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  • Hi Bob the Canadian here.

  • In this English lesson I'll help you learn 10 ways to respond to someone in English if

  • they share news about their life that's kind of disappointing.

  • So I'll look at 10 different scenarios, 10 different examples and then I'll give you

  • an English phrase for each of those 10 that you could use in that situation.

  • The first thing you could say if someone shares disappointing news with you is, "That's too

  • bad!"

  • So let's imagine a situation where you have a friend who, they applied for a job, they

  • went and interviewed for that job and they've been waiting to hear back whether they got

  • the job or not, and then they just called you and said they didn't get the job.

  • It would be very nice of you to say, "Ah that's too bad!"

  • When you say, "That's too bad!", especially in that situation it makes them feel, of course,

  • that you're their friend and it makes them feel that you are being sympathetic to them.

  • So number one you could say, "That's too bad!"

  • The second thing you could say if a friend shares disappointing news with you is, "That

  • sucks!"

  • It's kind of a little bit of English slang, but let's imagine a situation where a friend

  • of yours has been fired from a job.

  • So they had a job and they weren't doing a very good job and now they have been let go.

  • So when you say someone's been let go it means they've been fired.

  • Maybe they phoned you up and they say, "Oh, I just got let go from my job today!"

  • You could respond by saying, "That sucks!"

  • Which is actually a perfect response in that situation to say, "That sucks!" because you

  • like your friend, you think your friend's probably a good worker and you really feel

  • like the situation sucks for them.

  • So, "That sucks!", is the second way that you could respond.

  • The third way that you could respond to disappointing news is to say, "That's a shame!" or "What

  • a shame!"

  • So let's imagine again that you have friend and they call you and they say, "My son just

  • got kicked out of his school for doing bad things."

  • You could say to them, "Ah, what a shame!"

  • Because maybe in this situation you know the kid.

  • Maybe you know this person's son and maybe he's really smart and you feel like even though

  • he did something bad it would of been better if he stayed in school.

  • So you could say to them, "Ah, that's a shame!" or you could say, "What a shame!"

  • A fourth thing that you could say to someone if they express something disappointing to

  • you is just say, "Oh, that's so disappointing!"

  • So we're, we're using the actual word here.

  • Maybe your brother is talking to you and he says, "Yeah I went to a party the other day,

  • and when I got there all the food was already gone.

  • I got to the party late."

  • That would be a great time to say, "Ah, that's so disappointing!" or "That must have been

  • so disappointing!" because no one likes to get to a party late and not get any snacks.

  • A fifth way to express that you agree with someone that something's disappointing is

  • to say, "What a bummer!"

  • And this is a little bit of slang again, but let's imagine a situation where a friend of

  • yours plays on a football team and they almost won the championship.

  • They lost by one point.

  • That would be a, a great time when they tell you that, that would be a great time to say,

  • "Ah, what a bummer!" or "You must have really been bummed out!"

  • Because it's pretty disappointing to be one point away from winning a championship.

  • A sixth that you could say in response to disappointing news or when someone shares

  • something is just to say, "That's stinks!'

  • So we smell with our nose, when something doesn't smell good we say, "That stinks!",

  • but we can also say, "That stinks!" when we're talking about something that isn't going well

  • in someone's life.

  • So let's say someone says to you, "My cousin borrowed my car and he got in an accident."

  • A really good response would be, "That stinks!" because that does stink.

  • I would be really annoyed if my cousin borrowed my car and then smashed it up or got in an

  • accident.

  • So another way to respond is to say, "That stinks!"

  • A seventh way to respond when someone shares disappointing or bad news with you is to just

  • say, "That's not good!"

  • We usually use this in situations where it really isn't good.

  • So a good example would be, maybe a friend says, "My brother got arrested for stealing

  • a car."

  • A great response then would be, "That's not good!" because you're, you're expressing some

  • sympathy, you feel bad that that person has a relative who committed a crime, so you feel

  • bad for that person but you could definitely in that situation just say, "That's not good!"

  • Because it's not!

  • Hopefully none of you are in that situation.

  • An eighth way to respond to someone is to say, "That's a pain in the butt!"

  • So I think you know what the butt is.

  • If you go a little further down it's the back end here.

  • It has another word in English which is A-S-S.

  • I'm not gonna say it out loud.

  • But we do say that things are a pain in the butt.

  • So maybe someone has a brother who's constantly borrowing their car and bringing it back with

  • the gas tank empty.

  • That, that would be a good time to say, "That's a pain in the butt!" or "That must be a real

  • pain in the butt!"

  • Because it would be.

  • If my brother was borrowing my car and bringing it back empty, that would be a pain in the

  • butt.

  • Another way to respond to someone if they say for instance that they keep losing their

  • car keys would be to say, "That's annoying!"

  • So when something's annoying it means it bugs you.

  • When something's annoying it's not nice.

  • So if someone said, "Ah I just, I keep losing my car keys and I can never find them back

  • quickly!"

  • A good way to respond to that would be to say, "That's annoying!" or "That would be

  • annoying!"

  • And again it's, it's sympathetic, like you're actually saying to the person that you agree

  • with them that the situation they are in is annoying.

  • So that's number 9.

  • You can say, "That's annoying!"

  • A tenth way to respond when someone shares something with you that's not good news could

  • be say, to say, "Ah, that's a disaster!"

  • So a good example of this would be if you have a huge cake for someone's birthday and

  • as you're carrying it to the table you drop it on the floor and someone, maybe someone's

  • sharing that story with you, right, they say, "Oh I was bringing a cake to the table at

  • my sister's birthday and I dropped it on the floor!"

  • You could respond by saying, "Oh, that must have been a disaster!" or "Wow, that would

  • be a real disaster!"

  • Anyways that's ten ways that you could respond to someone in English.

  • I'm Bob the Canadian.

  • You're learning English with Bob the Canadian here.

  • Thank you so much for watching.

  • If you want there's a video right here that Youtube thinks you will like, and there's

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  • Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video.

  • Have a great day!

Hi Bob the Canadian here.

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