by Liz Walter
Phrasal verbs are a very important part of English (even if students hate them!) and I have written several posts explaining useful ones. I realised recently that there is a surprisingly large number of phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs relating to emotions. Today I am going to concentrate on happiness and sadness. My next post will cover some other emotions, and a final post will present a selection of phrasal verbs for talking more generally about emotions.
If something gets you down, it makes you feel sad, and if you are weighed down with sadness or with problems, you feel worried and upset by them. Interestingly, the second of these phrasal verbs is almost always used in the passive, while the first one almost never is:
These headaches are really starting to get me down.
At that time, he was weighed down with money problems.
There are several phrasal or prepositional verbs connected with crying. If tears come to our eyes, we say that they well up.
I could see tears welling up in his eyes.
She read the note and burst into tears.
He was choking back tears as he said goodbye.
When I told him the news, he broke down and cried.
Instead of wallowing in misery, why don’t you try to change your situation?
You will have noticed that the first two sadness phrasal verbs ended with ‘down’, so you probably won’t be surprised to learn that several happiness phrasal verbs end with ‘up’. If you become happier, you cheer up, brighten up, or perk up:
He soon cheered/brightened/perked up when he saw the delicious lunch they had prepared.
If you can see that someone is very happy, you might say that they are brimming over with happiness:
The photo shows him holding his new grandson and brimming over with joy.
Steve is so funny – he cracks me up!
She tried to tell us off, but we just fell about laughing.
Do let me know if you can think of any more phrasal verbs connected with happiness or sadness!