How to Express your Worries and Concerns in English

stream my name is alicia and in this

week’s live lesson we are going to talk

about how to express worries and

concerns and ask for and receive advice

so i think this lesson will be a really

good one for beginners we’re going to

cover some basic advice patterns and

we’re also going to talk about the kind

of small differences between words like

worry and concern and how do we react in

these situations in the right way it’s

important to be able to do this

naturally and fluently and choose the

right words when someone needs help or

is worried about something so i hope

this will be a good lesson as you join

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okay let’s look at today’s lesson topic

today’s lesson is going to cover worries

and concerns we’re going to talk about

how to express your worries and concerns

then we’re going to talk about asking

for advice and health

and giving advice and help okay so i

hope this is um a little bit a little

bit of review and a little bit of kind

of some details in these situations okay

let’s get to the first one so first and

foremost the first one

expressing your worries and concerns

first i want to talk about the

difference between these vocabulary

words

worry

in the singular worry and concern

a worry a worry

so is something you are not sure about

so you’re not sure about something in

the future and it’s a negative feeling

you think something negative might

happen okay

so a worry is something that’s emotional

yeah so when we are worried about

something i’m going to talk about this

later

uh can we please make sure not to spam

the youtube chat yeah so that everybody

can

ask questions and read

okay so

a worry is something that we feel

emotionally yeah we have an emotional

connection to it maybe it’s our friend

or our family member or it’s about a

personal goal we have yeah so we express

this feeling that feeling of not being

sure and feeling negative about

something with worry a worry

okay then a concern a concern is

something you’re not sure about also

negative so i’m not sure about this one

we use concern

more in work

and in school or in situations

with less

emotional connection or in situations

with less emotional connection so i’m

not so close like my heart or my mind

maybe my mind maybe is close i’m

thinking about this situation a lot but

maybe like my emotions my feelings

aren’t so closely connected

that’s a concern so you hear concern

used in work situations maybe study

situations a lot too yeah okay

worry and concern so we can use these

words as nouns yeah a worry it’s more

like your emotions your feelings and

concern concern something that’s less of

an emotional connection

now let’s compare these two

in a different use so not as a noun so

first let’s look at worry as a verb to

worry

to worry means to think about the future

with fear and anxiety to think about the

future with fear and anxiety so we we

use this a lot i am worrying about

something something something

right

i am worrying about blah blah blah don’t

worry right we use these a lot we use

worry a lot as a verb

then we can also use to be concerned to

be concerned too we’re going to look at

a few different sentence patterns with

this today

okay so to be concerned means to be in a

state so your condition

your mental condition or your body’s

condition

is negative you’re in a state of

negativity

about a situation or about the future

that’s to be concerned to be concerned

so let’s look

at some example sentences let’s look at

how we use these words we have worry

worrying worried

there are so many different ways to use

these words so let’s take a look at some

example sentences you can send your

example sentences in the chat i will try

to check no hora wrote i’m worried about

julian’s health okay

i hope if that’s a real sentence julian

is okay okay

uh zach says i’m worried about the

upcoming test mandar says i’m worried

about my girlfriend nice good good

example sentences if you have more send

them along especially if you want to use

concern

okay

let’s look at some example sentence

i’m really worried

about

my friend i’m really worried about my

friend

his health

is in poor condition

i’m really worried about my friend

his health is in poor condition so in

this sentence worried

is more natural than concerned so you

could say

i’m really concerned about my friend

but the reason

worried

sounds better here is because worried

has a stronger emotional connection than

concerned

yeah so i’m really worried about my

friend his health is in poor condition

okay let’s look at a sentence that uses

concern so maybe a work situation yeah

she’s concerned

about the tight schedule of your project

proposal

she’s concerned about the tight schedule

of your project proposal what does this

mean tight schedule

a tight schedule means there are many

things in a short period of time like

many goals many tasks yeah and

she’s concerned about the tight schedule

means

is it possible i don’t know i’m not sure

about that so we can use concern

concerned sounds good here instead of

worried because this is a professional

situation yeah like a work situation

she’s concerned about the tight schedule

of your project proposal okay

then let’s look at how to use these as

nouns in a sentence

he’s dealing with financial worries

so we have he is right he is

dealing dealing with so to deal with

this is a phrasal verb which means to

handle to address to take care of

something

okay

then

he’s dealing with financial so financial

means relating to money yeah he’s

dealing with financial worries okay

all right

and then

finally

we have

some concerns about this

we have some concerns about this

this is again something you might hear

more in a business or other work related

situation we have some concerns about

this

so there’s less emotional connection

okay there are a lot of example

sentences coming in some people i saw a

question earlier i think it was on

facebook kika yeah kika said i worry or

i am worried i am concerned or i concern

which is correct um well it’s

your sentences sorry i just lost it so i

am worried

and i worry could be the beginning of a

sentence for example i worry that the

condition of the world might not improve

soon like i worry or i am worried so

depending on your sentence there are

different uh expressions you can use

it’s hard to say just from two just from

two words yeah we need to make the

context

okay

lots of examples are coming in oh sushi

says i’m worried about not having hot

chocolate enough

okay

that’s interesting very interesting i

hope everybody has not too serious

worries

on facebook says i’m concerned about my

future income yeah of course of course

we all think about our future income for

sure nice example sentence

um cesar says i’m really worried about

my job because my boss wants to fire me

is that true oh no good luck be careful

okay

um others

gabriel says i’m worried oh be careful

not i’m worried not i’m worried but

i’m

worried

sorry i didn’t cover this in this part

here

uh i’m worried i am worried about my

country yeah okay

uh please use to be concerned and to

worry in sentences that’s this part here

if you missed it yeah you can check this

later i’m worried about my friend she’s

concerned about the project okay

cool okay so here is how we can express

our worries and our concerns

okay

um other ones luciana says i’m worried

about my worries mom

well maybe you should think about a goal

for your worrying

something to

think about some way to direct your

brain okay

all right i don’t see other questions so

we’ll end part one there and then we’ll

go to the advice and yeah talking about

help uh section so if you missed it

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video on facebook or youtube alright

