Hello, everyone. And welcome back to English with Lucy. Today, I have a vocabulary video for you.
Please. Sorry, I'm tired, I'm bored, I'm sad, and I'm fine. These are words and
phrases that we find ourselves saying over and over again. They're incredibly common,
but we don't want to repeat ourselves all the time, over and over. So in this lesson,
I'm going to provide you with 30 alternatives for these words and phrases.
I'm going to really help you enrich your vocabulary. Before we get started, I would like
to remind you that I have just launched my British English pronunciation course based on my accent,
modern received pronunciation. I will teach you to sound natural when speaking English.
You will learn to speak clearly and you will feel more fluent and more confident.
We'll go through every sound in modern received pronunciation in detail, looking at mouth shape
and tongue position. Lift your tongue so that the tip makes gentle contact with the underneath of
your upper front teeth. I will be I'm right there with you leaving you time to copy and analyse my
movements and my sounds. All of the vowel sounds,
all of the consonant sounds, you will master them all. You will leave the course with the ability to
understand any phonetic transcription that you will find in an English dictionary. You'll be
able to look up any word and immediately know exactly how it's pronounced. We will also analyse
connected speech, rhythm, word stress, syllable stress, intonation, and we will of course,
take a good look at the notoriously difficult sounds like the glottal stop, the dark L,
and the linking R. When I was writing this course, I knew that I wanted to provide my students with
an outstanding pronunciation tool. So I hired two lecturers in linguistics from prestigious UK
universities to go through every script and every video and fact check the course. I am so excited
to finally share this with you and to welcome you through the doors of Epiphany Language Studios.
If you are interested in taking the pronunciation course, go to epiphanylanguagestudios.com or
click on the link in the description box. I'll see you in the pronunciation course.
Don't forget that as always, there is a free PDF for this lesson. It's got all of the vocabulary,
definitions, and examples. You can download it by clicking on the link in the description box,
entering your email address, and it will be sent straight to your inbox. First we have, please,
please. I find myself saying please all the time. It's part of my culture. It even annoys me.
Now here, I'm going to be focusing on saying please when asking somebody to do something.
One really nice alternative is, would you mind? Would you mind? Would you mind passing me the
salt? We also have a slightly more complex version. I'd appreciate it if you could. I'd
appreciate it if you could. I'd appreciate it if you could let me stay the night.
Another one may be slightly more casual is, would you be able to, would you be able to, would you
be able to pick me up from the station? We also have number four. This is quite posh.
I don't suppose you could. I don't suppose you could. I don't suppose you could lend
me your bicycle? Or we have a really nice one, number five. I wonder if. I wonder if you might.
I wonder if you might. I wonder if you might be able to postpone the meeting?
These are all really nice ways of avoiding saying, please, over and over again.
Next, we have five alternatives for sorry. I have made a video on sorry before, but I think it's so
important, I have to say it again. In England, we say sorry again and again and again. I am so sorry
for how much we repeat sorry. Sometimes I bump into inanimate objects like the sofa,
and I say, "Sorry," to the sofa. Let me know if you do that too.
One really nice way of avoiding sorry is to say, "It was thoughtless of me," or, "It was
careless of me." It was thoughtless of me to call you so late.
Another one, quite strong. I owe you an apology. I owe you an apology for my awful behaviour.
A very serious one, one you might say after misbehaving at work is I take full responsibility
for my actions. I take full responsibility for my actions in that board meeting. Another quite
simple one is, I apologise, or even better, I sincerely apologise. That really means something,
sincerely, honestly. I sincerely apologise for forgetting your birthday.
And then the last one, number 10, this one's quite dramatic. I hope you can find it in your heart
to forgive me. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me for breaking up with you. I
didn't mean it. Now, we have some alternatives for I'm fine or I'm good, that very common response to
how are you? A really positive one is I couldn't be better. I couldn't be better.
This means that you feel as good as possible. You physically could not feel any better.
Sometimes we leave off I, so we just say, "Couldn't be better."
Alternatively, if you're not feeling great, you could say, "Could be better." I could be better.
