SMART way to build your speaking vocabulary! | B2/C1 Collocations for emotions

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to advanced English lessons with Harry, where

we try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language.

Perhaps you are preparing for that all important job interview in English or perhaps you're

preparing for those proficiency exams, whatever you're trying to do.

We're here to help you to help you to improve your grammar, your pronunciation expressions,

whatever it might be.

Okay, so in this particular lesson, this advanced English lesson, we're looking at collocations

that describe emotion.

So advanced English lessons using colas...

collocations.

I'd better get it right...

Collocations describing emotions, e-m-o-t-i-o-n-s emotions.

Okay, so I've got a shortlist of 10 Okay, collocations describing emotions.

I'll go through them first of all, then I'll give you an example.

Hopefully, a simple example.

That should help to explain it.

And if you don't understand it, you know the drill, you'll come back to me.

And I'll help you out give you some more examples.

Okay, here we go.

To be gutted or to be absolutely gutted.

Something or somebody means the world to me.

He she means the world to me.

To be completely blown away, to be completely blown away.

Totally lose it, totally lose it.

To be dying to know something, dying to know something.

To make a fuss or make such a fuss.

Or you can use it the negative Don't make such a fuss.

To lose your temper, lose your cool, lose your rag or simply just lose it.

I lost it.

To be beside yourself.

Sounds strange, I explain it later to be beside yourself.

To be bored, rigid or be bored stiff.

And then finally, thrilled to bits, thrilled to bits.

And this is more idiomatic, okay.

And it's slightly informal, thrilled to bits.

Okay,

let's go through them then and give you those examples.

To be absolutely gutted.

Well, when we are gutted or absolutely gutted, it means we just really, really disappointed.

We've got lots of emotions because something happened that we totally were not expecting.

We expected the opposite.

And then when it does turn out the opposite, or well, we're absolutely gutted.

So we're gutted that we didn't get that job.

I mean, what happened I thought I was in number one position I the best sales figures.

I'd done the performance for the last couple of years.

The reviews were excellent.

But that other guy got the promotion.

I didn't...

I mean, I'm absolutely and totally gutted.

I'm going to have to sit down with a manager and find out where I went wrong.

Okay, you might not like the answer, of course, but that's what you have to do.

So to be absolutely gutted.

Like a fish, you just don't know what you're going to do, life is not going to be the same,

it's going to take a while to get over it.

To be absolutely gutted.

Something or somebody means the world to me.

Well, it could be your pet your dog means the world to me.

My kids mean the world to me, my grandfather, my grandmother, my family, my relatives, my

best friends, all of my friends mean the world to me.

So we use this form of emotion to see what we're really into our family into our friends.

We really can't see how we can exist without them.

They mean the world to you you do anything for them, you will help them in any situation.

Your life is full of joy when you're around them.

And you're sad when you're not so they mean the world to you meaning there's nothing could

replace them.

Yeah, so the world in itself has a massive value, priceless but the family mean the world

to you.

My grandparents, they mean the world to me.

Whatever it happens to be they mean the world to you can you really would lay down your

life, not literally I hope would lay down your life for those precious people or precious

things in your life.

It could be you know, your job means the world to you.

That holiday travelling around the world could literally mean the world to you.

So it doesn't have to always be about people.

It can be about material things, but then we have to be very, very careful because then

we get accused of being materialistic so we need to be really really careful.

To be completely blown away by something.

Well, I just wasn't expecting the present I got for my birthday.

Okay, it was my 50th or 60th it was a big birthday but...

Wow, I was completely blown away by the celebrations when I walked into the room.

So all my friends there, I saw the big screen with a collage of photographs, then everybody

burst into "Happy Birthday" and Oh, it's just, I just don't know what words I could use to

describe it, I was completely blown away.

So blown away means just, you just weren't expecting something, the wind was completely

taken out of your sails, you just were so surprised, and it's not easy to surprise you.

And you usually have things pretty well figured out.

But in this situation, you were blown away.

