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United States37500 Posts
On December 23 2017 07:08 Jek wrote:
Heeeeelp LL!
I'm trying to fix my danglish and had a discussion with a friend about "eager to see" vs "anxious to see", the only conclusion we could come up with is "they are sorta the same".
1) Is there any difference?
2) If so when should you use either?
In everyday, casual/colloquial use, they're roughly about the same. If you want to get into the semantics of it, there's slight difference in connotation imo.
"eager to see" implies a hope or want to see, has a positive vibe to it.
"anxious to see" can swing both ways positive or negative, depending on context. 'Anxious' lends itself to worry and uncertainty, which can be good or bad.
tl;dr: both phrases are quite interchangeable. "they are sorta the same" is pretty spot on.
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Most of English has to deal with context, it's why it's such a shit language and a pain in the ass.
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I'd say anxious is a bit of a stronger and more forceful feeling than eager.
Like if you don't get to see it you'll be upset.
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On December 23 2017 09:19 Crusnik wrote:
Most of English has to deal with context, it's why it's such a shit language and a pain in the ass.
Also because it just takes languages into back alleys and beats words out of 'em. I'm looking at you, Tsunami.
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On December 23 2017 07:20 NeoIllusions wrote:Show nested quote +On December 23 2017 07:08 Jek wrote:
Heeeeelp LL!
I'm trying to fix my danglish and had a discussion with a friend about "eager to see" vs "anxious to see", the only conclusion we could come up with is "they are sorta the same".
1) Is there any difference?
2) If so when should you use either? In everyday, casual/colloquial use, they're roughly about the same. If you want to get into the semantics of it, there's slight difference in connotation imo. "eager to see" implies a hope or want to see, has a positive vibe to it. "anxious to see" can swing both ways positive or negative, depending on context. 'Anxious' lends itself to worry and uncertainty, which can be good or bad. tl;dr: both phrases are quite interchangeable. "they are sorta the same" is pretty spot on.
So something like,
"I'm anxious to see tomorrow's weather forecast" and "I'm eager to see the Champions League final*"?
* if it doesn't involve your favorite team, so it's just to watch some top class football.
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On December 23 2017 11:01 Jek wrote:Show nested quote +On December 23 2017 07:20 NeoIllusions wrote:On December 23 2017 07:08 Jek wrote:
Heeeeelp LL!
I'm trying to fix my danglish and had a discussion with a friend about "eager to see" vs "anxious to see", the only conclusion we could come up with is "they are sorta the same".
1) Is there any difference?
2) If so when should you use either? In everyday, casual/colloquial use, they're roughly about the same. If you want to get into the semantics of it, there's slight difference in connotation imo. "eager to see" implies a hope or want to see, has a positive vibe to it. "anxious to see" can swing both ways positive or negative, depending on context. 'Anxious' lends itself to worry and uncertainty, which can be good or bad. tl;dr: both phrases are quite interchangeable. "they are sorta the same" is pretty spot on. So something like, "I'm anxious to see tomorrow's weather forecast" and "I'm eager to see the Champions League final"?
Depends on what you think the outcome of those will be.
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On December 23 2017 11:03 Gahlo wrote:Show nested quote +On December 23 2017 11:01 Jek wrote:On December 23 2017 07:20 NeoIllusions wrote:On December 23 2017 07:08 Jek wrote:
Heeeeelp LL!
I'm trying to fix my danglish and had a discussion with a friend about "eager to see" vs "anxious to see", the only conclusion we could come up with is "they are sorta the same".
1) Is there any difference?
2) If so when should you use either? In everyday, casual/colloquial use, they're roughly about the same. If you want to get into the semantics of it, there's slight difference in connotation imo. "eager to see" implies a hope or want to see, has a positive vibe to it. "anxious to see" can swing both ways positive or negative, depending on context. 'Anxious' lends itself to worry and uncertainty, which can be good or bad. tl;dr: both phrases are quite interchangeable. "they are sorta the same" is pretty spot on. So something like, "I'm anxious to see tomorrow's weather forecast" and "I'm eager to see the Champions League final"? Depends on what you think the outcome of those will be.
I'm thinking "anxious" if it's a binary result of what you're going to see and "eager" if it's neutral?
"I'm anxious to see tomorrow's weather forecast" the results is either good or bad.
"I'm eager to see the Champions League final" is neutral if say favorite team isn't involved.
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On December 23 2017 11:07 Jek wrote:Show nested quote +On December 23 2017 11:03 Gahlo wrote:On December 23 2017 11:01 Jek wrote:On December 23 2017 07:20 NeoIllusions wrote:On December 23 2017 07:08 Jek wrote:
Heeeeelp LL!
