All About Trouble

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Hello, welcome to another class. I’m Robin and today we are going to talk about “trouble”. All the uses and expressions related to this word, and there are so many. So what is “trouble”? “Trouble” is like a problem or a bad situation. And there are so many expressions that have the word “trouble”. And many students get confused because sometimes it can be countable, sometimes it’s uncountable. So I’m going to give you all the information that you need today to use this word correctly. 

Okay, so let’s talk about countable and uncountable, for example, “to have troubles”. This is countable because you can count them. So if someone has “troubles”, it means that they have problems. It’s another way of saying that they have problems. And it’s countable because you can name them. “What are your troubles?” “Well, I have, I lost my job. And I’m looking for a new place to live” etc. So all of these things are your “troubles” so you can count them. You can also have “financial troubles”, okay. So if you have problems with money, that’s “financial troubles”. You can have “marital troubles”. So that’s trouble in your marriage, your relationship, “marital troubles”. You can have “car trouble”. Okay, so that means when your car doesn’t work, you have “car trouble”, for example.

Alright, so now I’m going to show you a few expressions that are a little bit confusing because they’re very similar. Okay, so first, we have “to be in trouble”. If you are “in trouble”, it means that you have done something wrong. And you are being punished. Let’s say you are facing the consequences for this for whatever you did. So you can be “in trouble” with the law, or a child, if they misbehave, they do something wrong, they will be “in trouble” with their parents or with their teacher, etc. So “to be in trouble” means you did something bad.

“To be troubled”, -ed, “to be troubled” means that you have problems maybe like mental problems, personal problems. If you see that someone is “troubled”, they are struggling, they’re having a hard time with something okay. So if a person is “troubled”, that means they are struggling, okay?

If something is “troubling”, it means that it is difficult to understand or it worries you and makes you feel worried. So a situation like the pandemic, this is “troubling” because you want you worry about getting sick, you worry about your family, etc. So a situation or something like that can be “troubling”.

To be, “to be trouble”, okay. So if someone is “trouble”, then that means that they’re not a good person to be around, maybe like a criminal or someone who you might hear your parents say, “No, you shouldn’t spend time with that person because they are trouble”. So that means that they maybe make bad decisions, or they do bad things and that if you are with them, you might be convinced to do some of those things too. So if someone is “trouble”, it means that you should probably stay away from them. Okay?

If something is “troublesome”, this is an adjective, if something is “troublesome”, it’s also difficult, okay. So it’s difficult to understand, “troublesome”, “a troublesome situation”. Okay. And if you see someone and they look like they have a problem, or they’re very worried about something, you can ask them “What’s troubling you?”. Okay, so this just means “What’s the problem?” “What’s wrong?”. This is another way to ask “What’s troubling you”. “Tell me your troubles.” Okay. So you’re saying “tell me what’s happening”.

All right. And as many of you know, the word “trouble” is used in many song lyrics. So for example, one of them is “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. You might have heard this song before. “Troubled water” is a bad situation. So if you think about the sea, for example, like moving, this is “troubled water”, so if the waters are “troubled,” it means that you are in a bad situation. So “a bridge over troubled water” means that someone gives you help in a bad situation. So you’re able to overcome this situation with this bridge or with this help, basically. So that’s the meaning of the song. If you ever wondered, now, you know, all right.

I’m going to give you, excuse me, I’m going to give you a few more expressions with “trouble”. Okay, for example, “to get into” and “to get out of trouble”. So “to get into trouble”, again, is to do something bad. And “to get out of trouble” is the opposite. So if you are forgiven, if you are released from jail, for example, for something that you did, then you “get out of trouble”.

Okay, and something that your parents will probably say to you, that “you need to stay out”, or “you need to keep out of trouble”. So that means don’t do anything wrong, behave, follow the rules, do what’s right, “stay out of trouble”, or “keep out of trouble”. So these have the same meaning.

Okay, if you do something that you know, is dangerous, for example, then “you are asking for trouble”. So basically, you know that it’s a dangerous situation, you know what could happen, you know the possible consequences, but you do it anyway. So “you are asking for trouble”. 

Right, “to troubleshoot”. Now, this is something you probably recognize maybe on your computer, “to troubleshoot”. So if you have a problem, like a technical problem, “to troubleshoot” means to try different things to solve this problem.

Okay, “double trouble”, if something is “double trouble”, it means it is twice the trouble. So if you have two people, for example, that are trouble, that are problematic, for example, then you say that those people are “double trouble”. 

A couple more, there are so many.

If a situation or something is “more trouble than it’s worth”, it means that you have to put in a lot of effort and not receive a lot in return. Maybe you work really hard for something and you actually don’t get that much back from it. So you say that’s “more trouble than it’s worth”. I don’t want to do that. No, thank you. Okay.

And finally, you can, as I said before, you can “trouble someone with your problems”. So if someone asked you “Tell me your troubles”. What’s, yeah, like what’s bothering you, then you can “trouble someone with your problems”. Or you can “trouble someone for something”. “Can I trouble you for a pen?” “Can I trouble you, for one euro or for a piece of paper or something?” If you need something, especially if you don’t know the person you ask if you can “trouble them for something”. 

Okay, so that was not all, there are still more but so many expressions and uses of the word “trouble”. So I want you to practice now in the comments. Write some examples using these expressions. And can you think of any other songs or song lyrics with “trouble”? Because there are so many in English, so if you can think of some, then I’d be happy to read them in the comments. So I hope that you learned something new, a new expression with “trouble” in this class. And thank you for joining and I will see you next week. Take care, bye!