I'm SO angry, guys! STOP SAYING "Calm Down!"

I’m SO angry, guys! STOP SAYING “Calm Down!”

Let’s start with some adjectives. How can you describe a person who is very relaxed, they don’t easily get angry? Remember, these are adjectives. So, we can say he is, he’s so chill or he’s chilled. Sometimes you’ll see this. Sometimes you’ll see chilled, doesn’t matter. You choose what you want to say. Also that guy is very laid-back, nothing makes him angry. Or you can say: wow, he’s so easygoing. Like I dropped his phone in the lake and he was fine. Does this describe you? Are you this person? I’m, sometimes it depends.

Okay, now you want to tell someone to calm down. But, there are different situations where you want to say this. So, let’s start with someone who’s too excited. Oh my god, chill. Now, yes of course, you can say calm down, it’s fine. But, this lesson is about expanding your vocabulary. So, keep that in mind. Now, if he is like a teacher or a parent, you might say a different thing. You might say this, this is a very teacher thing to say so: hey simmer down. Again, this is a very, like teacher thing to say to young kids. So, keep that in mind, don’t say this to another adult. They will think you’re talking to them like they are a child. Keep that in mind.

You could also say, settle down. Now, yes, this has another meaning. You know when you decide to live in one place permanently, maybe for the rest of your life, we use the same phrasal verb, to settle down. For example, in the future, where do I want to settle down? Honestly, I’m not sure, maybe London. I don’t know. Okay, question for you in the comments. Where would you like to eventually settle down? Live permanently, live for the rest of your life. But, again remember that if you say simmer down or settle down, it really can sound like you’re talking to a child. Simmer down, you’re acting too crazy, you’ve got too much energy, settle down. But, I suppose if your friend is acting like a child, it would be appropriate to say those expressions.

What if your friends are angry or nervous? What could you say? Of course, you could use, relax or dude chill out. The “out” that’s, that’s an option. You don’t have to say out. You could just say, dude chill. Maybe they are not thinking straight. So, you could say to both of them: mate, take a breath.

Okay, these next two expressions. Be careful because it sounds very strong, very direct. So, you should know the person well. Dude, calm your tits. Now, you’re thinking, oh, but you can only say that to girls, right? Nope, nope. You can say this to anyone. Calm your tits man .That’s fine. You can say that to anyone. But you may have noticed, it’s got the word tits, right? So, it’s quite strong. Don’t say it to a kid, that’s weird. Only say it to an adult that you know and that probably won’t punch you if you say this to them.

Okay, your friend is crying. It probably won’t help for you to say, calm down. That doesn’t sound great. So, what can you say? This one, I would argue that, it’s not useful. But, you will still hear it because it’s got that traditional feeling of, stop crying, chin up. Literally putting your chin in the air. Like that’s gonna make you less sad. That’s so stupid. So, yeah it’s not too helpful but it is something that you will hear. It is something that we say. So, what would be helpful? Well they’re just obvious ones, like: it’s okay, don’t worry, I’m here for you. Those ones, again it doesn’t have to be an idiom that you learn from a textbook. Just be a human. This is good. I’m here for you. That’s all you need to say to someone who needs help. Oh, I have seen in textbooks for this situation that you should say they’re, there, there, there. That doesn’t help. I’ve seen teachers tell their students to say this, don’t say this. This doesn’t help anything. It’s very old-fashioned. You will not hear it these days.

Okay, let’s imagine that your friend broke up with their boyfriend or girlfriend, three years ago. But, they’re still acting like this, and you want to say, stop being angry, stop being upset, it’s in the past. Those negative feelings, release them, by negative feelings. Now of course you can say this one, not this song. Don’t even, don’t even, think about the song. Disney will copyright my channel and I will lose my job. But, yes, in real life you can say, ah, let it go. You can say, forget about it but, that’s too obvious and you didn’t come to my channel for obvious.

Get over it. Now this one, I put a little star because, you need to be careful. If that’s your friend and you have a good friendship, you know each other, that’s fine. I say, be careful because, it sounds very sarcastic, because it is. This is how it sounds: I miss her, it’s been three years, get over it. More generally if something happened in the past and your friend is very upset, but you want to say: look, it’s in the past. It’s not necessary to worry about it. You can say this: no point worrying about it now. You could have the preposition “in”. There’s no point in blah blah blah. So, you can include the preposition. You don’t have to, though. There’s no point in worrying about it now. Or without that: that was three years ago. No point worrying about it now. Both are fine.

Okay, these next few expressions, they’re not common to use but you might still hear them. I put this one first because it’s slightly different from the others. These all are general for calm down. But this one, this is what you say to someone when they are just about to do something because they’re upset, because they’re angry. Maybe they are about to hit you and you want to say: stop. You can say: dude, hold your horses. Again, it sounds quite old-fashioned but yes, you might hear it. Hold your horses. Let’s use connected speech holde,r, hold your horses. Say with me, holder, hold your horses.

Next, these ones, like I said, they’re more general. They just mean, calm down. Take a chill pill. Can you hear it? Yeah, if you said this to someone in real life, they might really hit you because again, they’re not that common. Some people might say, I hear these all the time. Yeah, in movies from the 90s, maybe, but not today, not in real life.

Let’s continue. Okay, take it easy. Say with me, take it easy. Next one, mate, keep your shirt on. Again, it could sound very aggressive. If you say it to the wrong person. Keep your pants on. Alright, keep your pants on. Cool your jets. That one sounds very American. And the last one, everything’s cool man, mellow out. Again, some people will argue, that these are not uncommon but I can’t remember the last time I heard these, outside of a movie.

Okay, you’re practice with today’s lesson, in the comments, tell me the last time that someone told you to calm down or tell me about the last time you told someone else to calm down. What happened? What was the situation? What was the results of this? Did telling them to calm down actually help or did it make it worse?