How are you feeling? Vocabulary & expressions to answer this common question!

“How are you?“ is probably the most common question you’ll be asked in English. Go beyond the simple answers and learn to express your physical and mental state with vocabulary, expressions, and idioms. You’ll learn positive expressions like “in the pink“, “full of beans“, and negative ones like “out of sorts“, and “losing my grip“. We’ll also cover a lot of vocabulary to talk about your mood, such as “exhausted“, “anxious“, “depressed“, and many more. Your conversations will be much more interesting once you learn to express this wide range of physical and emotional states. Test your knowledge with the quiz! TRANSCRIPT Hi. I’m Gill at , and the lesson today is on the subject of “Physical and Mental Health“. Okay? So, physical, your body; and mental, your mind. Okay. And health, how you’re feeling, whether it’s good or bad. Okay. For physical health people talk about that a lot, but for mental health people maybe don’t talk about that so much because it’s maybe more embarrassing sometimes. But it’s important to know these words. And you probably know the basic ones, like: “feeling well“, “feeling ill“ or “sick“, but it’s good to have other words as well to describe different ways that you’re feeling. Especially if you’re going to see the doctor, you need to be able to explain as clearly as possible how you’re feeling so that the doctor can help you. Or if you’re just talking to a friend, it’s important to be able to explain how you’re feeling. Okay. So, we’ll start with the physical health, then, and looking at the positive ways. If you’re feeling really well, the ways of saying that. Okay? So: “feeling well“, obviously. “I’m feeling well.“, “I’m feeling good.“ “Feeling good“ is a little bit more colloquial, more informal, but you’d say that to your friends. -“How are you?“ -“Oh, I’m good. I’m feeling good.“ Okay? “In the pink“, I think maybe this is a little bit old, old-fashioned, but people sometimes say: “Oh, I’m in the pink.“ And I think it refers to pink cheeks on your face, so maybe you have to be a white person, really, to be able to say this. If you have pink cheeks it suggests that you’re healthy, you can see the blood in your face, so that suggests oxygen and good health. So: “in the pink“, that’s what it means, even if people don’t use it very much anymore. Okay? Just a straightforward one, if you say: “I’m in the best of health“, “I’m very lucky. I’m in the best of health.“ If someone has a lot of energy, and this one is an idiom, if they say they’re full of beans: “Oh, I’m feeling full of beans today“, it doesn’t mean... It doesn’t mean that literally they have eaten a lot of beans, but it probably comes from the fact that beans are a very healthy food, and they give you energy, and maybe protein. I don’t know all the ingredients, but if someone is full of beans it means they’re jumping around, and lots of energy, and... So you might say: “Oh, he’s full of beans today“, but it doesn’t mean he’s been eating beans literally; it’s an idiom. Okay? Another one that people use is a little bit old-fashioned again: “full of the joys of spring“, the season, spring, because it’s the time when everything starts growing and new life and everything, and joy means happiness. So if you’re full of the joys of spring, if you say: “I’m full of the joys of spring today“, it may be because the sun’s shining and you’re feeling healthy, you’re feeling good, happy, lots of energy. So that’s the joys of spring. And finally for this section: “I’m feeling on top of the world.“ So right up there on top of the world, another idiom. It doesn’t literally mean... You’d have to be up on the Arctic to be on top of the world, which wouldn’t really be a very comfortable place, but: “on top of the world“ just means you’re really... You feel you’re on top of everything. You’re in control of everything and you’re feeling good. Okay? Right, well, those are all the positive words we have in this lesson, and all the rest are negative. We have negative for the physical health and negative for mental health, because probably we take mental health for granted and if we’re in good mental health we don’t really need to say much about it. So, anyway, if you have to go to the doctor because you’re not feeling well, these are the kinds of words you could use. Okay. “Not feeling well“, “I’m not feeling well.“ And then the doctor says: “Well, what exactly is it?“ So that’s why we need a few other words. “I’m feeling ill.“, “I’m feeling sick.“ Sick, sometimes you feel like being sick, vomiting, but also in a more general way, if you feel sick it doesn’t literally mean you’re going to vomit. It’s just generally not feeling very good. Okay. “Tired“, if you have no energy: “I’m feeling tired.“ Or: “I’ve been feeling tired for the whole... A whole week.“, “Worn out“ is another meaning for tired. “Worn out“ is more colloquial.