Totally lose it.

Well, when somebody totally loses it, they just lose control that, that that they start

shouting and screaming for sometimes no apparent reason, okay.

But they just totally lose it.

Perhaps they were having a bad day, or a bad hair day, as we say, yeah, not something I

suffer from.

But you can have a bad hair day, you're going to have a really bad day, and you totally

lose it with the wrong person.

Perhaps that person who comes to deliver your coffee, and you they spill a little bit of

coffee on the table.

Okay, or somebody is going to get as we say in English, the wrong end of your tongue,

because you've, you've just had lots and lots of problems for that week, that month.

And then just one little thing, one tiny little thing pushes you over the edge, and you completely

lose it.

So you go to the office and you tell your friend or you just won't believe it.

I completely lost it in the coffee shop.

I don't know what came over me.

I think it's just all this emotion, all this, these things go on the last couple of weeks

there.

The waiter just spilled a little bit of coffee, and I just lost it.

I just lost it.

I just got up and walked out.

This does not like me at all.

To lose it.

To be dying to know something.

Well, when you're dying to know something, it means you cannot wait.

I'm dying to know what they bought me for Christmas.

Yeah, and dying to know who's going to get that job.

And dying to know when that new movie comes out.

I really, really want to say the other two were excellent.

So when we're dying to know something, we just cannot wait.

We've got a real sense of urgency to see, to hear to listen, to get whatever that news

happens to be.

Okay, so I'm dying to die and to know, dying to understand dying to meet.

I'm going to meet Beth on Friday and have a look at that ring.

She's She told me today that she got engaged.

Wow.

I mean, they've only been going out for three months.

And he's engaged, or he's proposed to her already.

So let's, let's have a look at the ring.

So wow, I can't wait for Friday to come.

So dying to see, dying to get, to know.

To make a fuss of to make such a fuss.

So when somebody makes a fuss, they make a lot of noise and pay you a lot of tension

that perhaps you don't really want.

Now, again, it could be about a simple birthday celebration, and you actually let your friends

know.

Listen, guys, I don't want any fuss.

I don't want anybody to make a fuss over me.

I don't really like birthday celebrations.

You know what, so please don't?

Well, in reality, you want people to remember your birthday, you'd like people to perhaps

even buy your cake but you don't want all the bells and whistles.

So don't make such a fuss.

Please don't do anything that I wouldn't like.

Okay.

Now we can also use it when we're talking about some situation perhaps there was an

argument in the office because you forgot to send something to a client or some client

didn't get what they were expecting or they got the wrong thing.

And then the boss or your supervisor just went ballistic.

Yeah.

And they completely lost it.

And they made such a fuss about it.

But I mean, look, okay, I got the order wrong.

I accept that.

I sent it late.

I accept it.

I forgot to post it.

I accept it.

But come on, I can do it today.

I can get it right.

There's no need to make such a fuss.

So if somebody makes a fuss, they make a lot of noise about something they create, a lot

of noise shouting or screaming or they continuously tell you Look, well, this can't this can't

happen again.

And bla bla bla bla bla, okay, so to make a fuss about something, or to make such a

fuss about something.

And the next one is about losing it to lose your temper, to lose your cool, to lose your

rag.

They all really mean the same that just depends on how formal or informal you want to be to.

Lose your temper - quite formal.

To lose your cool - informal.

To lose your rag - slang.

Okay, so losing your temper, losing your cool, losing your rag is all about losing it.

When you lose control.

You start shouting and screaming off.

I borrowed my father's car last week and had a little bit of an accident nothing much just

somebody scraped the side of the car.

Well, my god you should have heard him.

He lost the rag completely.

He started shouting and screaming, That's the last time I'm ever going to give you that

car that that...

Don't ask me for the car!

Dot that that.

Just don't even waste your breath.

Yeah, okay, so he lost his ride, or he lost his cool or he lost his temper or just simply

you should have seen him he just completely lost it he was standing in the room, I thought

he was going to have a heart attack.

