What does 'to feel down' mean?

It means to feel a little sad or low, usually temporarily. 'I've been feeling a bit down this week' is a natural, gentle way to say it.

Should I say 'I'm boring' or 'I'm bored'?

Say 'I'm bored' when you feel it. 'I'm boring' means you make other people feel bored — the -ed form is the feeling, the -ing form is the cause.

How do you answer 'How are you feeling?'

Match the situation: 'Much better, thanks', 'A bit nervous', 'Honestly, pretty tired'. It's a real question about your state, unlike the greeting 'How are you?'

Vocabulary Level A2

Feelings & Emotions Vocabulary

Say more than happy and sad: thrilled, annoyed, nervous, relieved, overwhelmed — plus how to ask how someone feels and how to comfort them.

name it · ask about it · respond to it

It is easy to rely on happy, sad and angry, then add very whenever the feeling is stronger. English often offers a more specific word: thrilled for intense happiness, furious for intense anger and relieved when a worry ends. The cover moves from a low mood to strong positive excitement.

Positive feelings: mild and strong

These words are not one exact scale: choose for meaning as well as strength. Extreme adjectives such as thrilled normally pair with absolutely or really rather than very.

okay · fine · pleased · glad · happy · excited · delighted · thrilled · over the moon (informal, very happy)

I'm thrilled about the news. · She was relieved to hear it. (a worry ended) · I feel proud of her.

Difficult feelings

Precision matters here: annoyed and furious, for example, express very different degrees of anger.

Sad side: down · disappointed · upset · lonely · homesick · miserable

Angry side: annoyed · irritated · frustrated · angry · furious

Worry and tiredness: nervous · anxious · stressed · overwhelmed (too much to handle) · exhausted · drained

The grammar of feelings

Two things to get right: the -ed / -ing pair, and the preposition that follows.

I'm frustrated. (how I feel) · The situation is frustrating. (what causes it)

worried about · excited about · annoyed with someone · angry at/with someone · afraid of · proud of · disappointed in someone

Asking and responding

Note the usual difference: How are you? often works as a greeting, while How are you feeling? normally asks more directly about someone's current state.

Asking: How are you feeling? · Are you okay? · What's wrong? · You seem a bit quiet today.

Responding: I'm fine, thanks. · A bit nervous, actually. · I've been feeling a little down. · Honestly, I'm exhausted.

Supporting someone: That sounds really hard. · I'm sorry to hear that. · Is there anything I can do? · I'm here if you want to talk. Be careful with Don't worry, Cheer up and Calm down: they can sound dismissive when someone is genuinely upset.

Common mistakes

The -ing form for your own feeling. "I'm boring" is grammatical, but it says you bore others.

✕I'm boring in this meeting. (meaning: I feel bored)
✓I'm bored in this meeting.

"I feel myself bad." Feel takes no reflexive pronoun here.

✕I feel myself nervous before exams.
✓I feel nervous before exams.

The wrong preposition after an emotion adjective. Learn the adjective and its preposition together.

✕I'm annoyed to my brother.
✓I'm annoyed with my brother.

With strong adjectives, absolutely, completely or really is often more idiomatic than very: absolutely furious, completely exhausted.

"I have fear / I have angry." Feelings usually take be or feel + adjective: I'm scared, I feel angry. (I'm afraid of… also works.)

Quick exercise

Complete each line with one word.

The exam is tomorrow and I'm really ___ . (worried before an event)
I'm ___ about the trip! (very happy and looking forward to it)
I'm a bit ___ with my brother — he forgot again. (mildly angry)
She was ___ when she heard the test was negative. (a worry ended)
I've been feeling ___ this week. (a little sad)

Answer key

nervous (worry before something; anxious also fits)
excited (the -ed form — it's your feeling; thrilled also fits)
annoyed (mild anger, and it takes with a person; irritated also fits)
relieved (a worry has ended)
down (feel down = a little sad; low also fits)

Practice this in Recursio

Moving beyond happy, sad and angry helps you describe both the kind and the strength of a feeling. Save the emotion words you would really use to your word list in Recursio; spaced review can make thrilled, annoyed and relieved easier to recall in conversation.

Build your word list in Recursio → · Free to start, on iOS and Android.