✅ Jealous and envious both refer to negative feelings we might have when someone else has something we wish we had.
✅ Jealous is more negative, suggesting resentment toward someone because of their successes, advantages, possessions or lifestyle (I felt jealous of my co-worker’s promotion; I feel guilty for scratching his car just because I was jealous).
✅ Envious is a little more neutral, suggesting a sense of sadness along with desire (He has such great hair, I’m so envious; I’m so envious of how much you get to travel).
✅ You might feel jealous if a friend or romantic partner is spending more time with another person rather than you. Envious in this situation would suggest you wanted to spend time with that other person, too!
There’s no need to feel envious of other people’s vocabularies—learn these synonyms!
✅ An activity is a specific pursuit, pastime, or occupation (I like to see what activities are going on in my neighborhood).
✅ An endeavor is an attempt at doing something, especially an attempt that took a lot of effort (Our marshmallow-pizza endeavor was a surprising success).
✅ Activity is a more general term, and often refers to a short-term event (I did an afternoon activity with my kids).
✅ Endeavor refers to a more long-term or effortful event, and suggests an expectation that it might fail (Trying to walk carrying a coffee cup and not spill it is a doomed endeavor).
Write about a fruitless endeavor with the help of Grammar Coach.
✅ Complain means to express unhappiness or discontent with something (I hate to complain, but the lunch options are awful).
✅ Gripe means to grumble constantly or nag about something (He griped about the service at the café) .
✅ Complain and gripe both can mean to express unhappiness repeatedly or unnecessarily (We won’t take you again if you gripe all the time; She complained for the entire journey).
✅ While complain is more general, gripe has negative connotations, and suggests complaining in a repeated, nasty, or unnecessary way.
You’ll have nothing to gripe about with these synonyms!