cool let’s go to part two if you’re just

joining welcome please if you haven’t

make sure to like this video and share

the lesson so other people can find

today’s discussion

okay

let’s go to part two

let’s talk about

asking for advice asking for advice

asking for help

so how do you

go from part one in part one

we talked about expressing your worry so

you a lot of you wrote comments yeah i’m

worried about my job i’m worried about

my country and so on

the next step

is to ask for advice to ask for advice

or to ask for help

so depending on your worry depending on

your concern you can choose one of these

one of these follow-up patterns so let’s

take a look

first one

can we talk about it can we talk about

it this one is very open right so you

express i’m worried about my job or

maybe i’m worried about you or i’m

worried about my friend right

can we talk about it can we talk about

so this one usually we use this

expression

with a person we want to solve the

problem with like there’s some issue

some concern and we want to talk

together with someone to find the

solution

yeah so this is a good one

to use to express you want to discuss

the issue with someone else can we talk

about it

and generally this sounds very friendly

don’t be angry when you ask this

question

try to be calm yeah

okay

then

here’s another one this one is very

indirect so

can we talk about it this is very direct

like let’s solve the problem let’s talk

about the issue

this one

is very indirect

uh i’m not sure what to do

i’m not sure what to do or you could say

i don’t know what to do

okay

this one

is one you can use maybe when you feel

really frustrated like you’re tired

you’re really really worried you can’t

think about

how to fix the situation

you just feel like it’s too much right

everybody has that experience sometimes

right so

you can say uh i’m not sure what to do

i’m not sure what to do or i’m just not

sure what to do

yeah

okay

good

uh all right let’s continue on some

points are coming up someone says the

link is not opening on facebook maybe

you can check the link on facebook it

should be okay

all right others oh mandar has a good

one i think mandar you said earlier

you’re worried about your girlfriend uh

your example can we talk about our

relationship very nice one yeah that’s a

great one to use for romantic

relationships yeah can we talk about our

relationship

okay millery says can i say i am worried

or i worry uh check part one of this

live video after the broadcast yeah that

was part one

okay

let’s talk about a request for help a

pattern you can use to request help

can you help me

infinitive verb so again infinitive verb

means the dictionary form of the verb so

no change the base form of the verb so

can you help me blah blah blah for

example can you help me review the

schedule

can you help me find a doctor

can you help me create a budget

a bunch of different patterns to ask

someone for help okay

chris on youtube thanks very much for

your support that’s awesome okay

okay others

okay so you can use your own infinitive

verb here

to make a request can you help me with

this

or another good one one that i use a lot

like when i’m really confused about a

situation

i’m i want to understand the other

person’s

thinking i want to understand the other

person’s perspective

i use can you help me

understand something like can you help

me understand what happened or can you

help me understand what you’re thinking

like when i don’t know

like what’s going on i’m really confused

i use this pattern with the verb

understand now like can you help me

understand what’s going on like i don’t

i don’t understand please help me so

that one i feel i like to use that

pattern because like i really i really

need their help to understand i don’t

know

so i like to use that can you help me

understand

luciano says is it okay to say to before

the infinitive verb ah like can you help

me to review the schedule can you help

me to find a doctor

uh i guess you could

um i would say we we don’t because it’s

more efficient like we don’t have to so

it’s more efficient it’s faster to say

