Well hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish!
I've got some awesome English expressions
to share with you today and all of them relate to
a very specific emotion.
This is an unimpressed face, right?
Do you know that feeling?
Unimpressed is when you
you don't respect or you don't admire
something or someone, maybe
you're not interested in them.
That is when we have this emotion
where you're unimpressed.
And broadly there are three different
categories for this feeling:
when you're bored because you're not
really interested in what's going on;
when your expectations haven't been met
so you're a bit disappointed in the result or the outcome.
And the third is that you've wasted time
or you've wasted effort right so you have this feeling of
being annoyed about something.
Now obviously none of those things are positive, right?
But we are gonna have some fun with the English
phrases that I'm gonna share today.
They are full of emotion and expression.
So it's really not just about the words
that you're going to learn but it's about
how you say them
you know, you're saying it with feeling.
Even more powerful with this emotion is
your tone of voice
and your facial expression or your body language.
So get ready to be expressive with me. Let's get started!
Quick question.
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So we need some fuel for this lesson,
something to help get you in the mood, in the zone.
I need you to think about a time when you felt
really unimpressed by something or even by someone.
Maybe you went to a restaurant that
all of your friends were raving about.
They were saying it's so good
but when you went,
it took ages for your food to come out
and when it did come out, it was cold.
So you expected it to be awesome but
it wasn't.
Or perhaps you've just walked in the door after
a long busy day at work
and your kids have pulled out every toy that they own
and the house is a complete mess.
So have you got an example that you can use
to practise with this lesson?
I want you to share it with me in the comments,
I'm really curious to hear.
What it is that does not impress you,
hold on to that feeling, I want you to use it
throughout these expressions
that we're practising today.
Obviously when you're unimpressed about something,
you're unhappy, right?
It's a negative emotion.
You're not happy about something.
And this sounds like a really simple phrase, doesn't it?
But when it's used with the right tone,
it can be really powerful.
I'm not happy about this.
So this can be used in all sorts of situations but if
someone's patience has been pushed a little too far
and they're getting upset,
obviously not happy,
which you know you can absolutely use
unhappy in the same way.
I'd avoid talking to the boss this morning,
she's quite unhappy about this month's sales.
Or you could say:
She's unimpressed with our team's performance.
Now describing someone as unhappy or unimpressed
these are really polite ways to say that you're upset,
you're disappointed and so for this reason,
it's a really appropriate phrase to use at work, right?
It's one that is not too rude, it's very neutral
but it helps you to express
disappointment or frustration.
But now that we've got that simple, polite version out of
the way, it's time to move on to some more
expressive ways to show that you're not impressed.
Are you serious?
Seriously?
Let's use the example of a parent coming home
after a long day of work and the house is a pigsty.
It's a mess.
It's annoying right, you'd be really unimpressed
with your kid's choices and behaviour, right?
So you might open the door and say
Seriously?
Be careful with the tone that you use there because
it's not really a question.
Are you serious?
With that upward intonation,
this sounds like I want to know the answer.
I don't okay, I'm not really asking a question.
When you're unimpressed
your tone should be much flatter.
Are you serious?
Seriously?
You borrow my car and return it with an empty fuel tank.
Seriously?
Really?
This is used in the same way, exactly the same way.
And again, the tone is really key here because if you
ask the question, you use that wandering tone.
Really?
Well it sounds like a question then right but if you say
Really?
And you use this facial expression to help you, it shows
that you're annoyed or you're unimpressed, right?
Really?
In fact, it's actually quite common
when you're unimpressed about something
to use a question.
Almost just to check what's really happening,
like you've actually got to
find is this for real?
Really?
I spend eight hours at work and then
come home to this mess?! Really?
Come on...
Now I'm not saying 'come on'
as in let's go, come with me.
I'm saying 'Come on'
as in
I'm so tired of this situation, I'm sick of it.
You know,
I'm adding lots of extra emphasis as well to
drag out the word.
When you say it like that, it really shows
that you're frustrated and you're annoyed.
So I'm late for a meeting, I just turned on the car
and realised that my fuel tank is completely empty.
Come on!
Not again...
It's good to use a groan of complaint
with this expression and say
Not again...
Now you've probably guessed that this expression
can be used when the same annoying thing
keeps happening again and again and again.
You're really unimpressed about it, right?
It's the same problem that keeps happening.
Not again.
The car won't start for the third time this week.
So you can also use this same expression
with some of the last ones as well. You can say
Come on, not again!
Not again... Are you serious?