I'm trying to fix my danglish and had a discussion with a friend about "eager to see" vs "anxious to see", the only conclusion we could come up with is "they are sorta the same".
1) Is there any difference?
2) If so when should you use either? In everyday, casual/colloquial use, they're roughly about the same. If you want to get into the semantics of it, there's slight difference in connotation imo. "eager to see" implies a hope or want to see, has a positive vibe to it. "anxious to see" can swing both ways positive or negative, depending on context. 'Anxious' lends itself to worry and uncertainty, which can be good or bad. tl;dr: both phrases are quite interchangeable. "they are sorta the same" is pretty spot on. So something like, "I'm anxious to see tomorrow's weather forecast" and "I'm eager to see the Champions League final"? Depends on what you think the outcome of those will be. I'm thinking "anxious" if it's a binary result of what you're going to see and "eager" if it's neutral? "I'm anxious to see tomorrow's weather forecast" the results is either good or bad. "I'm eager to see the Champions League final" is neutral if say favorite team isn't involved.
In those cases I'd say anxious if, say, you think the weather is going to be bad and are dreading hearing the bad news. The second one is pretty much true, though if your team is in it and you think they're a clear favorite, you could be eager to watch the win.
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On December 23 2017 11:14 Gahlo wrote:Show nested quote +On December 23 2017 11:07 Jek wrote:On December 23 2017 11:03 Gahlo wrote:On December 23 2017 11:01 Jek wrote:On December 23 2017 07:20 NeoIllusions wrote:On December 23 2017 07:08 Jek wrote:
Heeeeelp LL!
I'm trying to fix my danglish and had a discussion with a friend about "eager to see" vs "anxious to see", the only conclusion we could come up with is "they are sorta the same".
1) Is there any difference?
2) If so when should you use either? In everyday, casual/colloquial use, they're roughly about the same. If you want to get into the semantics of it, there's slight difference in connotation imo. "eager to see" implies a hope or want to see, has a positive vibe to it. "anxious to see" can swing both ways positive or negative, depending on context. 'Anxious' lends itself to worry and uncertainty, which can be good or bad. tl;dr: both phrases are quite interchangeable. "they are sorta the same" is pretty spot on. So something like, "I'm anxious to see tomorrow's weather forecast" and "I'm eager to see the Champions League final"? Depends on what you think the outcome of those will be. I'm thinking "anxious" if it's a binary result of what you're going to see and "eager" if it's neutral? "I'm anxious to see tomorrow's weather forecast" the results is either good or bad. "I'm eager to see the Champions League final" is neutral if say favorite team isn't involved. In those cases I'd say anxious if, say, you think the weather is going to be bad and are dreading hearing the bad news. The second one is pretty much true, though if your team is in it and you think they're a clear favorite, you could be eager to watch the win.
So as a rule of thumb could I use:
"Anxious" if I suspect the outcome will be bad and "eager" if I suspect the outcome will be neutral or good?
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United States37500 Posts
On December 23 2017 11:41 Jek wrote:Show nested quote +On December 23 2017 11:14 Gahlo wrote:On December 23 2017 11:07 Jek wrote:On December 23 2017 11:03 Gahlo wrote:On December 23 2017 11:01 Jek wrote:On December 23 2017 07:20 NeoIllusions wrote:On December 23 2017 07:08 Jek wrote:
Heeeeelp LL!
I'm trying to fix my danglish and had a discussion with a friend about "eager to see" vs "anxious to see", the only conclusion we could come up with is "they are sorta the same".
1) Is there any difference?
2) If so when should you use either? In everyday, casual/colloquial use, they're roughly about the same. If you want to get into the semantics of it, there's slight difference in connotation imo. "eager to see" implies a hope or want to see, has a positive vibe to it. "anxious to see" can swing both ways positive or negative, depending on context. 'Anxious' lends itself to worry and uncertainty, which can be good or bad. tl;dr: both phrases are quite interchangeable. "they are sorta the same" is pretty spot on. So something like, "I'm anxious to see tomorrow's weather forecast" and "I'm eager to see the Champions League final"? Depends on what you think the outcome of those will be. I'm thinking "anxious" if it's a binary result of what you're going to see and "eager" if it's neutral? "I'm anxious to see tomorrow's weather forecast" the results is either good or bad. "I'm eager to see the Champions League final" is neutral if say favorite team isn't involved. In those cases I'd say anxious if, say, you think the weather is going to be bad and are dreading hearing the bad news. The second one is pretty much true, though if your team is in it and you think they're a clear favorite, you could be eager to watch the win. So as a rule of thumb could I use: "Anxious" if I suspect the outcome will be bad and "eager" if I suspect the outcome will be neutral or good?
