21 English Idioms to Express Feelings | Joy, Calm, Frustration, Anger

With English, idioms, you can precisely express your feelings.

You can even add finesse or nuance,

no matter whether you're feeling joyful, calm, or frustrated. Now,

of course you can use the words, joy, calm,

and frustration to describe how you're feeling. However,

in this lesson today,

I'm going to share with you 21 English idioms to help bring

sharp accuracy to how you express the way you're feeling in English.

Moreover,

it will allow you to increase the level of sophistication in your vocabulary.

If you don't already know, I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident English,

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Now let's get back to those 21 English idioms to help you express your feelings

in English.

What makes idiom so exciting is that they allow us to

describe something in a precise and creative way. Not only that,

but idioms also help us to be concise in our

communication.

The right idiom can help us describe an extremely complicated emotion

in just a few words. For example,

if I say that I'm feeling frustrated that word doesn't fully

express whether something is simply under my skin or whether

I'm nearly ready to flip my lid. These are two idioms.

You're going to learn more about today.

Recently members in my Confident Women Community explored more than 30 idioms

that help us to express feelings of joy, calm, frustration,

and even anger. And for you in this lesson today,

I've refined that list to 21 English idioms together.

We're going to explore how these English idioms can be useful to you as you

describe your feelings and we'll discover their subtlies as well as we go

through this lesson together.

If you begin to wonder how you can remember all of these idioms and

use them effectively in English conversations,

be sure to stick with me because I'll share my top strategies to learn.

And remember at the end of this lesson,

let's start today with four idioms that are used to describe a general state

of positivity. The first one to feel sunny,

if you're feeling sunny, it means to be outwardly cheerful and optimistic.

This typically happens when things in our life line up in a way

that make us feel pleased and hopeful. For example,

you might be the kind of person who loves to brainstorm.

You love sharing ideas and exploring possibilities. If that sounds like you,

then this sentence might be a great example to follow.

Hannah felt sunny as she brainstormed ideas,

similar to feeling sunny.

You might describe yourself as feeling upbeat when you're feeling

upbeat. It means that you're feeling full of hope, optimism, and joy.

Now, as I said, this is very similar to the idiom to feel sunny,

but there is just a slight difference.

A person can feel sunny,

feel generally optimistic and not draw a lot of attention to themselves.

It might be a general feeling of joy that they have internally.

However, when we describe ourselves as feeling upbeat,

it typically means that we are exhibiting our hope, our joy,

our optimism in a lively expressive way. For example,

if you hear your favorite song, come on the radio while you're driving,

you might turn it up and say, oh, this song always makes me feel upbeat.

And when you do that,

it's likely that there's going to be some outward sign of that upbeat feeling.

Our third idiom for general positivity is to be in good spirits

when you're in good spirits,

it means to feel lighthearted or cheerful while maintaining

balance. For example,

you may be working on a difficult project at work and with any project,

there are bound to be moments of stress or missed deadlines. However,

despite those potential obstacles,

you still feel that overall sense of cheerfulness.

So a great example sentence you could use might be the team was in good

spirits as they approached the project deadline.

And number four for general positivity is to be in good humor.

Once again,

this means to have a general sense of cheerfulness or to be

amicable, to be agreeable.

You'll often hear this idiom used when someone is feeling particularly

cheerful after a difficult or stressful situation.

For example, if someone, you know,

recently had a major operation,

if they come through that operation and go through their recovery process,

feeling cheerful and optimistic, you might say,

my mother seemed to be in good humor.

As we stroll through the garden after her surgery.

Now let's continue to our next section where we'll focus on five idioms that we

typically use to describe feelings of joy.

When you feel so happy that you nearly jump into the air,

or maybe you actually do jump into the air,

you can use the idiom to leap or jump for joy. For example,

she couldn't help, but leap for joy when they offered her the job.

Can you think of the last time you felt so happy that you were ready to jump

into the air? How would you use that idiom to describe that moment,

write down an example sentence. And if you want,

you can share it with me in the comments as well.

Our second idiom for describing feelings of joy is to

burst with joy. Let's talk about that.

Verb burst for a moment.

Imagine a balloon that is full of air.

What's going to happen to that balloon.

If you take a small pin or needle and you poke the balloon,

it's going to burst, right?

This idiom figuratively describes that feeling of having so

much happiness, so much joy that you feel that you're about to burst.

