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Table of Contents
Introduction
In this IELTS Speaking Lesson about expressing feelings, you will learn vocabulary, and language to help you speak confidently on this topic.
There are two main types of feelings or emotions; primary and secondary.
Primary emotions include,
- Love
- Happiness
- Surprise
- Anger
- Sadness
Each of these can lead to secondary emotions, a kind of reaction to the first emotion. For example, love could lead to feelings of,
- Excitement
- Confusion
- Embarrassment
Of course we could also divide feelings into positive and negative ones.
In this lesson we will look at the vocabulary you need to describe a range of different feelings, as well as talking about topical issues such as, mental health and emotional intelligence.
IELTS Speaking vocabulary: Expressing feelings
Common questions to ask people how they are or how they feel are:
- How are you feeling?
- How are you doing?
- How is it going?
Common answers might be:
- I’m doing fine
- I feel great
- I’m fine
- I’m good
- I feel just terrible
Below we can see synonyms for common feelings:
I feel happy today
- content
- pleased
- ecstatic =very happy
- elated =very happy
I am happy about / that _____
- glad
- pleased
- delighted =very happy
- thrilled (to bits) =very happy
I feel angry
- cross
- irate
- vexed
I feel sad
- down (in the dumps)
- low
- blue
- despondent
Practice these, by finishing the following phrases:
I feel vexed when / whenever ……
I feel thrilled when…..
I feel down in the dumps when….
I feel excited when….
IELTS Speaking vocabulary: Word families
When we learn vocabulary, it’s a good idea to be aware of word families, that is, the noun, adjective, verb, adverb, etc… of a word.
Look at the table below and
- Fill in the missing words
- Choose ONE of the words from the table, and make ONE Sentence that is true about you
Answer at the bottom of the page
Verb | Noun | Adjective |
To loathe | Loathing | |
To adore | Adorable | |
To irritate | Irritated / Irritating | |
To confuse | Confusion |
Other words meaning “Confused”
- Baffled
- Perplexed
- Flabbergasted
- Puzzled
- Bewildered
IELTS Speaking discussion: Mental health
How do you keep your mental well-being?
Similar questions:
How do you tackle mental health problems?
How do you handle mental health problems?
How do you cope with mental health problems?
The following phrases can be useful to answer this question:
- Improve your mental health
- Improve your mental well-being
- Build a sense of self-worth
- Boost self-confidence
- Raise you self-esteem
- Build a sense of purpose
- Get a feeling of purpose
- Provide emotional support
- Connect with others
- Share positive experiences
Don’t rely too much on technology
Great for your physical health
Change your mood
Create positive feelings
Small acts of kindness
Here are some possible answers for that question:
I do yoga and practice meditation
I share positivity with mates = friends
I think positive
I adopt a growth mindset
I stay away from toxic people
I indulge in an activity I enjoy, like cooking
I stay away from social media
I do regular exercise
I stay I touch with friends
I take difficulties in my stride = I don’t worry too much
I take problems with a pinch of salt = I don’t worry too much
I keep myself busy
I get engaged in a number of daily activities
Get more advice from this website
IELTS listening task: Feelings
Watch and listen to Stan talking about feelings and how men and women express feelings in different ways.
Try to spot as many words/phrases as possible related to feelings.
Listening Task: Feelings (Tape script)
Click here to read script
My girlfriend Julie, she is very good at expressing her feelings. Sometimes, you can read her like a book.
When she’s happy, she tells you.
How are you love? Ohh, I’m over the moon. I’m ever so pleased I passed my exam.
When she’s down in the dumps, you can tell.
Are you ok, dear? No, I am not, I am depressed.
I don’t want any dinner, I am not in the mood, leave me alone.
That’s Julie.
When she’s angry, you know about it, right?
I am so cross with Colin at work, I did a great job preparing our presentation and he stole my thunder, telling the bosses it was mostly his work! Idiot!
Tell you what, my Julie is an expressive person.
But, when she asks me: how are you doing? Yeah alright
Are you feeling ok? Yeah alright
Some men, like yours truly, are just not very expressive, right?
Some men, I reckon, like yours truly, it’s not that we don’t how to express our feelings, it’s just that we don’t always know how we actually feel!
We don’t spend a lot of time thinking about feelings
and analysing them. We just are!
What was that geezer, that bloke, who said,
“I think, therefore I am”
Well, I reckon, if he were a woman, sorry, If he had been a woman, she would have said,
“I feel, therefore I am”
I reckon men today, it’s more like,
“I am, therefore I am”
Idioms to talk about feelings
To be in the mood to do / for doing = to feel like doing something
To have mood swings = your mood changes a lot (negative)
To be in low spirits = to be sad
To feel down in the dumps = to feel sad
I am feeling under the weather = feeling sick, feeling off colour
To be on an emotional roller coaster = to be experiencing lots of different emotions (negative)
To be on a high = to be happy
I feel out of sorts = I don’t feel myself = don’t feel comfortable or happy
I am tickled pink = to be very happy
IELTS vocabulary: Word families answers
Verb | Noun | Adjective |
To loathe | Loathing | Loathsome |
To adore | Adoration | Adorable |
To irritate | Irritation | Irritated / Irritating |
To confuse | Confusion | Confused / confusing |
More Free IELTS Speaking Lessons
If you liked this lesson, leave a comment below!
There are more lessons you can follow in the links below too.
FAMILY in IELTS Speaking. How to talk about your family, stages of life, as well as idioms about family.
COMEDY in IELTS Speaking. Learn different types of comedy and idiomatic expressions related to comedy and jokes.
KEEPING FIT in IELTS Speaking. Learn different types of activities we do to keep fit and the language you need to talk about them
