well hey there i'm emma from
english and today i'm going to share
some different
some more appropriate ways of saying
that you don't like something
now of course it's okay to say i don't
like it
it's simple it's direct
and it communicates your message clearly
but there are
lots of different situations where that
might sound
a little rude or a little too direct you
might also be interested in learning
more natural everyday expressions that
native english speakers use
when they don't like something if that
sounds like you you're in the right
place
because i'm sharing 20 alternatives
to i don't like it so that you can
communicate clearly
and effectively and naturally in english
so let's get into the lesson
i don't like it it's obviously a
negative thing
but today we're going to talk about a
whole bunch
of different ways that you can express
that same
negative idea in english and i've got
some really
casual informal expressions and some
idioms to share with you
ones that i use all the time instead of
saying
i don't like it along with some more
formal
maybe more polite ways of saying that
you dislike something
most of the time when we say i don't
like it
we don't mean to offend anyone we need
to say it politely
right but then there's times when you're
chatting with your friends
you know people that you're close to or
really comfortable with
and you might want to be a little more
direct
or honest about your feelings i know you
know what i mean
so i'm going to include this little dial
on screen with each expression we go
through to help you understand
how intense the meaning is you know
sometimes we just want to
hint that we don't like something but
other times
we want to be super clear we want to
emphasize how much we
really really really don't like the idea
so this little dial is going to show you
how intense the meaning is in each of
these expressions
so that you can choose one that's most
appropriate for the situation
so let's look at i don't like
something it could be food it could be
music any activity but not
people i'm really deliberately
highlighting this because
not all of the expressions that i'm
gonna go through now can be used in
every context okay the ones that i'm
sharing first
are usually used when we're talking
about things
not people so think of this simple
question
do you like thai food
it's not my favorite now this is a bit
of a cheeky response
i'm not saying i don't like it but i'm
implying that i don't like it
by avoiding the question and this is
something that i do all the time when i
don't want to hurt someone's feelings
i might say it's not my favorite
there are other things that i like more
i could also say
it's not my thing and that might seem
like a really
odd response here usually when we say
that's not my thing we're talking about
something
a notebook or a pen we're saying i don't
own it it's not
mine however when it's used as a fixed
expression in this context
it's an informal but still quite a
polite way of saying that you don't
like something do you want to join our
cycling club
uh cycling's not really my thing we can
also just say
i'm not into it i'm not into something
i'm not into thai food or i'm not into
contact sports i'm not into christmas
so what about those times when you want
to respond a little more respectfully
i've got a few different options to
share here and it really helps if you
think about a situation where you might
need to show respect with your answer
so imagine this situation you're invited
to a friend's house and they introduce
you to
a friend of theirs a thai friend and
you're chatting away
having a good time and then they ask you
do you like thai food and you think
uh not really
by the way this is just an example i
love
thai food it's just an example so in
this situation
you can take my trick from before and
respond by talking about what you do
like
instead so you kind of dodge the
question a little
so you could answer by saying i prefer
italian food
to be honest i'd rather eat japanese
food when i go out
even more formal or more polite again is
to simply respond by saying
it's not to my taste you know especially
when you're talking about food
or you're talking about style then you
can say
it's not to my taste do you want to come
to the tame impala concert with me
so you could say no i don't like them
but you could also
choose your words a little more
carefully and you could say
i'm not really a fan of them i'm not a
fan of
something i'm not a fan of tame impala
this expression works really well for
bands and for music and movies things
like that
but it can also be used in lots of
different contexts just to mean
i don't like it i'm not a big fan of
strawberries
or i'm not a fan of queuing at
restaurants
so what if someone's suggesting an idea
they obviously really like this idea but
you don't
there's some great idioms that you can
use in this situation
you can say that i'm not crazy about it
i'm not crazy about this idea most of
the time when we're using this
expression
we're using it to say that we don't like
an idea
or maybe a suggestion that someone's had
i'm not crazy about the idea of driving
through the night for 15 hours
do you want to wake up at 5am on sunday
and go for a 10 kilometer run uh
i'd rather not i don't like that idea