For example,

my niece was bursting with joy as she got ready for her first day of

school, the next one to weep for joy.

This means to cry out of pure happiness. For example,

if you haven't seen a family member for a particularly long time,

that first moment, when you see your family member,

when you're able to give them a hug,

you might be overwhelmed with joy to the point that you start crying

to cry for joy. For example,

it was hard not to weep for joy.

When I saw my brother for the first time, after four years,

our fourth idiom to describe feelings of joy is to be over the moon.

Simply put this means to be extremely pleased.

For example, we were over the moon. When we found out we were moving to France,

similar to feeling over the moon is to be on cloud nine.

When you're on cloud nine,

it means to be overwhelmed with feelings of happiness,

satisfaction and excitement. For example,

Rachel felt like she was on cloud nine. When she finally bought her dream house.

Our next three idioms are focused specifically on feelings of

calm or tranquility.

And the first one is to be even keeled when you're even

keeled, you're balanced well adjusted and calm.

Think for a moment about a coworker or maybe a boss that you've had,

who always stays calm and logical,

no matter how stressful a situation might be at work.

You could always describe that person as having an even keeled

manner or an even keeled characteristic.

And if you want an example sentence, you might say my coworker,

Susan is always even keeled,

no matter how stressful the situation might be in our office.

The second idiom that we can use to describe feelings of calm is to be as

cool as a cucumber.

Have you ever gone to a spa and had slices of cool cucumbers

placed over your eyes? Why do they do that?

It brings an immediate sense of coolness and calm.

And this is a wonderful idiom to use.

When you want to describe someone as being perfectly calm,

perfectly composed. Despite the circumstances,

for example, as she got ready to go on stage for her presentation,

Carrie was as cool as a cucumber and our third idiom for describing

those moments of staying calm is to keep one's cool.

I love this idiom to keep one's cool means to stay calm

in a difficult situation.

This is particularly important for anyone in the customer service industry and

a great example sentence. You could use what this idiom might be.

I felt frustrated by the constant questioning,

but I kept my cool all the same. Okay.

So far we've had idioms to describe general feelings of

positivity,

idioms to describe feeling joyful and idioms for feeling

calm.

Now we're going to transition into idioms that we might use to describe moments

of frustration or even anger.

Let's start with three English idioms we can use to describe those moments

of irritation, annoyance,

or frustration when things get difficult or don't go the way we expected.

The first one is to get under one's skin.

This is one that I use at the very beginning of this lesson today.

If something gets under your skin,

it means that you are annoyed by someone's behavior or

their communication. Here's an example sentence,

despite trying to stay calm,

her teenage daughter's behavior got under Elaine's skin.

Think for a moment about behaviors at work.

Is there anything that someone does that irritates you that

annoys you? If so,

try using this idiom to describe it,

describe what happens and how you feel using the idiom to

get under your skin after you do that, share it with me in the comments below.

And now let's go onto the second idiom to describe frustration

to push one's buttons. If someone pushes your buttons,

it means that they do something or say something in a way that aims

to get some kind of a strong reaction or an emotional response.

Typically negative. For example, when I was younger,

my brother knew exactly how to push my buttons and get me in trouble

with our parents. And number three,

to be on edge earlier,

I used an example of someone remaining as cool as a cucumber just

before they go on stage to give a presentation.

The opposite of that might be to be on edge.

When you're feeling on edge, it means that you're feeling nervous,

anxious, irritated, or frustrated.

And usually this is exhibited in some kind of behavior like

pacing back and forth.

So just like I use the idiom cool as a cucumber to describe how someone

appeared just before giving a presentation,

I could use this one as well as she prepared to go on stage

and give her presentation.

Carrie appeared to be on edge as she paced back and forth.

Now that you have idioms to describe feelings of frustration in English,

let's move on to what you might say.

When those feelings of frustration, transition into anger,

we have three idioms. We're going to learn focused on feeling anger.

And then we're going to move further with three idioms that we use to describe

uncontrollable anger. So when things really reach their limit,

our first English idiom to describe feeling angry is to

lose one's temper or simply to lose it.

If you lose your temper,

it means you lose your composure and you visibly show

anger. You're no longer able to keep it inside. For example,

my mom lost it. When she found out I failed my test.

Can you think of a moment when you lost it? In other words,

you lost your composure.

You are no longer able to keep your cool and instead

you showed your anger. If you've had a moment like that,

try using that idiom in an example, sentence of your own.

