Meaning & use
emotional feelings
Last updated
Meanings
phraseplural
The inner states we experience as emotions, such as love, anger, fear, or joy.
Grammar: Always plural in this fixed phrase; the singular 'emotional feeling' is rare and sounds odd on its own.
Patterns
- have emotional feelings for someone
- express emotional feelings
- emotional feelings about something
He found it hard to talk about his emotional feelings, even with close friends.
The film stirred up emotional feelings she had not felt in years.
Children need help naming their emotional feelings instead of just acting on them.
phrasepluraleuphemistic
Romantic or affectionate attraction toward someone.
Grammar: Often used with 'for': emotional feelings for someone.
Patterns
- have emotional feelings for someone
- develop emotional feelings for someone
She admitted she had emotional feelings for her old colleague.
He said he had no emotional feelings for her anymore, only friendship.
Common combinations
- deep emotional feelings
- Writing poetry helped him release deep emotional feelings.
- suppress emotional feelings
- Some people suppress their emotional feelings until they become stressed.
- express emotional feelings
- Therapy gave her a safe place to express emotional feelings.
- emotional feelings toward someone
- His emotional feelings toward his brother changed after their father died.
- hidden emotional feelings
- Her calm face gave no clue to the hidden emotional feelings inside.
Synonyms and how they differ
- emotions
- More common and more neutral; 'emotional feelings' is wordier and often used when the speaker wants to stress the inner, personal side.
- sentiments
- More formal and slightly old-fashioned, often about opinions mixed with feeling rather than raw emotion.
- affections
- Usually suggests warm, lasting love rather than the full range of emotions.
Opposites
Word family
- emotion noun
- A single strong feeling such as anger or joy.
- emotional adjective
- Relating to feelings, or showing strong feelings easily.
- emotionally adverb
- In a way that involves or shows feelings.
- emote verb
- To show feelings in an obvious, often exaggerated way.
Commonly confused: emotional feelings or emotive?
emotional feelings vs emotive
'Emotive' describes a topic that causes strong feelings (an emotive issue); it does not mean 'having feelings'.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'emotional feelings' most naturally?
Choose one answer.
'Emotional feelings' is a plural noun phrase, so it fits after 'has' as the object of the sentence. Option 2 uses it as a verb phrase, and options 0 and 3 use it where an adjective or adverb is needed.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “emotional feelings”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.