Let’s Get Happy

The Declaration of Independence of the United States proclaims that all people have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So, what makes you happy? Money? Family? Your work? Whatever it is, let’s say it correctly.

We have happy with and happy about, and there is a subtle difference between the two:

“Happy with” means you are satisfied with the quality or standard of something. 

• The client was happy with their presentation. 
• The chef was not happy with the flavor of the truffles. 

“Happy about” means you are pleased that something happened, or pleased by something. 

• The team was happy about winning the championship. 
• Carlo is not happy about being in debt. 

I often hear English learners say happy about but rarely happy with, and even native speakers seem to use these expressions interchangeably, which is proof that prepositions are a challenge. You will still be understood even if you mix the two up, but knowing the correct uses is always best. 

Down in the Dumps

Psychiatrist Carl Jung stated that “the word ‘happy’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.”

It’s a fact of life that we all experience sadness every now and then, and the idiom down in the dumps is one way to describe that unhappy feeling.  

Down in the dumps means to be in a discouraged, depressed, or sad mood. The expression down in the mouth is similiar. 

- Carlo felt down in the dumps after he failed his driver’s test. 

- Kim has been feeling down in the mouth because of recent money problems.

The noun dumps has been used for "a state of depression" since the early 1500s, and down in the mouth, alluding to the downturned corners of the mouth as a sign of misery, dates from the mid-1600s.*

The more you use idioms and phrasal verbs, the better your fluency will be. I will be happy if you add down in the dumps to your vocabulary :)

*This is according to the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.