Got red in the face and.... ah ah no words could come out, he just completely lost it.

To be beside yourself.

So I said at the beginning this was it sounds a little bit unusual because beside is next.

Okay.

So it's an expression, I think it's more of an Irish English expression than a British

English expression.

When somebody is beside themselves, it means they are really worried.

I'm beside myself with worry about my daughter, I just don't know how to get through to her

anymore.

She seems to have just given up.

She hasn't been to college for three or four days.

And she tells me she's got no lectures.

But I know that's not true, because I saw her friend go to college the other day.

So something's gone on.

But I'm really beside myself with worry.

Because every time I asked her, she says there's nothing don't worry about it's okay.

But there must be something so I need to get to the bottom of it.

So to be beside yourself means to be worried seriously worried about something that's happening.

Beside yourself with worry about your job, beside yourself with worry about the kids,

beside yourself with worry about how you're going to pay for those really, really big

fuel and energy bills that are going to hit you during the winter.

Okay, so to be beside yourself with worry and concern, and a very strong but not so

happy emotion.

Okay to be bored, rigid, or to be bored stiff.

Well, we've all got to that situation.

And we've all had experiences of it when we really really really can't take it anymore.

The movie.

Oh, I was bored rigid watching that movie.

I mean, really watching paint dry would be more exciting.

I was bored rigid.

In the lecture hall, I mean, this guy... we're we're adults.

I mean, what what is he doing?

He is treating us like kids.

I mean, these lectures, they're really not good.

So you really need to have some word with somebody, I think I'll go to my tutor and

mention it to him because of the lessons.

The other lectures they just bore me rigid, bore me, bore me stiff.

And I'm not the only one I can see there are people falling asleep.

For God's sake, it's absolutely terrible.

It's outrageous.

So we can be bored, stiff or bored, rigid at anything that doesn't attract or keep our

attention.

Okay, so we're not focused on it.

The speech by the managing director every year at Christmas, we have the party, he stands

up.

And I think he uses the same speech.

I forgotten I've been there so many years, but it's all it's awful stuff.

I can't wait till these overs are going to get to the bar and have a beer.

But you know, he bores me rigid, it bores me stiff.

So something that just isn't interesting, doesn't float your boat, there's a saying.

It doesn't give you any real reason to listen.

To be bored, rigid, bored, stiff.

And then finally thrilled to bits.

Well, this is more informal, okay.

It's a bit of an idiomatic expression.

He was thrilled to bits when he got your card.

He wasn't expecting that, you know, he hadn't heard for you for a while.

He was thrilled to bits when he passed his exam because really, it means a lot to him.

She was thrilled to bits when she got picked for the hockey team.

You know, we haven't had anybody in the family who's represented the school before.

So she's the first so that's a real first for everybody.

So she was thrilled to bits, thrilled to bits mean really, really excited.

You know, you could see the excitement on her face.

Guess what, guess what I got picked for the team here.

Really, really happy, thrilled.

Okay, so they're these collocations describing emotions.

As I said, we've got 10 of them, I'll give them to you once more.

And practice them.

See, can you introduce them see, can you use them when you're describing emotions with

yourself or people that you know.

To be gutted or to be absolutely or totally gutted.

Something or somebody means the world to you somebody or something means the world to you.

To be completely blown away by something.

So it's a really good experience.

To totally lose it to lose control, totally lose it.

To be dying to know.

Curiosity.

Inquisitive, to be dying to know something.

To make a fuss or make such a fuss about something.

Lose your temper, lose your cool, lose your rag, just simply lose it.

Okay?

And be be beside yourself means to be really concerned.

To be beside yourself with worry.

To be bored, rigid, be bored stiff exactly the same.

And then finally thrilled to bits.

Okay, so all collocations as advanced English collocations dealing with emotions.

Okay, as always, thanks for listening and if you need to contact me, www.englishlessonviaskype.com

really appreciate it.

As always Harry saying goodbye until next time.

Cheers.