you’re not angry, but you’re not very happy either.

You’re not very nice to people. So there’s a very famous TV character called Oscar the grouch, on Sesame Street. Look for him on YouTube or yoke and he is very very good for learning about this feeling, grouchy because he’s a grouchy guy.

Yeah, he’s always angry or not, never happy, basically.

Right, he’s always complaining about something. So that word again is grouchy.

All right, so after taking a look at these two words, we’re ready now to listen to our dialogue for the first time. Let’s see what this dialogue is about. Maybe they’re grouchy or maybe just sad.

Fine.

A: Ok. I’ll talk to you later. Bye

B: Carrie, are you ok? You seem a bit down.

A: I just got off the phone with my boyfriend. He is always getting upset and losing his temper over nothing. It’s so hard to talk to him at times.

B: Maybe it’s just that he is stressed out from work or something. He does have a pretty nerve wracking job you know.

A: Yeah but, he is always in a really foul mood. I try to find out what’s bothering him or get him to talk about his day but, he always shuts down and brushes me off.

B: Men are like that you know. They can feel nervous, anxious or on edge and the only way they can express it is by trying to hide it through aggressiveness.

A: I guess you are right. What do you think I should do? He wasn’t always this grouchy you know.

B: Talk to him, try to cheer him up when he is down and if that doesn’t work, I say get rid of him and get a new one!

A: You are something else you know that?

All right, so two girls talking about guys. Like us guys have a bad temper sometimes, right?

I think anyone can have a bad temper, but we’re talking today about one of, the boyfriend of one of these girls who has a very bad temper and has been very grouchy recently.

And that’s why she’s feeling a bit down. So let’s take a look at those words now in language take away.

Language take away

All right so in today’s language take away, we’ve got some wonderful words for you. Words that are very good for describing stress or having anxiety. The first of these words is something you hear all the time, especially with young people.

Right. Somebody is stressed out.

My gosh Marco, I’m so stressed out I have had homework assignments to do and softball practice and my mom wants me to help cook dinner tonight.

You really are stressed-out

I don’t have any homework and I don’t live with my mom. But being stressed out is usually something you feel when you have too much stuff to do.

So, maybe you can be stressed out because of school like in your case, or maybe at work, you have a lot of things to do a project to finish, right?

Exactly. And I just want to point out here that you can say I’m stressed or I’m feeling stressed, but commonly in spoken English, so when you’re talking to your friends, you hear this much more often, stressed out.

Stressed out. He’s really stressed out lately. All right, so we’re stressed out, or another word that kind of means the same is, this is nerve-racking.

nerve-racking. So, nerves are those things in our body that help us feel things, right? And so something that racks our nerves, makes us very very tense, very anxious, very uncomfortable.

Okay, so it makes you very nervous.

Right. So, there are some movies that are nerve-racking. For example, suspense movies like Hitchcock’s movies like Psycho or The birds.

Or like horror, like maybe Saw.

nerve-racking. Also, some people think that roller coasters are nerve-racking. They’re very very anxious when they ride roller coasters.

Right. So, let’s listen to a couple of more examples of different situations where we can use this phrase, nerve-racking.

Example 1

I think being a doctor is one of the most nerve-racking jobs in the world.

Example 2

Skydiving is one of the most nerve-racking experiences of my life. I almost had a heart attack.

Example 3

The final match between Brazil and Italy was incredibly nerve-racking.

And there’s another way to describe this feeling. Again, it’s a little different but very similar. We can see someone is feeling on edge.

on edge. So this person was feeling on edge. But what does that mean exactly? You’re like at the edge.

Why do you have to ask so many questions? Okay, listen, this is basic. Okay Marco?

All right, all right

Are you, are you mocking me?

You’re on edge today.

All right, someone who is on edge, is easily angered, right? So, it’s really easy to make this person upset or angry. Someone who just quit smoking might be on edge. That means it’s very very easy to get them to be upset.

So, yeah you are on edge, right?

Exactly. He’s on edge, or he seems on edge, doesn’t he?

Okay, very good. Well, these three words that we’ve just looked at are really interesting and very very useful. I guess you can describe many different situations, or a person that’s going through these feelings, right?