Eager is good or neutral, while anxious is bad or neutral. It's because of that neutral area (where the usage is up to interpretation) that let's people use eager and anxious interchangeably (e.g. anxious is the first synonym for eager on google, etc)
Anxious about the weather means that you're worried about weather being bad but hoping it'll be good, since no one really purposely wants bad weather. If you're hoping for bad weather, you wouldn't be anxious then. Although "eager for bad weather" also sounds weird as well, etc.
Eager for a football game means that you're excited about the game, either because your favorite team is playing and/or you just want to watch a good match of football, without too much emotional investment in either team.
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I think you're overthinking this.
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Anxious and eager are synonyms, really? That seems weird to me. They don't feel like synonyms at all, and neither word has neutral implications in my mind: anxiety is a bad, insecure feeling, being eager is an excited, good feeling, full stop. "Anxious to" didn't even exist in my head as a possible grammatical construction until I read this conversation.
This must be another quirk that I got from reading old books rather than newer ones.
+ Show Spoiler +(or maybe it's just confirmation that being 30 == OLD PERSON).
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United Kingdom30775 Posts
That's because anxious has two definitions. To worry and also to be eager. Good old English.
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On December 23 2017 17:54 Holyflare wrote:
That's because anxious has two definitions. To worry and also to be eager. Good old English.
I don't think that's too bad.
Think about it this way. There's some social event that you want to go to but at the same time it's a bit nerve wracking to actually do it. So here you are anxious due to the worry from being nervous while also being excited to go. We give English a lot of shit but I think it's partly the way it is because humans are just contrary creatures that can feel conflicting emotions at the same time. Often I find just before going to do something the excitement turns to this gut-wrenching worry but then it passes once you actually doing the thing.
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On December 23 2017 14:22 phyvo wrote:Anxious and eager are synonyms, really? That seems weird to me. They don't feel like synonyms at all, and neither word has neutral implications in my mind: anxiety is a bad, insecure feeling, being eager is an excited, good feeling, full stop. "Anxious to" didn't even exist in my head as a possible grammatical construction until I read this conversation. This must be another quirk that I got from reading old books rather than newer ones. + Show Spoiler +(or maybe it's just confirmation that being 30 == OLD PERSON).
It's like smell and stink. They mean the same thing, but have different connotations.
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On December 23 2017 07:08 Jek wrote:
Heeeeelp LL!
I'm trying to fix my danglish and had a discussion with a friend about "eager to see" vs "anxious to see", the only conclusion we could come up with is "they are sorta the same".
1) Is there any difference?
2) If so when should you use either?
Pretty similar in meaning but eager would indicate excitement and anxious would indicate worry. The nuance would be what is driving your anticipation.
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Do you guys feel that the word "maybe" has a more negative connotation than a positive one, even though it should display total ambiguity?
Also, I'm going to go with the opinions in favor of connotation. Anxious is more worrisome (you're not totally feeling it because it might not go the way you want it to), while eagerness has some kind of anticipatory impatience/hunger. People are eager for their Christmas presents, not anxious for them. Unless you live in some shithole and you get a severed head on your bed or something.
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I think I got the gist of it! One step futher to the cure of danglish!
+ Show Spoiler +-- this is our former foreign minister.
On December 24 2017 00:50 Uldridge wrote:
Do you guys feel that the word "maybe" has a more negative connotation than a positive one, even though it should display total ambiguity?
Also, I'm going to go with the opinions in favor of connotation. Anxious is more worrisome (you're not totally feeling it because it might not go the way you want it to), while eagerness has some kind of anticipatory impatience/hunger. People are eager for their Christmas presents, not anxious for them. Unless you live in some shithole and you get a severed head on your bed or something.
Then I guess I'm anxious to see what my brother is giving me but eager for the rest. 
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Speaking of Danish, I just want to say, I love Victor Borge. It's too bad that I can't find his jokes about learning English.
On December 24 2017 00:50 Uldridge wrote:
Do you guys feel that the word "maybe" has a more negative connotation than a positive one, even though it should display total ambiguity?
In speech it's all about how it's intoned and the person you're speaking to. We all know the "maybe I can go to the party" that really means "I don't want to say I won't go but I'd rather watch netflix." In writing I think it's very neutral.
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Yeah that's true, I should've mentioned the verbal part of the maybe!
I like how in Dutch we can make compound words, which is a general rule and just accepted. You can perfectly combine jacket and basket into jacketbasket or basketjacket for example and it would make perfect sense. I don't know if that's the same in English per se, is it?
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EPT
