日本人が違いをよく分からずに使っている英語に、「care about」と「worry about」があります。
今回はその二つの言葉の使い分けをiBEC Academy大阪の外国人講師が解説しています。
例題もあるのでチャレンジしてみてくださいね。
************************************************************
Welcome to this month’s 1 Point Lesson. This month we’re going to look at two words which English learners sometimes mix up: ‘care about’ and ‘worry about’. How do we use these words and what is the difference between them?
First look at these sentences. In two of the sentences ‘care about’ or ‘worry about’ are used wrongly. Can you see which two?
1. When the economy is doing badly people often worry about losing their jobs.
2. This is a great company. Everyone really cares about the work that they do.
3. New workers often care about making mistakes.
4. We don’t need to worry too much about the design cost. We’ve got a big budget.
5. Some people think big companies don’t worry about their workers. They make them work long hours and don’t pay them very much.
What’s the difference between ‘care about’ and ‘worry about’? Well if you care about a person thing or situation you feel that it is important. If you worry about a person thing or situation you feel anxious or uneasy about it. So we usually ‘worry about’ negative or difficult things and situations.
The wrong sentences above are numbers 3 and 5. New workers feel anxious about making mistakes so they worry about them. Some people think big companies feel that their workers are not important so they don’t care about them. Looking at the meaning of the sentences which are correct:
1. People feel anxious about losing their jobs.
2. Everyone in the company feels that the work they do is important and so they work hard.
4. We don’t need to feel anxious about the design cost because we have lots of money to spend.
To see the difference in meaning between ‘care about’ and ‘worry about’ have a look at these two sentences:
a.) Our customers care about the quality of our products.
b.) Our customers worry about the quality of our products.
In sentence a) the quality of our products is important to our customers. In sentence b) our customers feel anxious about the quality of our products probably because the quality isn’t very good.
And finally for a little practice… Put the words ‘care about’ or ‘worry about’ in each space in the sentences below. You may need to change the form of some of the words. The answers are at the end of this week’s post.
1. I really _____ tomorrow’s presentation. I haven’t practiced yet and I still haven’t got all the data I need.
2. I don’t think Jack _____ his job anymore. He’s always making mistakes and he often misses team meetings.
3. Some companies _____ profit more than the environment and they don’t worry about the pollution that they cause.
4. You don’t have to _____ booking your flights and hotel. I’ll do it for you.
5. I don’t _____ what he says. I’m going to do it anyway.
6. Let’s not _____ the cost for now. Let’s focus on the design first.
See you for next time.
Answers: 1. worry about 2. cares about 3. care about 4. worry about 5. care about 6. worry about
By the way the answers to the last 1 point lesson were:
7. b(fascinated) 8. c(damages) 9. b(scary) 10. c(interests)
