Expressing Surprise, Shock and Disbelief

Expressing Surprise, Shock and Disbelief

Objectives

In this lesson, you are going to study about expressions of surprise, shock and disbelief, so that you are able to use the expressions for various purposes in daily activities.

Learn about it!

Life is full of changes and mystery. We hear many kinds of news in our life. Every time, good and bad things can happen around us. When we get good news, of course we will feel happy. However, when the news is bad, we can feel surprised, shocked and sometimes do not belief of what happens.

        When we hear some unexpected news, especially unpleasant ones, how will we respond? In this chapter, you are going to learn about the expressions of surprise, shock and disbelief and how to show your surprises to them. At the end of this topic, you are expected to be able to express surprise, shock and disbelief for various purposes in daily activities contexts.

Expressing Surprise

Feeling surprised about something has two different meanings. A person may feel surprised about something good. For instance, when you get a birthday surprise party, of course you will be surprised in a happy way.

However, feeling surprised can happen to unhappy news. We may be surprised to hear news about accidents, natural disasters, or someone's death. For example, when we hear the news about an earthquake nearby our neighborhood, we might fell surprised and sad.

Look at the examples of expressing surprises below:
• Are you kidding me? How do you know that?
• Are you sure about that?
• Are you serious?

Other ways that can be used in expressing surprises are as follows:
• Are you kidding me?
• Are you sure about that?
• Are you serious?
• You must be joking!
• Wow, what a surprise!
• This is really a surprise for me!
• etc.

In addition to that, if we want to tell someone about some surprising information, we can use the following expressions:
• Guess what! I have the best rank in my school!
• I’ll tell you what! I have a good idea to solve our problem!
• You know what! I’m going to go to Australia next week!

There some more expressions to tell someone about surprising information.
• Guess what!
• I’ll tell you what!
• You know what!
• I’ll tell you something!
• Surprise!
• You won’t believe it!
• Believe it or not!

Expressing Shock

The feeling of shocked is much stronger than surprised. When we feel surprised, it can mean both positive and negative. However, a shocking feeling is often related to something unpleasant, bad or sad.

Look and learn the following examples below:
• I’m shocked to hear that. I really don’t know about the news.
• I’m really speechless to know that. As I know, he is a good boy.

There are some expressions that can be used in giving expressing shock:
• I’m shocked to hear that
• I’m in complete shocked
• I’m really speechless to know that.
• I have nothing to say about this.
• I can’t say anything.
• I have no words ….
• Etc.

Expressing Disbelief

Picture the following situation:

You got a text message informing that one of your classmates is in an intensive care unit of a hospital, and his condition is critical. The message also informs that he has injured himself badly in a single motor accident. As far as you know, he cannot ride a motorcycle. You couldn’t believe that he could get injured by riding a motor.

      The above situation is just an example of a condition where you may wonder whether an information is correct or incorrect. There is a contradiction here, between what you know and the information you get. This raises the feeling of disbelief. It means, you do not believe what you hear.

Learn the following examples. These are the expressions of disbelief that you can say based on the above situation:

• I don’t believe it. He can’t even ride a motorcycle.
• It’s so unbelievable. I know him very well.

Besides that, the following expressions are possible to use in expressing our disbelief to someone or something:
• I don’t believe it!
• It’s so unbelievable!
• I can’t believe it!
• How come?
• How could it be?
• Etc.

Do you understand?

Read the following dialogue. You will learn how to put the expressions above in the real conversation.

Bon: Hello, Arif! You know what! Our school will be on air tonight.

Arif: Really? Are you serious? How do you know that?

Boni: I’m telling the truth. Mr. Karno told us yesterday. You can ask him by yourself.
Arif: Ok, I’m really curious. What time will it start?

Boni: At 9 p.m. But I forget the channel. I’ll text you later. Make sure you watch it, Ok! Please tell others too.

Arif: I’m waiting. I’ll stay tune on the channel tonight.

Keypoints

• When we are going to express surprise, shock and disbelief, we can use the proper expressions based on whether the news is good or bad and how intense it is.
• Surprise may have both positive and negative meanings and the expressions to tell surprises will depend on the news (good or bad).
• Shock is usually something sudden, unexpected, and unpleasant.
  Disbelief relates to a contradictory condition that makes you wonder whether the news is true or not.