S03E20 - Complain To and Complain About

Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Gold Forest English podcast. As always, my name is Jordan.

Today, I want to talk about a topic that's very useful, but it can be a little bit difficult. I want to talk about complaining. Complaining is something that we all do sometimes. We feel unhappy about something, or we feel annoyed about something, and we want to show that feeling. We want to release that feeling. But the words that we use are very important. And there's a common mistake that I hear many students making. So today we're going to talk about complaining.

First, let's look at the word complain. There are two main ways to use the word complain. We've got complain about and complain to. Complain is a very neutral, general word for saying that we are unhappy about something, but the prepositions—the little words that come after complain—are very important, and they really change the meaning. Complain to, and complain about.

First, let's look at complain about. When you complain about something, you are talking about the topic. You're talking about the thing, the person, or the situation that is the problem. So the word about connects your complaint to the problem.

So, for example, imagine your neighbour plays very loud music late at night. We could say, "I complained about the noise." The noise is the topic. That is what I am unhappy about.

A different example. Maybe your colleague is always talking about the weather in a negative way. Always saying it's too hot, it's too cold, it's raining, it's cloudy. Your colleague, he is never happy with the weather. So you could say, "He is always complaining about the weather." So again, the weather is the topic. We complain about something. The thing is the problem.

The other word we use is complain to. When you complain to someone, you are talking to them. And you are discussing a problem. But you are talking to the person. You are complaining to the person. The person is receiving, the person is listening to your complaint. When we use complain to, we are talking about the person listening.

So, for example, going back to the noisy neighbour that plays music too loudly, you decide that you are going to complain to the building manager. You're going to go and talk to the building manager about this problem. Complaining to the building manager. The manager is the person that will listen to the problem.

So, very often we use these words together. We often complain about something to someone. We put these words in the same sentence very frequently. For example, "She complained to her friend about her boss." The friend is the listener—that's the to part—and the boss is the topic. The boss is the problem. That's the about part. It's a very simple difference, but it's very important to get it right.

Now let's look at some different vocabulary that we can use that's connected to this topic. In British English, we've got some vocabulary words to talk about the style of complaining, the way that somebody is complaining. I want to talk about two of the most common words to describe a complaint: moan and whine.

First, let's look at moan. Moan is a verb which means to complain in a long, slow, continuous, or repeated, unhappy way. It's a kind of complaining that just goes on and on and on. It continues for a long time. Repeating the same things again and again. It's kind of a noise that never stops. When someone is moaning, they're usually complaining repeatedly, and you want them to stop. It feels boring to listen to.

For example, if a colleague at work really doesn't enjoy their job, and they are moaning every day, talking about how they hate their job, you would feel quite frustrated and annoyed with this person. They're always complaining about the same thing, and they're not doing anything to change the situation. They're just complaining again and again and again. This is moaning. It's boring, it's annoying to listen to.

Similarly, the word whine. Whine is a similar word because it's also annoying, but it sounds very different. When someone whines, they are complaining in a high, annoying voice. It sounds kind of like a very young child. It sounds immature, sounds childish. It doesn't sound like an adult.

For example, you could imagine a child in a supermarket who wants some chocolate. They might say, "I want it, I want it. Why can't I have it? It's not fair." That kind of high, annoying sound that a child might make is called whining. The children are whining. They are complaining. They want something and they can't have it. It's a type of complaint.

But we can use this word whine to talk about anybody who is complaining in a very high and annoying style. They sound like a child.

So those two words are moan and whine. Moan is low, long, and boring. Whine is high, annoying, and childish. They're both different types of complaining. They're both verbs, but they give a very different picture, a very different impression of the person who is doing the complaining.

So today we looked at four things. First, we had complain about, which is the topic of your complaint. Second, complain to, the person who listens to your complaint. Third, moan, the long, low, boring complaint. And fourth, whine, the high, childish, annoying complaint.

If you can keep these four different ideas clear, you'll be much more precise with your English. You'll be able to understand feelings when a British person or native speaker describes somebody as moaning or whining. It gives you a lot of information about their opinion.

So this week, I made a full blog post on GoldForestAcademy.com, which covers these four words, these phrases, and also goes over several other vocabulary words like grumble, as well as some idioms like "I have a bone to pick with you." So all of that information is on the website, GoldForestAcademy.com. If you want to get deeper into this topic, definitely go and check that out. But for today's episode, I just wanted to focus on those four main things: complain about, complain to, moan, and whine. That's a good starting point for any language learner.

All right, that's going to be it for today's episode. I hope you don't have too much to complain about this week. Thank you very much for listening. I'll see you in the next episode. Goodbye.