So these expressions,
seriously, come on, not again,
they're all really informal slang expressions right
and they're often used by young people
especially when they're complaining.
So a more formal or mature way, perhaps
to express the same idea is to use
unbelievable
and again, tone
and body language are so important to help you explain
that you're not using this word in a positive way right?
Unbelievable.
So see how I'm shaking my head slowly? That's a clue,
keeping the tone flat.
Did he arrive at work late again?
Unbelievable.
You can also say:
I can't believe it!
He knows how important this meeting is and he slept in!
I can't believe it...
Are you kidding me?
I'm completely unimpressed
about what's happening now right.
Maybe I'm even a little annoyed or angry.
So if someone calls you, wakes you up in the middle
of the night for something really silly like
to tell you to watch some movie or something like that.
You're calling me at 3am! Are you kidding me?
So this expression is really helpful when you're directing
your frustration at someone.
Are you kidding me?
But you can also use a similar expression
to talk more generally about a situation
that you're annoyed about. You can say
You've got to be kidding me!
Can you hear which words are stressed there?
You've got to be kidding me.
Say it with me.
You've got to be kidding me.
Imagine you drive all the way across town to
go to a meeting
and when you get there,
you realise that you read your calendar wrong
the meeting is actually tomorrow.
You've got to be kidding me.
You wish that it wasn't true, you wish
that it was a joke but you know that it's not.
Give me a break!
You know when someone's asked you to do something
or something that you think is a bit unreasonable
then this expression is really useful
to show them that you're unimpressed right.
If your teenage son said to you
You never let me go anywhere!
and you're like: Give me a break!
You go to your friend's house every weekend.
And you can actually use it just
on its own without explanation, just say
Give me a break
just to show that you think that what they're saying
is unreasonable.
Imagine that someone who works for you
asks for a pay rise and you think
You got a pay rise three months ago
and you haven't met any of your targets yet.
It's kind of a bit annoying that you're even asking.
So you might think to yourself:
Give me a break! I just gave you a pay rise.
Notice that I said 'think' not 'say' right?
It's not polite or professional to say
'Give me a break' to someone that you work with, right?
Unless you really want to show them that you're
annoyed, you're unimpressed by their behaviour.
You can also say:
I've had it!
It's like saying
'I've had enough'
which is also
quite a good expression to use when you've
reached the end of your patients right but this is shorter
and it's more final right? It's serious, I've had it!
I'm done!
But you can also make it a bit more specific by saying
'I've had it with' something.
I've had it with my boss.
I've had it with this messy house.
I've had it with your bad attitude!
I'm tired of it! It's bothering me.
I don't want to deal with it anymore.
It's very final.
Another similar expression is to say
I'm fed up or I'm fed up with something.
You know when you're really tired of something,
so tired of it that it's starting to annoy you.
You're really unimpressed by someone's behaviour
or by a situation.
I'm fed up with waiting in this queue. Let's leave.
So when you're really unimpressed,
you're really frustrated, you want to make sure
that it's known to everyone else around you, you'll say
Forget it!
All right, you're mad now.
Whatever it is you're doing
or whatever it is you need from someone,
you don't care anymore. Forget it, don't worry about it.
If a friend has ever forgotten to pick you up
from the airport and you ask them to
and you're waiting for an hour or so
and then they finally call
Sorry, I was at the shops.
Forget it! I'll just take a taxi.
Now actually a more polite way to say that
especially if you're talking to a friend is to say
Don't worry! Don't worry about it.
I'll just take a taxi, it'll be fine.
But if you want them to know that you're annoyed
or you're really unimpressed by that situation.
Forget it, I'll take a taxi.
You're showing your frustration.
If you can't help me do it, forget it! I'll do it myself.
So they were a few common expressions and phrases
to help you express yourself when you're unimpressed,
when you're not happy and you're disappointed.
So like I said, lots of these expressions
are considered to be
quite rude if you use them directly to the person
who's not impressing you.
But they do make for really great
storytelling and explanations
when you're talking about daily frustrations right
with your friends and your family. They help you
express yourself in really entertaining ways.
Now your last task before you finish this lesson is to
pause
and write a short paragraph about a time when you were
not at all impressed.
So take the opportunity to use
some of the expressions that we shared in this video
and I'm going to come down and check your responses
down below to make sure you're using
those expressions accurately, correctly.
And when you are ready,
head straight on over to this lesson right here.
We're going to do some
pronunciation and speaking practice together.
I'll see you in there!