One that's slightly less positive. It's kind of in the middle. I've been worse or been worse. This
means you're not the best you can be, but you're also, you have felt worse in the past. This next
one is lovely. It's one that my grandparents use a lot. It is I'm as fit as a fiddle, as fit as a
fiddle. And this means I'm really good, especially focusing on health. I feel very healthy.
Another sort of average one, not too bad, thanks. Or just not bad. I really like not too bad because
this implies, I'm not great, but I'm also not too bad. So I'm okay. And then we have the last one,
I'm doing well. I'm really doing well. Thanks. You will also hear people say,
"I'm doing good. Thank you." This is informal in this context. Some people say, "No,
that's not grammatically correct." It depends on the context. Also, it's so commonly used
now that I feel the language has evolved. All right, next section. I have some very good,
although a bit sad, alternatives for saying, "I'm sad." We have, I'm gutted, I'm gutted. And this
is a very British expression. It's slang and it means I'm very sad or I'm very disappointed. I'm
gutted that you can't make it tonight. I'm so sad and disappointed that you can't make it tonight.
You can't make it is that you can't come to an event. You say, "Oh, I can't make it. I'm
sorry. I can't come." We also have, I'm absolutely devastated. This means so sad. So disappointed.
I was devastated when I didn't get into my first choice university,
but it turned out okay in the end. To turn out okay means that everything was fine in the end.
One that you can use if you're feeling depressed is, I'm feeling really down, low.
You can also say low. I'm feeling really down. I'm feeling really down about the breakup. I'm
feeling very depressed about the breakup. If you really want to explain to somebody that actually
you could use a bit of a hand, you're really not feeling good.
I'm not doing so good. I'm not doing so good. Or I'm not doing so great. Really listen to somebody
if they tell you that they're not doing so good or they're not doing so great.
We also have, I'm a bit down in the dumps. If you're down in the dumps, it means you are feeling
sad and depressed. For those last three, if anyone uses them with you, really listen to them and look
after them because they are definitely trying to explain that they're having a hard time. The first
two were more about disappointment. The last three, a real expression of emotional feeling.
Next, we have alternatives for, I'm tired. I'm tired. We have a lot of slang ones here and a
couple of phrasal verbs. We have, I'm absolutely exhausted. Exhausted. This means very, very tired.
We also have a phrasal verb, I'm worn out. I'm worn out.
If something is worn out, it means it has been used too much and can't be used anymore. Like
shoes when the soul gets thin, they are worn out. Well, we can use this to describe people as well.
If you're worn out, you've been used too much. You can't be used anymore. You're too tired.
We also have a very British slang word. It is I'm knackered. I'm completely knackered.
The K is silent here, knackered. And in Cockney rhyming slang, you can say, "I'm cream-crackered."
I'm cream-crackered. If you've never heard of Cockney rhyming slang, search it. It is so much
fun. Number 24, we have another that comes from a phrasal verb, I'm done in. I'm totally done in.
This one is very slang, very informal. And lastly, we have, I'm completely drained, drained of my
energy. That's one my mum says a lot at the end of the day, "Oh, I'm completely drained."
Or she also says, "I'm completely sapped," as well. Sapped or drained. She's very dramatic.
I love her. And then the last five, we have five not boring ways to say that you are bored.
We have, I'm bored to death or I'm bored to tears. I could cry, I'm so bored or I could die,
I'm so bored. I love these. They're so dramatic. We also have, oh, it's like watching paint dry.
There is nothing more boring than watching paint dry. So if you're in a really boring lecture
and your friend says it, you're watching this, it's like watching paint dry. It is so boring.
We also have, I'm bored stiff. I'm bored stiff. I'm so bored that my body has gone rigid. A phrase
that we can use to describe somebody who is boring is, a total bore. He is a total bore. I went on a
date last night, but he was a total bore. And the last one, a bit of a snore,
he's a bit of a snore. This new class is a bit of a snore. A snore, something that's boring,
slang again. All right, that's it for today's lesson. Don't forget that you can download your
PDF for free for this lesson. Click on the link in the description box and to your email address and
it will be sent straight to your inbox. And don't forget to check out my new pronunciation course
on epiphanylanguagestudios.com, new language platform. I am so excited to share that with you.
Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media. I've got my Facebook,
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as well if you want to check that out. I will see you soon for another lesson.