Language tip of the week: embarrassed

In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. In this series of language tips to accompany the Real Vocabulary theme we look at how you can expand your vocabulary in English by using different words and expressions instead of core vocabulary items.

This set of language tips will explore different ways to talk about emotions. This week’s tip looks at the most frequent patterns that go with the adjective embarrassed:

embarrassed:
I’ve never felt so embarrassed in my entire life. ♦ Don’t be embarrassed about lying on a bed in the shop to try it out. ♦ They were too embarrassed to ask for help. ♦ Most teenagers are deeply embarrassed by their parents.
Embarrassed is often preceded by an adverb:
I felt somewhat embarrassed by all the fuss that was made of me. ♦ Mike looked faintly embarrassed.
Frequent collocates of embarrased include words for people’s expressions, actions and gestures, as well as the word silence:
They stood there in embarrassed silence. ♦ He gave an embarrassed smile. ♦ The only response was a few embarrassed laughs.