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 words and phrases you can use to say that something disappoints you:
disappointing not as good as you had hoped for or expected:
This was a desperately disappointing performance by the US team. ♦ The dish took forever to cook and the end result was a little disappointing.
Disappointing is often preceded by an adverb, either an intensifier such as bitterly, hugely, terribly, deeply, or a ‘softening’ adverb such as somewhat, mildly or slightly.
not up to expectations not as good as you expected:
Last year’s economic performance was not up to our expectations. ♦ We are sorry we could not live up to the expectations of our fans.
a letdown if something is a letdown, it makes you feel disappointed because it is not as good as you expected:
After all the hype, the exhibition was a bit of a letdown.
Did you know that Macmillan Dictionary includes a full thesaurus? This page lists more ways to say ‘disappointing‘.
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