How to Describe a Bad Day in English

Bob the Canadian

93

So I didn't sleep very well last night,

and now I'm in a bad mood.

I don't think I'm going to have a good day.

I think I'm going to have a bad day.

So I thought if I think I'm going to have a bad day,

maybe I'll make an English lesson

about common English phrases we use to describe a bad day.

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So there are some basic phrases that we use in English

to describe a bad day.

You could just say, "I'm having a bad day,"

or, "I'm having a crappy day,"

or, "I'm having a tough day," or, "I'm having a lousy day."

But there's a few other phrases that we use

that are a bit more interesting.

The first phrase I want to teach you

is the phrase it's just one thing after another.

Imagine a day where things just keep going wrong.

Maybe you have a flat tire on your car in the morning,

and then you're stuck in traffic later in the day,

and it's just one thing after another.

That's the English phrase we would use to describe that.

I hope for me today,

because I'm going to have a bad day, I think,

I hope it's not just one thing after another.

I hope the day goes smoothly.

Another common phrase to use to describe a bad day

is the phrase nothing's going my way.

Maybe you're in a hurry and you need to get to work,

but you have a few errands to run,

and every place you go, you end up waiting in line,

and you end up being late for work.

That would be a good time to use that phrase

to say, "Nothing's going my way today.

Everywhere I go, I end up waiting in line."

That certainly would be really, really frustrating,

and that's definitely the phrase I would use.

Nothing's going my way today.

Have you ever had a day where you keep forgetting things?

Maybe you walk out the door

and realize you've forgotten your car keys,

and you have to go back in and get them,

and then later, you realize you forgot your laptop,

and you have to go back and get it.

That would be a good day to use this phrase.

A good day to say, "I got up on the wrong side of the bed."

In English, when we say,

"I got up on the wrong side of the bed,"

we're talking about a day

where you're having trouble thinking clearly.

Maybe you're in a bad mood.

Maybe you're just having trouble

putting your thoughts together,

and you start to forget things and things start to go wrong,

and it's kind of your fault.

So if you're having a bad day

and you feel like

it's because you just didn't have a good start to your day,

you could say, "I got up on the wrong side of the bed."

Do you ever have a day where you make a lot of mistakes?

Maybe you get up in the morning,

and when you're making breakfast, you burn the toast

and you spill some milk or coffee

when you're pouring it into a cup or mug.

That would be a great day to say,

"I can't do anything right today."

Sometimes there's days where I get up

and my brain's just not working correctly,

and I make little mistakes while I'm making breakfast,

and I'm starting to have a bad day,

and that's a day where I say that phrase,

"Ah! I can't do anything right today."

Sometimes you have a day

where something really, really bad happens,

and that's why it's a bad day.

Maybe you have a car accident

or you injure yourself playing a sport.

The phrase I would use in that situation

is the phrase this is the worst day ever.

If I was driving my car and if I got into a car accident,

and if I was in the hospital

with a broken arm from the car accident,

if Jen came to see me,

she would say, "Oh, how are you doing?"

I would say, "This is the worst day ever."

I would compare that day to other bad days that I had,

and then I would decide that it was the worst one,

that nothing worse than those things

had ever happened to me.

This is the worst day ever.

So a couple of weeks ago at school,

I had to photocopy a whole bunch of exams,

and while I was photocopying them, the photocopier broke,

and then I had to wait a whole day

before I could use it again,

and that was a day where other things had also gone wrong,

and so I ended up using this English phrase.

I looked up at the ceiling and said, "Why me?"

In English, when someone says, "Why me?"

they're questioning why all of these bad things

are happening to them.

They're just kind of yelling it at the sky,

or maybe quietly saying it to the sky.

Maybe you've had a day like this in the past,

where a few things happen to you,

and you just look at the sky and you say, "Why me?"

So a few weeks ago, Jen went to the market to sell flowers,

and it rained and it was very, very windy.

When she came home that day, I said, "How was your day?"

and she used this English phrase.

She said, "I've had better days."

When we use this phrase in English,

when we say, "I've had better days,"

we're definitely using it to describe a bad day.

We're basically saying

of all the days I've lived on this earth,

there's definitely been days that were better than this one.

Jen came home soaking wet.

She hadn't sold very many flowers,

and it wasn't a good day for her at all.

It was a bad day,

and her response when I asked her how it was

was, "I've had better days."

Sometimes in the morning, a few things will go wrong,

and then you might use the English phrase,

"This day is off to a bad start."

That's what I had this morning.

A few things went wrong this morning.

I couldn't find my keys, and then I was running late.

I had to drop one of my kids off at work,

and so I thought, "Wow, this day is off to a bad start."

Basically what you're saying is,

well, if one or two things go wrong in the morning,

the rest of the day is probably gonna be a bad day.

So luckily now it's a little later in the morning.

The day's going well,

but this morning I was certainly saying,

"This day is off to a bad start."

I like to plan my day.

I like to make a plan

for all the things I'm going to do that day,

but sometimes it doesn't work out,

and then I would use these two English phrases.

I would say, "Nothing's going according to plan,"

or, "Nothing's going as planned."

Sometimes you have the best intentions for the day.

You make a list, and I love lists, by the way.

You make a list of all the things you need to do,

but then when you're finishing item two or three,

something else pops up.

All of the sudden, nothing is going according to plan,

or nothing's going as planned.

It can be a little bit frustrating, but hey, that's life.

At the end of a long day, at the end of a bad day,

you can use the English phrase it's time to call it a day.

This is a phrase that is most often used

at the end of a workday.

At around five o'clock, someone might say,

"Hey it's almost time to go home.

It's time to call it a day."

But you can use this when you're having a bad day as well.

Maybe you're working around the house

or apartment on a Saturday.

Nothing's going right.

Nothing's going your way.

You're getting really, really frustrated.

It's about five o'clock in the afternoon.

You might say, "Hey, it's time to call it a day.

Let's stop doing what we're doing

and sit down and have a meal and relax a little bit."

I think it's a great phrase.

I use it quite often at the end of my day.

I'll say to Jen, "Hey, I think it's time to call it a day."

Well, hey, thank you so much

for watching this English lesson

about how to describe a bad day in English.

I actually hope

you don't have to use these phrases very often.

I hope you don't have a bad day today.

I hope you never have bad days, although it is life, right?

Bad days do happen,

and now if they do, and you're in an English conversation,

you'll know what to say.

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if this video helped you learn just a bit of English,

and thank you so much for watching this English lesson.