it without

okay

uh all right

someone real madrid barcelona says can

you help me with my homework okay good

yeah a couple homework examples are

coming in all right let’s go to this

next one let’s look at this one uh using

a conditional a conditional sentence we

haven’t practiced conditionals in live

lessons for a while maybe we should

anyway

what would you do if you were in this

situation

what would you do if you were in this

situation

i put this part the if clause in

parentheses so this and this

this set

these are called parentheses parentheses

we don’t have to use this

we can just say this what would you do

so i’m worried about my job what would

you do

so this what would you do

is usually enough we mean the meaning is

what would you do

if you

were in this situation or if you were me

what would you do so we typically this

is a very common question so typically

often we just say what would you do

what would you do

okay

all right sam’s dog says can you help me

borrow money oh my that’s a very that’s

a very serious request

okay

uh others others i’m looking for this uh

harish says can you help me improve my

english i hope so i will do my best

every week most days of the week

actually okay

all right so what would you do if you

were in this situation ah and when you

reply to this you say i would

i would look for a new job or i would

talk to your friend

okay

here’s one more

have you

ever been in a situation like this so

this uses a present perfect sentence

structure yeah have you ever been in a

situation like this

what did you do

was it helpful

yeah so this is a good example of using

present perfect and simple past tense

together yeah have you ever been in a

situation like this

what did you do simple past was it

helpful simple past

okay

have you ever been in a situation like

this

all right

others

tu yet nuen says what would you do if

you were me on this situation very close

very close hard to see i’m the on this

make sure this preposition what would

you do if you were in

this preposition

in this situation in this situation yeah

what would you do if you were in this

situation then it’s perfect

okay cool

okay last point here for part two is a

vocabulary point a vocabulary point i

want to introduce this vocabulary point

because this is really helpful i think

when you’re talking with someone who is

worried or upset or when you are upset

the vocabulary word is vent

vent so to vent means to let off steam

to release emotions

so what what does let off steam mean you

know when you make when you cook you

cook uh like just water or soup or

something it gets really really hot and

the white vapor like the water gets so

hot the steam comes off right

imagine that is your emotions so to vent

means to release it so imagine here i’ll

get a prop so imagine

like your emotions are in this bowl yeah

and you need to release them from the

top so like when you’re cooking you take

the top off the pot yeah

and the steam comes out we call that

venting to vent your emotions or to vent

a room as well like to release something

from the room right so we use this verb

to talk about releasing

our emotions

for example i really need to vent about

today

you really need to vent about today so

that means i really need to release some

emotions about today like today was

super stressful for me today was really

hard today was really difficult i want

to just release

my emotions

so venting

to vent

often means i don’t need advice

i don’t need

you to

help me fix it or give solutions i just

want to release

what happened today so this is called

venting venting okay

so you can sometimes say sorry just

venting like at the end of a stressful

day

oh sorry just venting i’m just venting

i’m just releasing my emotions okay

cool so this is a really good one

okay

awesome so that’s the end of part two

oh my gosh time went really fast today

what happens my gosh it’s okay let’s go

straight to part three then so we’ve

asked for advice we’ve asked for help

how do we give advice how do we give

advice or give our help in some way okay

[Music]