Absolutely. I think there is a thousand ways to describe being nervous or anxious or upset. So, maybe we should take another listen to today’s dialogue and figure out how exactly we use these words. And we come back, we talk about some other phrases that are useful.

A: Ok. I’ll talk to you later. Bye

B: Carrie, are you ok? You seem a bit down.

A: I just got off the phone with my boyfriend. He is always getting upset and losing his temper over nothing. It’s so hard to talk to him at times.

B: Maybe it’s just that he is stressed out from work or something. He does have a pretty nerve wracking job you know.

A: Yeah but, he is always in a really foul mood. I try to find out what’s bothering him or get him to talk about his day but, he always shuts down and brushes me off.

B: Men are like that you know. They can feel nervous, anxious or on edge and the only way they can express it is by trying to hide it through aggressiveness.

A: I guess you are right. What do you think I should do? He wasn’t always this grouchy you know.

B: Talk to him, try to cheer him up when he is down and if that doesn’t work, I say get rid of him and get a new one!

A: You are something else you know that?

All right, great. So now that we’re back, we can start with a couple of different phrases now on fluency builder.

Fluency builder

all right, so Margo, here’s the big question. What makes you lose your temper?

I think what makes me lose my temper very very easily is like a dirty house or like a dirty room.

Really? You’re a neat freak.

Not really neat freak, but like if it’s not at least semi-clean, you know, it really bothers me.

Okay, so this great phrase lose your temper or lose one’s temper is a phrase we use in English to describe getting angry. All right, so maybe you’re okay. You’re a little frustrated with something, but someone does something like throws all of their clothes on the floor and Marco here says, that’s it. I’m tired of this. You’re always throwing your cloths on the floor. And that’s an example of Marco, losing his temper.

What about you? What makes you lose your temper?

You hear this?

What is that? Drilling, construction, hamering?

When people tap tap tap tap. Or when they like stomp their feet feet. Or when they make noise. Yeah. So slowly, it’s like okay, fine, calm down. It’s okay, okay. No, seriously, stop it, seriously– and then all of a sudden, I just can’t stand it any more.

You explode.

Exactly, so—

All right, so that’s what makes you lose your temper. I’ll be sure to keeping my eye out for that.

Please don’t.

All right, so, okay, you lose your temper. And now there are situation sometimes where you need to brush someone off.

all right or when you get brushed off and that’s not very good feeling. But this phrase to brush someone off. You’ve heard the word brush before. It’s the word that we use, to brush your hair, or brush

your teeth

teeth, exactly. When you brush someone off, it’s like saying that you’re ignoring them.

Yes, you ignore them or you basically tell them to go away, very subtly sometimes or very directly.

exactly. And so to brush someone off is to avoid their company. And so a lot of times when people are angry, they like to be alone, so they brush you off. So I could say, hey, did you want to go see that movie tonight?

No, I can’t. I have to do something tonight.

And then Marco walks away while we’re talking. He’s brushing me off. He’s ignoring me.

So, it happens, and also maybe some people can make up excuses and that’s also brushing someone off, right?

Right, exactly. So, to brush someone off or he brushed me off. It doesn’t feel good.

All right. and well, all of these, all of these bad feelings, brushing somebody off, maybe you feel stressed out, in the end, you always need a good friend to cheer you up, right? And that’s what this dialogue is all about.

exactly. And so friends are actually people to do that the best or family, I think. And well, we can break this phrase down because most of it is pretty clear. But cheer, might be a new word for some of our listeners.

Maybe we’ve heard of the term cheerleader. Like, give me an A, give me a B. So cheers or people cheering, or cheers like the beer.

So, cheers like happiness. So, someone who can cheer you up is someone who makes you happy. Remember that down we had earlier, I’m feeling down? We’re trying to cheer someone up, or we’re trying to make them go up and be happy.

Exactly. So, you want to cheer up your friends or maybe if you’re feeling a bit down, a family member will try and cheer you up.

Do you need someone to cheer you up Marco?

Yes.

Let’s go and have a drink and eat some popcorn and be cheered up.

That’s what cheers me up or chocolate, always cheers me up.

