Pet Peeve: The Vocabulary of Dislike
| This is the first entry in the series on pet peeves. We’ll be talking about things we don’t like all week!
This entry is available as a Adobe Acrobat file for printing or use in a class. This entry includes a listening exercises. You can dowload the MP3 or play it using the button below. (MP3) |
|
 |
|
In my English classroom, we don’t often talk about the things we don’t like. Maybe it’s because, as a teacher, I don’t like ‘negative’ conversations. I like to have things positive. I like to talk about what’s good, what’s interesting, what we like.
But, when you speak English, you’re going to talk about the things you don’t like at least as often as you talk about the thins that you do like. And to do that, you’re going to need a bit of vocabulary. Sure, you probably know the words love and hate, but most of what we do falls between those two extremes. Here are a few verbs that are milder than hate, but mean that you don’t like something:
-
Irk
-
Bug
-
Annoy
-
Bother
After You’ve Heard the Recording
What do you think? What irks you? What annoys you? When will you use these words? I think that these are all good words to have, because they’re milder than the vocabulary that you might have learned first in English. And, because they’re milder, they probably won’t annoy other people if you use them.
