Meaning & use
feel awful
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Meanings
phrasefixed phrase
To feel very bad, either physically ill or emotionally upset.
Grammar: Used with the subject as the person feeling bad: 'I feel awful.' It does not take an object.
Patterns
- feel awful about something
- feel awful that ...
I feel awful about missing your birthday party.
She felt awful after eating the spoiled fish.
He feels awful when he has to tell his children no.
phraselinking
To seem very bad or of very low quality to someone.
Grammar: Here 'feel' links the subject to a description: 'The room feels awful.' It does not mean the room has feelings.
Patterns
- something feels awful
The mattress feels awful; it is too hard and lumpy.
After the rain, the whole campsite felt awful and muddy.
Common combinations
- feel awful about
- He still feels awful about the way he spoke to her.
- feel absolutely awful
- I felt absolutely awful for two days after the flu shot.
- feel awful for someone
- We all felt awful for the family who lost their home.
- make someone feel awful
- The teacher's harsh words made the boy feel awful.
Synonyms and how they differ
- feel terrible
- Very close in meaning; 'terrible' is slightly stronger and often suggests a more intense bad feeling.
- feel sick
- Focuses mainly on physical illness, especially nausea, not emotional upset.
- feel lousy
- Informal; means the same but sounds more casual and is common in American English.
Opposites
Commonly confused: feel awful or awful?
feel awful vs awful
'Awful' alone means very bad or unpleasant, as in 'an awful meal'. 'Feel awful' is about your own bad feeling, not about judging something.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'feel awful' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Feel awful about' is the correct pattern: the preposition 'about' introduces the thing causing the bad feeling. The other options use wrong prepositions or verb forms.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “feel awful”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.