☆★☆　English club　☆★☆コミュのWhat's the different?

Hi meg~

I think for me there is not a strong difference between the two...so I looked up both words in my dictionary, and it seems that the difference is something like this:

afraid: filled with fear about something. Like "I am afraid of dying".

scared: "a condition or state of sudden fear".

So it seems like some people use scared for situations where you become frightened suddenly, and afraid is for long-term fear?

But even so, I think many people use the words interchangably.

Like:

"I'm afraid of snakes"
"I'm scared of snakes"

To me, these are the same...

By the way, we usually say "What's the difference?"

Both words mean the act of feeling fear.
"Scared" is very common in informal speech in this context.
"Afraid" is more formal and not as common.

"Afraid" has very broad usage in English, more than just feeling fear. "Afraid" can also mean a feeling of worry, in that case "Afraid" is more commonly used than "scared."

"Afraid" can also be used as bad news and an apologetic refusal.

Example: "I'm afraid that I do not know."
Is the same as: "I'm sorry to tell you I do not know."

Example: "I'm afraid that I can't help you."
Is the same as: "I'm sorry that I can't help you."

In this usage, scared is not used. "I'm scared that I do not know." does not sound right and doesn't convey the same meaning.

Another important difference. "Afraid" is an abjective that is not used before a noun in the 'attributive position'.

Correct: "Doug is afraid."
Incorrect: "Doug is an afraid man."

Whereas scared can be used both ways:

Correct: "Doug is scared."
Correct: "Doug is a scared man."

Correct: "Doug is a scared man."

Is that correct? it would sound strange if you said it (dependent on context of course)
I would say "Doug is scared." and take out the word man.
Simply because we know that he IS a man, therefore you're adding useless information.

That's just my take on it.

Thank you for many example.
If I use "scared" and "afraid"...
"I saw a man. He was scared,because he followed me. So I really afraid of him.".
But can I use "I really afraid of him."?
I'm still confuse...
I think difficult to understand native speaker's nuance.

> よしや〜☆
> Is that correct? it would sound strange

In common speach, it's not generally used like that. Grammatically it is correct though. Whereas using afraid in that sentence would be incorrect.

I guess a more common example would be the insult "He's a scared little man." That is correct usage, where "He's an afraid little man." is not. Afraid can not be used like that.

> meg
"I saw a man. He was scared,because he followed me. So I really afraid of him."

The proper way to write that sentence is

"I saw a man. He was scary because he was following me. I was really afraid of him."

When talking about another person causing your fear, you call him scary. Scared is the act of feeling fear. The man was feeling fear, he was causing you to feel it. Therefore you call him scary.

"I was really afraid of him"
"I am really afraid of him"

Both can be used, "was" would be saying you were afraid at the time, but not anymore. "am" would say that you are continuing to feel the fear from what he was doing. "I really afraid of him" is incorrect. You need some conjugation of the verb "be" there.


Another way of showing the difference is what kind of words each one is.

￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
Afraid is an adjective.

1. Filled with fear.
Example: afraid of ghosts; afraid to die; afraid for his life.

2. Having feelings of aversion or unwillingness in regard to something.
Example: not afraid of hard work; afraid to show emotion.

3. Filled with regret or concern. Used especially to soften an unpleasant statement.
Example: I'm afraid you're wrong.


￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
Scare is a Verb (Transitive and Intransitive), a noun, and an adjective.

Transitive Verb "Scare"
1. To strike with sudden fear or alarm. Synonymous to frighten.
Example: I scared him with my shout.

Intransitive Verb "Scare"
1. To become frightened.
Example: A child who scares easily.

Noun "Scare"
1. A condition or sensation of sudden fear.
Example: She gave me quite a scare with her story.

2. A general state of alarm or panic.
Example: A bomb scare.

Adjective "Scare"
1. Serving or intended to frighten people.
Example: scare stories.
Example: scare tactics.

￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣

I know that is a little detailed, I guess this is what makes learning English fun... it's full of junk like this!

i never knew!!

Also to clear up something I wrote earlier.

>> "Afraid" is an adjective that is not used before a noun in the 'attributive position'. <<

Adjectives have two main uses. "Attributive" and "Predicative".

★★　Examples of Attributive:
A delicious peach.
おいしい桃。

A long letter.
長い手紙。

★★ Examples of Predicative
The peach is delicious.
桃はおいしい。

The letter was long.
手紙は長かった。


Grammatically... "afraid" can not be used as an "attributive adjective".

やばい・・・僕はnative speakerなのに・・・

Maybe I need to start studying English too... -_-;

The rules of english grammar are horrible. It is crazy.

I remember studying German and thinking "how can Germans talk? There are so many rules to think about..."

Maybe I have to think the same thing about English. :D

Earlier I made a mistake. I wrote:

>> The man was feeling fear, he was causing you to feel it. Therefore you call him scary. <<

I meant to write:

>> The man __wasn't__ feeling fear, he was causing you to feel it. Therefore you call him scary. <<

Ooops, I'm the king of typos!

Hi everyone.
Thank you for so many comment.
I'm going to make a notebook. :)