I know that.

So, we took a look at a lot of great phrases but the last sentence of the dialogue is maybe a little bit strange, right? When she says, you are something else, you know that.

Something what? Like a monkey?

What does she mean when she said, you are something else?

That’s a great question. This might be a little bit hard to understand at first, but she’s saying, I can’t believe you. She’s saying that there’s no one like you. You’re really something else, you know that. So, it’s kind of like a joke. But what’s she saying is, I can’t believe you. You just want to go on and encourage me to find another boy. You’re unbelievable.

So, it could be, is it on a positive note or could it be both, positive and negative?

Well, here we’ve got two friends who were using it, so, it’s a positive note. But she’s kind of making fun of her, saying I can’t believe you. But it can be more negative

If you’re fighting with her boyfriend and her boyfriend cheats on her, she’s like: you really are something else, you know.

You are something else, you know that? It’s like, there is no comparison. You’re the worst.

exactly.

So yeah, it really depends on how this is used and with the tone of voices, so how someone says it. But in this case, I think it’s kind of a joke but it’s a positive.

Right. Very interesting. It’s very spoken English as you say, because all the words that we see that are pretty simple, but the context or the connotation, the meaning is very, very different from the actual word, right?

Exactly.

all right. So, let’s listen to this dialogue for the last time, then we’ll come back and talk a little bit more.

A: Ok. I’ll talk to you later. Bye

B: Carrie, are you ok? You seem a bit down.

A: I just got off the phone with my boyfriend. He is always getting upset and losing his temper over nothing. It’s so hard to talk to him at times.

B: Maybe it’s just that he is stressed out from work or something. He does have a pretty nerve wracking job you know.

A: Yeah but, he is always in a really foul mood. I try to find out what’s bothering him or get him to talk about his day but, he always shuts down and brushes me off.

B: Men are like that you know. They can feel nervous, anxious or on edge and the only way they can express it is by trying to hide it through aggressiveness.

A: I guess you are right. What do you think I should do? He wasn’t always this grouchy you know.

B: Talk to him, try to cheer him up when he is down and if that doesn’t work, I say get rid of him and get a new one!

A: You are something else you know that?

So, Catherine, Are you a grouchy person or happy? Do you have a bad temper?

Well, very interesting question, Marco. Thank you for asking. The first time, am I grouchy? No, not very, only before 9 AM.

You’re not a morning person?

Not a morning person. So I’m very grouchy in the morning but I’m generally pretty good about losing my temper. It doesn’t happen very often.

Really?

but I do get frustrated with things like taping or when people eat with their mouth open.

That’s terrible. I hate that as well.

Yeah, I can’t stand it.

Or I really don’t like when people bite their nails. It also makes me lose my temper. I don’t know, more than makes me lose my temper, it’s kind of annoying, right?

It is annoying. So, what makes you really lose your temper? We say, what makes you blow your top? Think about a volcano.

Really grinds my gears. I would say the worst is when somebody lies to me, like straight in my face. Like I know they’re lying, I know you’re lying and they still lie straight at me.

I agree. So, what’s something that really cheers you up? Because we talked about like going out with a friend, maybe helps you cheer up but is there one thing, some kind of remedy?

I actually, I like to go shopping when I’m..

Really?

Yeah. I won’t buy anything like clothes or anything like that. Usually I will get maybe something for somebody else or for the house or something. It’s very strange.

Help you like clear your mind.

Yeah, it’s just like walking around and spending a little bit of money. I don’t know, it’s kind of a good remedy.

Yeah. I think so.

What about you? What cheer you up?

I kind of like to organize things.

Really?

Yeah, so if I’m really angry, really upset about something, I’ll alphabetize all my books, so A to Z.

See, everyone has different remedy. So come to our website Englishpod.com, tell us what makes you angry, what makes you lose your temper or what really cheers you up, what makes you happy.

Or who cheers you up? So tell us who is someone you like to talk to when you’re upset and how do they cheer you up.

All right, we’ll see you guys there and also if you have questions, comments, suggestions, you can also leave them there in our comment section.

Please do that. So, that’s all for today. Goodbye everyone.