English Lesson - 10 Ways to Respond to Bad News in English

Hi Bob the Canadian here.

In this English lesson I'll help you learn 10 ways to respond to someone in English if

they share news about their life that's kind of disappointing.

So I'll look at 10 different scenarios, 10 different examples and then I'll give you

an English phrase for each of those 10 that you could use in that situation.

The first thing you could say if someone shares disappointing news with you is, "That's too

bad!"

So let's imagine a situation where you have a friend who, they applied for a job, they

went and interviewed for that job and they've been waiting to hear back whether they got

the job or not, and then they just called you and said they didn't get the job.

It would be very nice of you to say, "Ah that's too bad!"

When you say, "That's too bad!", especially in that situation it makes them feel, of course,

that you're their friend and it makes them feel that you are being sympathetic to them.

So number one you could say, "That's too bad!"

The second thing you could say if a friend shares disappointing news with you is, "That

sucks!"

It's kind of a little bit of English slang, but let's imagine a situation where a friend

of yours has been fired from a job.

So they had a job and they weren't doing a very good job and now they have been let go.

So when you say someone's been let go it means they've been fired.

Maybe they phoned you up and they say, "Oh, I just got let go from my job today!"

You could respond by saying, "That sucks!"

Which is actually a perfect response in that situation to say, "That sucks!" because you

like your friend, you think your friend's probably a good worker and you really feel

like the situation sucks for them.

So, "That sucks!", is the second way that you could respond.

The third way that you could respond to disappointing news is to say, "That's a shame!" or "What

a shame!"

So let's imagine again that you have friend and they call you and they say, "My son just

got kicked out of his school for doing bad things."

You could say to them, "Ah, what a shame!"

Because maybe in this situation you know the kid.

Maybe you know this person's son and maybe he's really smart and you feel like even though

he did something bad it would of been better if he stayed in school.

So you could say to them, "Ah, that's a shame!" or you could say, "What a shame!"

A fourth thing that you could say to someone if they express something disappointing to

you is just say, "Oh, that's so disappointing!"

So we're, we're using the actual word here.

Maybe your brother is talking to you and he says, "Yeah I went to a party the other day,

and when I got there all the food was already gone.

I got to the party late."

That would be a great time to say, "Ah, that's so disappointing!" or "That must have been

so disappointing!" because no one likes to get to a party late and not get any snacks.

A fifth way to express that you agree with someone that something's disappointing is

to say, "What a bummer!"

And this is a little bit of slang again, but let's imagine a situation where a friend of

yours plays on a football team and they almost won the championship.

They lost by one point.

That would be a, a great time when they tell you that, that would be a great time to say,

"Ah, what a bummer!" or "You must have really been bummed out!"

Because it's pretty disappointing to be one point away from winning a championship.

A sixth that you could say in response to disappointing news or when someone shares

something is just to say, "That's stinks!'

So we smell with our nose, when something doesn't smell good we say, "That stinks!",

but we can also say, "That stinks!" when we're talking about something that isn't going well

in someone's life.

So let's say someone says to you, "My cousin borrowed my car and he got in an accident."

A really good response would be, "That stinks!" because that does stink.

I would be really annoyed if my cousin borrowed my car and then smashed it up or got in an

accident.

So another way to respond is to say, "That stinks!"

A seventh way to respond when someone shares disappointing or bad news with you is to just

say, "That's not good!"

We usually use this in situations where it really isn't good.

So a good example would be, maybe a friend says, "My brother got arrested for stealing

a car."

A great response then would be, "That's not good!" because you're, you're expressing some

sympathy, you feel bad that that person has a relative who committed a crime, so you feel

bad for that person but you could definitely in that situation just say, "That's not good!"

Because it's not!

Hopefully none of you are in that situation.

An eighth way to respond to someone is to say, "That's a pain in the butt!"

So I think you know what the butt is.

If you go a little further down it's the back end here.

It has another word in English which is A-S-S.

I'm not gonna say it out loud.

But we do say that things are a pain in the butt.

So maybe someone has a brother who's constantly borrowing their car and bringing it back with

the gas tank empty.

That, that would be a good time to say, "That's a pain in the butt!" or "That must be a real

pain in the butt!"

Because it would be.

If my brother was borrowing my car and bringing it back empty, that would be a pain in the

butt.

Another way to respond to someone if they say for instance that they keep losing their

car keys would be to say, "That's annoying!"

So when something's annoying it means it bugs you.

When something's annoying it's not nice.

So if someone said, "Ah I just, I keep losing my car keys and I can never find them back

quickly!"

A good way to respond to that would be to say, "That's annoying!" or "That would be

annoying!"

And again it's, it's sympathetic, like you're actually saying to the person that you agree

with them that the situation they are in is annoying.

So that's number 9.

You can say, "That's annoying!"

A tenth way to respond when someone shares something with you that's not good news could

be say, to say, "Ah, that's a disaster!"

So a good example of this would be if you have a huge cake for someone's birthday and

as you're carrying it to the table you drop it on the floor and someone, maybe someone's

sharing that story with you, right, they say, "Oh I was bringing a cake to the table at

my sister's birthday and I dropped it on the floor!"

You could respond by saying, "Oh, that must have been a disaster!" or "Wow, that would

be a real disaster!"

Anyways that's ten ways that you could respond to someone in English.

I'm Bob the Canadian.

You're learning English with Bob the Canadian here.

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