22 Phrases to Talk About Everyday Problems in English - Visual Vocabulary Lesson

Hi, I’m Olivier.

Welcome to Oxford Online English!

In this lesson, you can learn to talk about everyday problems.

You’ll hear a story of a bad day, and see different phrases you can use to describe

everyday problems.

I had the *worst* day yesterday.

I slept horribly.

I was tossing and turning all night.

I had insomnia.

I finally got to sleep about five in the morning.

But then…

I overslept.

I missed my alarm.

I slept through my alarm.

On the way to work, the traffic was awful.

I was sitting in traffic for an hour.

My car broke down.

I had to wait for an hour for the tow truck, and I was late for work.

A tow truck is a vehicle which can transport a car.

If your car has broken down, and it can’t drive anywhere, you’ll need to call a tow

truck to bring it to a garage.

At work, I got in a huge argument with one of my colleagues.

We have a big deadline coming, so we’re all under a lot of pressure.

I was working late, and I spilled coffee all over some important papers.

I had to stay really late to finish everything.

I couldn’t concentrate and I got frustrated.

On the way home, I missed the last train.

I couldn’t find my keys.

I was locked out.

I finally got home, and saw that my flatmate had eaten my leftovers.

There was nothing to eat for dinner, and it was too late to buy anything.

Finally, to cap it all, I dropped my phone down the toilet.

‘To cap it all’ is a phrase to introduce the last bad thing in a list of bad things.

It means something like ‘even worse’.

That’s our bad day!

What about you?

Here’s a task for you: have these things happened to you recently?

Try to use the phrases you saw in this lesson to describe a bad day you've had.

Can you think of other everyday problems we haven’t mentioned?

Share your ideas in the comments.

Thanks for watching!