okay let’s go part three

giving advice and giving help

so as we did with part two part two we

started with can we talk about it

so you can respond yeah let’s talk about

it okay so if someone wants to talk

about the topic with you you can say

let’s talk about it let’s talk about it

or if you can’t

we’ll cover it uh well

later i’ll talk about one pattern if you

don’t want to like maybe

some like someone mentioned in the chat

it’s a relationship issue if you don’t

feel ready you can say i need some time

like i need some time or i need some

space then let’s talk about it so just

say something like that yeah like can we

talk about it yeah let’s talk about it

but i’m not ready to talk about it now

that can really help a lot when you feel

really emotional or really uncomfortable

like okay yeah let’s talk about it but

please give me some time that can be

really really helpful

okay cool

so you can say let’s talk about it

sure i can help you so remember that can

you help me blah blah pattern you can

say sure i can help you sure

i can’t help you right now but how about

this weekend

i can’t help you right now but how about

this weekend

so if you’re busy right now like you’re

at work right now or this week is super

busy for you

but you want to help that person your

co-worker or your friend or whatever you

can say i can’t help you right now

how about this weekend

okay

then

here this is the follow-up

this question i introduced in part two

what would you do

excuse me what would you do if you were

in this situation

what would you do if you were in this

situation

if i were you

i would infinitive verb

okay

if i were you i would save money

if i were you i would save money here’s

my infinitive verb if i were you i would

save money if i were you i would talk to

her oh sorry i erased it with my finger

if i were you

i would talk to her

or if i were you i’d take some time off

maybe you need a vacation if i were you

i’d take some time off okay

lolly lolly says how about and what

about do they have the same meaning

no so how about

is used to begin a suggestion and well

what about can also be used to give a

suggestion so you can say how about

pasta for dinner tonight or what about

pasta for dinner tonight those can be

suggestions but what about is used to

ask a clarifying question like what

about that thing you were working on

what happened with that so we used that

to clarify something

okay

uh so this is how we can use the if i

were you response

to something okay let’s continue on

to some support expression so your

friend is worried or someone is worried

or concerned

uh they have or they’re experiencing a

challenge whatever

you can say

i’m here for you

i’m here for you so maybe your friend or

someone is really super stressed or

they are too busy to talk or they feel

upset

you just want to express support for

that person you can say i’m here for you

i’m here for you so here doesn’t mean

physically it doesn’t mean in the room

all the time it means emotionally i am

prepared to help you i will be there for

you i will be your friend or your family

member or

whatever yeah okay

okay then

this is another good one

so maybe someone is feeling very worried

or very stressed

you can say let me know

if you want to talk

let me know if you want to talk

yeah so maybe that person

doesn’t want to discuss details but you

want to show support for that person you

can say let me know if you want to talk

cool yeah

okay

then for solution okay so

you can use this one

maybe at work yeah maybe we can find a

solution together maybe we can find a

solution together yeah so at work or in

other relationships too in friendships

and romantic relationships if there’s an

issue

you talk about it you can say yeah let’s

talk about it maybe we can find a

solution together yeah so this maybe

shows maybe we can’t it’s possible

that’s okay too

but maybe we can find a solution

together yeah

okay

and

this one is good too i’ve marked this

one with a star because i talked about

venting

at the end of part two venting and you

just want to release your emotions all

of us experience that right so

this one is a good question to ask maybe

if you think oh i think this person is

just venting right now i don’t think

this person wants me to give advice

if you feel that way sometimes that

happens you can say do you want me to

tell you what i think like do you want

me to try to help you fix this

or just listen or just listen so

sometimes you just want someone to

listen right just listen you don’t have

to tell me anything

so if you’re not sure you can say

nicely very nicely do you want me to

tell you what i think or just listen

something like this can help

help you and help the other person

understand

what’s the best thing to do in this

situation

okay cool so here is uh

some ways to give advice to give advice

to give help to give support okay

i am extremely late oh no okay so i have

to finish

this week’s lesson thank you very much

for sending your awesome example

sentences and questions that was really

great uh if you want to take a

screenshot of today’s lesson boards here

you go

all right so today we talked about how

to express worries and concerns how to

ask for advice and help and how to give

advice and help

so i hope this lesson

uh gave you some ideas to communicate

with your friends and family and

co-workers about problems and issues and

how to express support in a constructive

productive way yeah so i hope that it

was helpful for you

uh let’s look at next week’s lesson

information i have to finish very

quickly so next week’s lesson i’ll be

back next week september 8th wednesday

september 8th at 10 p.m eastern standard

time that is new york city time if you

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your google skills or set a notification

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oh you can’t see my shirts white

next week’s topic is going to be

expressions for social media expressions

for social media i like doing these

lessons so it’s like the words the slang

we use in social media the verbs uh

vocabulary that we use on the internet a

lot we’re going to talk about this next

week so it should be lots of fun so

please join me uh next week for this

very fun live lesson okay uh i will wrap

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rest of your week have a great weekend

uh have a great day or evening wherever

you are in the world and i will see you

again soon bye