i'd rather sleep in on my sunday morning
right it's the only day of the week
where i get to do it
so i'm using i'd rather again
just as a more polite and more indirect
way of saying
no i would not like to do that when
we're talking about
an activity that we don't like then we
can also use
this great idiom to say that it's not
our cup of tea you know getting up early
and going for a run on a sunday morning
is not my cup of tea all right here's
your first piece of homework
has anyone ever made a suggestion to you
that you just
didn't like the sound of let's spend our
holidays doing a short course in
accounting
i don't like accounting i got your mama
worm farm
she doesn't like worms see if you can
respond
to one or both of these ideas using one
of the expressions that you've just
learned
so we're still thinking about those
times when someone
makes a suggestion that you don't really
like
you could say that doesn't tickle my
fancy
now usually this expression is used when
someone suggests
an activity or maybe an idea for an
activity
why don't we go skiing on the weekend
nah that doesn't tickle my fancy
if you don't like the idea of something
or
the concept of something like marriage
or waking up early then
you can simply just say it's not for me
it's not for me so it's quite casual
really relaxed informal way of saying
that
it's not something that i like it's not
something that i
enjoy i've come to realize that marriage
is not for me
i don't really like the idea of marriage
early mornings are not for me actually
if i was to be honest i'd say that
sleep-ins are not for me i like being
awake early
what about you do you like being awake
early or do you like to sleep
in see if you can make a sentence using
one of these expressions
and add it down in the comments below so
now we're ready to talk about
i don't like a person
when you're talking about a person you
don't like we we've got to be a little
bit careful don't we
again we can use i'd rather
i'd rather not or i'd rather you didn't
but we've got to make sure that we're
talking about the
action not the person i'd rather
not do something with
them because i don't like them
okay i'd rather not see them i'd rather
not meet them i'd rather not
go to their house or hang out with them
is it okay if i invite jess to your
birthday
i'd rather you didn't we don't get along
we don't really like hanging out with
each other
i'd rather you didn't we've never really
clicked
so when you click with someone your
personalities match and you get along
really really well
but here we're using it in a negative
way aren't we
we're saying we never really clicked
we never really enjoyed hanging out with
each other
so i don't want her to come i don't
really like her
now if you're looking for a much
stronger meaning
then you can say i can't stand her
i can't stand her i'd rather you didn't
invite her
i can't stand her a little more formal
but still just as strong as i can't
stand her
is i find her intolerable
i'd rather you didn't invite her i find
her intolerable
all right now is the part that i know
you've been hanging out for we're going
to talk about some options that have
a much stronger meaning okay so when you
really really want to make it clear that
you don't like something
you're not worried about being polite
you want your message
to be crystal clear you don't like it
i'm serious you don't like it i want
everyone to know that
so we just talked about using i find
someone intolerable or i can't stand
someone we can use both of these
expressions to talk about
people or things
and probably specifically activities
i can't stand watching cricket
i find horse racing intolerable
and there are some really really strong
synonyms
of dislike so if you want to get serious
say that you loathe something
or someone or you detest them
or you despise them
i loathe the idea of getting stuck on a
cruise ship
for three whole weeks i detest the way
he takes credit for
sam's work i despise people who leave
their cigarette butts in the sand at the
beach
it's disgusting you can also say
in a really strong way that you
disapprove
of someone's behavior if you don't like
what they're doing
i know john's going through a rough time
at home
but i really disapprove of him turning
up late every day
if you want to make it really clear that
you
don't want to do something then you can
say
i have no desire to do it
i have no desire to spend three weeks on
a sailing boat in the middle of the
ocean
and if you want to make it even stronger
again you can add
no desire whatsoever i have
no desire to spend my holiday completing
an accounting course no desire
whatsoever
what do you have no desire to do no
desire
whatsoever make sure you share it with
me down in the comments i'm super
curious now
so that's it my friends they are my
suggestions on
alternatives that you can use for i
don't like it
i wonder if you can think of any others
there are so
many different and quite frankly
better ways of saying that you don't
like something in english
so i hope that you were able to build on
your vocabulary and learn something new
with me today
keep practicing your natural english
expression with me
right here in this imitation lesson and
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thanks for watching and i'll see you in
the next lesson