Our second idiom for describing feelings of anger doesn't necessarily

mean that you exhibit anger. You don't necessarily show it,

but you do take some kind of action to help you stop those

feelings of anger.

The idiom is to be triggered and we use this to describe our

emotional response to something disturbing.

It might be something disturbing that we see on media or at a social event.

It could also be something that brings back a negative memory

or experience.

So the moment that disturbing image comes on the computer screen,

or the moment that we hear something disturbing,

we have this immediate angry response. And as a result,

we might walk away from the situation or turn off the TV or stop watching a

movie. For example,

watching the movie triggered me and I couldn't finish the rest.

I had to turn it off English idiom.

Number three for describing feelings of anger is to lash out.

This means to suddenly attack someone,

either physically or verbally out of anger. For example,

she lashed out when she found out she lost her job.

Before we get into a few final tips,

I'd like to share with you on how you can learn and remember these English

idioms so that you're able to easily use them in English

conversations.

I want to finish with three more idioms and here we're going to the very

extreme of strong anger.

And the first idiom we'll use here is to blow a fuse.

This simply means to become extremely angry.

For example,

Jamie's aunt blew a fuse when she found out the family wasn't coming

over for Thanksgiving this year. Now, before I share my final two idioms,

I want to pause here for a moment and reflect again on why idioms

are so helpful at the beginning of this lesson. I highlighted that, yes,

we can use the words joyful, angry,

or frustrated to describe our feelings. However, again,

if I use the word frustration, I felt frustrated at work today.

It doesn't really tell you the extent of my frustration

was I mildly frustrated and mildly angry,

maybe something got under my skin a bit,

or was I frustrated enough that I became so angry

to blow a fuse.

This is where idioms become particularly helpful.

Adding that sophistication and nuance to our speech.

Now let's finish up with our last two idioms and some tips on how to remember

these easily. So you can use them in your English conversations.

The next idiom is to go ballistic.

This one is quite strong and even has this violent feeling to

it.

It means to become extremely angry and

to show signs of rage. For example,

fans went ballistic when they found out their favorite player was cut

from the team. And finally,

our last idiom for today is to flip a lid.

I love the imagery of this idiom, even though it's quite negative.

I want you to imagine a pot of boiling water with a lid on it,

and then imagine that pot becoming so hot that

the steam and the boiling water result in flipping the lid off that pot.

Now think about that in terms of the kind of anger we might feel inside

to flip one's lid means to become angry in an uncontrolled

way. For example,

my supervisor flipped his lid when we didn't meet our sales

target.

Now that you have 21 English idioms to describe feelings of joy,

calm, and frustration,

let's quickly talk about how you can remember these and use them naturally

in your English conversations.

If you've been following me for a while and you've watched some of my other

lessons on learning vocabulary in English,

these steps will be familiar to you.

The first thing I want you to do is to choose two or three new idioms

from this list today, I recommend choosing only two or three,

it's important to limit how many idioms or expressions you try

to learn at any given time in time select the two or three that are most

interesting or helpful to you.

And then I want you to immediately think about how you would use those in your

own example, sentences apply those idioms to your real life.

Doing this will help you to remember how to use them in a practical way.

Now, the next step is I want you to do the same thing with the

same two or three idioms for an entire week.

I know that seems like a long period of time,

but the key to learning something and remembering it is repetition.

And this is the biggest mistake I see students make.

They learn something one time,

they practice it one time and then they move on giving yourself the

opportunity to repeat using the same key vocabulary.

Over a short period of time will help you lock it into your active vocabulary.

So I want you to have your two or three idioms from today's list.

Give yourself time to make an example sentence today,

and then tomorrow do the same thing. Create an example sentence,

or maybe even try to use that idiom in a conversation that you have with someone

else over the next week.

I want you to go back to the same two or three idioms again and again,

using them as often as you can,

this will help you to remember them so that in two months or

six months or a year from now,

you're able to use that idiom accurately.

You haven't forgotten it as always. If you have example sentences,

you can share them with me.

I would love for you to do that in the comment section below while you're there.

Take time to review examples from other students as well.

This will give you ideas of how to use these idioms in your own life.

If you found today's lesson helpful to you, I would love to know,

make sure that you give this lesson a thumbs up here on YouTube and don't forget

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Thank you so much for joining me. And I look forward to seeing you next time.