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
so
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
so
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
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
uh
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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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
so
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
it
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
like
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
so
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
uh
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
so
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
um
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
so
i put this part the if clause in
parentheses so this and this
this set
these are called parentheses parentheses
so
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
uh
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
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
or
sure i can help you so remember that can
you help me blah blah pattern you can
say sure i can help you sure
or
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
okay
then
here this is the follow-up
to
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
uh
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
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
don’t know your local time please use
your google skills or set a notification
on youtube or on facebook or if you
follow me on instagram i always post a
link and a topic reminder in my stories
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
it up there make sure if you haven’t
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i will say goodbye for now so enjoy the
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