22 Phrases to Talk About Everyday Problems in English Visual Vocabulary Lesson
Hi, I’m Olivier.
Welcome to Oxford Online English!
In this lesson, you can learn to talk about
everyday problems.
You’ll hear a story of a bad day, and see
different phrases you can use to describe
everyday problems.
I had the worst day yesterday.
I slept horribly.
I was tossing and turning all night.
I had insomnia.
I finally got to sleep about five in the
morning.
But then…
I overslept.
I missed my alarm.
I slept through my alarm.
On the way to work, the traffic was awful.
I was sitting in traffic for an hour.
My car broke down.
I had to wait for an hour for the tow truck,
and I was late for work.
A tow truck is a vehicle which can transport
a car.
If your car has broken down, and it can’t
drive anywhere, you’ll need to call a tow
truck to bring it to a garage.
At work, I got in a huge argument with one
of my colleagues.
We have a big deadline coming, so we’re
all under a lot of pressure.
I was working late, and I spilled coffee all
over some important papers.
I had to stay really late to finish everything.
I couldn’t concentrate and I got frustrated.
On the way home, I missed the last train.
I couldn’t find my keys.
I was locked out.
I finally got home, and saw that my flatmate
had eaten my leftovers.
There was nothing to eat for dinner, and it
was too late to buy anything.
Finally, to cap it all, I dropped my phone
down the toilet.
‘To cap it all’ is a phrase to introduce
the last bad thing in a list of bad things.
It means something like ‘even worse’.
That’s our bad day!
What about you?
Here’s a task for you: have these things
happened to you recently?
Try to use the phrases you saw in this lesson
to describe a bad day you’ve had.
Can you think of other everyday problems we
haven’t mentioned?
Share your ideas in the comments.
Thanks for watching!