{"id":1761,"date":"2025-08-17T01:44:26","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T06:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/?p=1761"},"modified":"2025-08-17T12:02:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T17:02:19","slug":"practical-english-responding-to-bad-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/practical-english-responding-to-bad-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Practical English: Responding to bad news"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZbVA4cp3hTM?si=sN7MIQDhbYQdDdy5?rel=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><a class=\"elementor-button large green rounded\" style=\"color: #ffffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/free-pdf-reply-to-good-and-bad-news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Download free lesson PDF<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><a class=\"elementor-button rounded large blue\" style=\"color: #ffffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/everyday-english-speaking-course\/\">Everyday English Speaking Course<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000080;\">I&#8217;m so sorry to hear that.<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Say <strong>&#8220;I&#8217;m so sorry to hear that&#8221;<\/strong> when you hear about sickness, death, divorce, job loss, financial trouble, big disappointment, and other serious problems or pieces of bad news that can make a person very sad.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;My father&#8217;s in the hospital. The doctors say he only has about a month left.&#8221;<br \/>\n<strong>&#8220;I&#8217;m so sorry to hear that.&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000080;\">That must have been awful.<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Say <strong>&#8220;That must have been awful.&#8221; <\/strong>when someone tells you about a bad experience they had. This phrase can be use for a serious bad experience (like the first example) or a less serious bad experience (like the second example):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;After the accident, I couldn&#8217;t work for two months, and I got really depressed because I felt so useless.&#8221;<br \/>\n<strong>&#8220;<\/strong>Wow. <strong>That must have been awful.&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I had to wait in line for three hours at the bank today &#8211; and there was no air conditioning.&#8221;<br \/>\n<strong>&#8220;That must have been awful!&#8221; <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An alternative (only used in more serious situations) is<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It must have been really hard for you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;It must have been really hard for you to have two deaths in the family within a year.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Oh no&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>You can say <strong>&#8220;Oh no&#8230;&#8221; <\/strong>as an initial reaction to bad news. It&#8217;s common to say <strong>&#8220;Oh no&#8221; <\/strong>and then another one of the phrases:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;My sister just got the results of the tests &#8211; she has cancer.&#8221;<br \/>\n<strong>&#8220;Oh no. I&#8217;m so sorry to hear that.&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>&#8220;My computer crashed, and I lost all my data.&#8221;<br \/>\n<strong>&#8220;Oh no &#8211; that stinks.&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>&#8220;That stinks&#8221; is usually used when something is annoying, not sad.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If the bad news is surprising or funny, you can say <strong>&#8220;Oh no!&#8221;<\/strong> as an exclamation.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;I was talking about how much I hated the name &#8216;Shelby,&#8217; and then I found out that it was their daughter&#8217;s name.&#8221;<br \/>\n<strong>&#8220;Oh no! What did you do?&#8221; <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>To react to the bad news and ask for more information, you can say <strong>&#8220;Oh no, really?&#8221;<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;What are you doing here? I thought you were on vacation!&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;We had to cancel our trip because my daughter got sick.&#8221;<br \/>\n<strong>&#8220;Oh no, really?&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8220;Yeah, she&#8217;ll be OK, but she&#8217;s really disappointed she couldn&#8217;t go to Disneyland.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"alert\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/free-pdf-reply-to-good-and-bad-news\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-24359\" src=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/good-news-pdf-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/good-news-pdf-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/good-news-pdf-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/good-news-pdf-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/good-news-pdf.png 1064w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a class=\"elementor-button rounded large blue\" href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/free-pdf-reply-to-good-and-bad-news\/\">Download free PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000080;\">That&#8217;s rough<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>We generally say &#8220;that&#8217;s rough&#8221; to respond to bad news that is difficult or unfortunate, but <strong><em>not <\/em><\/strong>very emotional:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to have to work overtime every day this week.&#8221;<br \/>\n<strong>&#8220;That&#8217;s rough.&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Our dog died yesterday. We&#8217;re all devastated &#8211; he was like a member of the family.&#8221;<br \/>\n<span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">&#8220;That&#8217;s rough&#8221;<\/span> &#8211; incorrect, because this bad news is emotional.<br \/>\n<strong>&#8220;Oh, I&#8217;m sorry to hear that.&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Anytime you need to talk, just call me.<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Say this if you want to offer to listen to your friend. It&#8217;s common to use this phrase when someone is going through a current difficulty.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;My husband and I have been arguing a lot lately. It&#8217;s gotten so bad that I hate going home every day after work, because I know we&#8217;ll probably have a fight.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;I&#8217;m really sorry to hear that.<strong> Anytime you need to talk, just call me.&#8221; <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s also common to use this phrase not as a direct response to bad news, but instead as a form of &#8220;goodbye&#8221; at the end of a conversation after bad news was discussed.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000080;\">If there&#8217;s anything I can do, just let me know.<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Say this if you want to offer help:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;I&#8217;m so stressed out. I have a million things to do and not enough time in the day.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;<strong>If there&#8217;s anything I can do, just let me know,<\/strong> OK?&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When responding to bad news, the <strong>tone of voice <\/strong>(the emotion when you speak) is important in how you say these phrases. Don&#8217;t say them in a happy or excited way. Instead, speak in a quiet, <strong>compassionate <\/strong>way to show that you care about the other person&#8217;s feelings.<\/p>\n<p><em>Learn more: <\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/10-english-phrases-for-responding-to-thank-you\/\">10 responses to &#8220;thank you&#8221;<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"alert\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Learn spoken English for daily life:<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/everyday-english-speaking-course\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20014 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/eesc-both-1024x889.png\" alt=\"Everyday English Speaking Course\" width=\"680\" height=\"590\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/eesc-both-1024x889.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/eesc-both-300x260.png 300w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/eesc-both-768x667.png 768w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/eesc-both-1536x1333.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/eesc-both-70x60.png 70w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/eesc-both-140x120.png 140w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/eesc-both.png 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><center><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><a class=\"elementor-button rounded large blue\" style=\"color: #ffffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/espressoenglish.lpages.co\/everyday-english-speaking-course\/\">Speaking Course<\/a><\/span><\/center><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Download free lesson PDF Everyday English Speaking Course I&#8217;m so sorry to hear that. Say &#8220;I&#8217;m so sorry to hear that&#8221; when you hear about sickness, death, divorce, job loss, financial trouble, big disappointment, and other serious problems or pieces of bad news that can make a person very sad. &#8220;My father&#8217;s in the hospital. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[56],"class_list":["post-1761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-speaking","tag-practical-english"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Practical English: Responding to bad news - Espresso English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Download free lesson PDF Everyday English Speaking Course I&#039;m so sorry to hear that. 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