How you feel

In Spanish you have fear. In French you have fear. In English you are afraid.

• I am afraid.
• I am hungry.
• I am tired.
• I am happy.

The pattern is be plus an adjective, and English uses it for nearly every feeling and body state. If your language uses have here, this is worth practising until it feels automatic, because it is one of the most common learner mistakes.

There is one group that does use have: have a pain, have a headache, have a cold. These are nouns, not adjectives, so they need a different verb.

bored and boring

This pair is difficult and important.

-ed describes how a person feels. "I am bored." -ing describes the thing that causes the feeling. "The film is boring."

If you say I am boring, you are saying that other people find you dull. That is not what you meant.

The same pattern works for many words: interested and interesting, tired and tiring, worried and worrying, excited and exciting.

afraid and scared

Afraid and scared mean the same thing. Scared is more common in speech. Afraid is a little more formal.

Both take of: "I am afraid of dogs."

sorry does three jobs

Sorry can mean:

1. I apologise. "Sorry, that was my fault."
2. I feel sad for you. "I am sorry about your father."
3. Please repeat that. "Sorry?"

The third one is very common in British English. If someone says sorry? with a rising voice, they did not hear you.