Expressing Annoyance

Expressing Annoyance

Objectives

Learning competency: responding the meaning of formal and sustained transactional (to get things done) as well as interpersonal (social) conversations that use various spoken language expressions accurately, fluently and acceptable in the context of everyday life, involving expressions of annoyance.

Learn about it!

In this topic, you will learn how to express annoyance formally and informally. Read the following explanation carefully.

Expressing Annoyance

What do you feel when someone accidentally pour coffee to your new shirt or step on your new shoes? What do you feel when someone interrupts you in the middle of your speech? You must feel annoyed, don`t you? In every day’s life you often find impolite people or those who make mistakes unintentionally to you. Being in this situation, you usually feel annoyed or upset.

It is important to keep in mind, though, that no matter how upset you are, you cant just express your annoyance as you want. Stay in control and avoid being rude. You need to express it appropriately by looking at the situations and who you are talking to, so that you wont find yourself irritate other people.

Annoyance is an unpleasant feeling that may lead to anger and frustration. Its not a bad emotion if you dont express it aggressively. The term ‘bad’ here means destructive. Expressing annoyance in a good way will show other people your true feeling and give them chance to apologize and change their behavior. In other situations, proper expression of annoyance can serve as a way to remind and warn others about the unpleasant actions, treatments, service, etc.

Expressing annoyance in formal situation:

In expressing annoyance, you should consider the timing and who you are talking to. In formal situations, you can use the following expressions of annoyance.

• I’m getting very irritated.
• I’m a little irritated
• I’m really disappointed
• I’m getting very annoyed
• I’m very annoyed.
• I’m extremely displeased with …
• … is extremely irritating.
• I’m extremely unhappy about this.
• It really bothers me.

When can we use those expressions? Possible situations that you encounter are:
* Feeling annoyed for somebody’s words, behavior, actions, in formal situations such as in a meeting, conference, or speaking to people you respect.
* Feeling annoyed for a bad service when staying at the hotel, or eating out at the restaurant.
* Feeling annoyed to people older than you, of those who you respect.

Expressing annoyance in informal situation:

The followings are some expressions you can use to express your annoyance informally. You can use them to talk to your close friends or people you know quite well.

• Oh, no!
• Oh, dear!
• What a nuisance!
• It makes me mad.
• For goodness sake!
• For heavens sake!
• I can’t believe it.
• I can`t take it.
• It really gets on my nerves.
• I can’t stand it anymore.
• It drives me crazy.

When do we use the above expressions? Informal expressions are suitable for more casual situations. We usually speak in casual manners to close friends and siblings. It is very important to remember, although you have a close relationship with someone older than you, it doesn’t mean that you can express your annoyance casually. Showing respect is a must!

Do you understand?

Example of dialogues

1. Situation: in a photocopy shop

Fotocopy operator : Can I help you?
Randy: Yes, please make 5 copies of this file. Thanks.

(5 minutes later)

Fotocopy operator: Here are the copies. It will be 2000 rupiah.
Randy: Oh, no. I forgot to bring my wallet.
Fotocopy operator: We open till 7 PM, leave the copied files here, and we will wait for you.

Discussion:
The expression typed in italic is an informal expression of annoyance. Randy is annoyed because he forgot to bring her money and can`t pay for the copies.

2. Situation: at school

Principal : Can I see the school report from the assessor?
Vice-Principal : Certainly, Mr. Handerson. Here it is.

(5 minutes later)

Principal : The report said that we did not have enough computers for
the IT class. I think I have told Mr. Brown to order more computers. How could this happen? I am really not happy with this situation.

Discussion:
The expression typed in italic is a formal expression of annoyance. The principal is annoyed because the school do not have enough computers like it`s supposed to.

Keypoints

·                     When you express your annoyance, you should pay attention to the expressions you use. Choose formal or informal expressions according to who you are talking to; and where you are at the time of speaking. You also need to remember not to use offensive expressions because you can irritate other people`s feelings.

·                     To add emphasis to your feelings, you may add adverbs of degree in your expressions to show others how annoyed you are, such as extremely, very, really, pretty, fairly, quite, a little.