Hi, I'm Rob from Woodward English.
What is the difference between angry with, angry at and angry about?
Which preposition do you use after angry?
That is what we are going to learn today. Let's begin.
Angry with is used when someone is upset or resentful about a specific person.
Let's look at some examples.
She is angry with her brother for breaking her favorite toy.
Jack is angry with his sister for borrowing his car without permission.
And also we have ...
Susan is angry with her friend for canceling their planned trip at the last moment.
Must be frustrating.
You can also be angry at a person.
Angry AT is similar to Angry WITH and is also used when someone is upset with a person.
For example
She is angry at her friend for betraying her trust.
To betray means to act against or be disloyal to someone who trusts you,
often by revealing secrets, breaking promises
or acting in a way that harms the trust or confidence placed in you.
So she is angry at her friend for betraying her trust.
I wonder what she did?
Another example
I am angry at him for lying to me.
So angry at and angry with is used or they are used with a person or someone.
And nowadays both AT and WITH are interchangeable after angry.
However AT is used more in American English and WITH is used more in British English.
For example
I was angry at her.
it's used more in American English.
I was angry with her.
this is used more in British English.
But you can also be angry about something
Angry about is used when someone is upset about a specific situation or event.
You are angry about something.
It indicates that the anger is more broadly focused on the
circumstances instead of a particular individual.
Let's look look at these example sentences.
She is angry about the way the company treats its employees.
Employees are the people that work for a company.
So she is angry about the way about something, a situation not a specific person, about a thing.
They're angry about the lack of action on climate change by world leaders.
They're angry about something.
What are they angry about?
The lack of action.
His parents were angry about his poor grades.
poor kid
okay, so they're angry about something, about his poor grades.
So in general, angry with plus someone
angry at someone
They're more or less interchangeable
and also angry about something.
I want you to give us your example sentences using the word angry with a preposition
and I recommend seeing our full lesson about prepositions after angry on our website.
I've included more prepositions that you can use after angry
and of course as always
Have an awesome day!