{"id":197,"date":"2014-06-07T13:36:18","date_gmt":"2014-06-07T03:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/?p=197"},"modified":"2017-03-04T13:07:10","modified_gmt":"2017-03-04T02:07:10","slug":"the-difference-between-anxious-and-eager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/journal\/notes\/the-difference-between-anxious-and-eager\/","title":{"rendered":"The difference between anxious and eager"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n TLDR:<\/strong> You would be anxious<\/em> meeting your new boyfriend’s parents, but eager<\/em> to start your holiday.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Anxious<\/em> and eager.<\/em> These two words can sometimes be used interchangeably, but probably not as often as you think.<\/p>\n

anxious (adjective)\u2014feeling nervous or worrying about something or a situation that has an uncertain outcome; experiencing extreme eagerness or concern to see something occur<\/p>\n

\n Yvette was anxious about<\/strong> her upcoming operation.<\/em><\/p>\n

It was an anxious moment on the sideline when the goalkeeper positioned his defenders for the free kick.<\/em><\/p>\n

My professors were anxious that<\/strong> I completed my degree.<\/em><\/p>\n

Emma’s parents were anxious to<\/strong> see their daughter perform well.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

eager (adjective)\u2014a strong desire to have some action performed or a task undertaken; interested or expectant expression and\/or tone of voice<\/p>\n

\n I was eager to get on the pitch and score a few goals.<\/em><\/p>\n

Scar watched eagerly as the hyenas circled the two cubs.<\/em><\/p>\n

Children are always eager for<\/strong> new challenges and activities.<\/em><\/p>\n

At the mention of gold, twelve eager faces turned towards the businessmen.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As you can see, eager<\/em> implies a certain impatient desire<\/strong> for something to happen, while anxious<\/em> is more centred on the fear<\/strong> of something going wrong, often causing disappointment and utter failure.<\/p>\n

While some sentences by themselves could use both anxious<\/em> and eager,<\/em> with some context, they are not always so interchangeable. For example:<\/p>\n

\n Bob was anxious to begin his new job.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bob was eager to begin his new job.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here, Bob could be either eager<\/em> or anxious<\/em> to begin his new job\u2014many people are afraid of making that first step, after all! However, if this sentence occurred within a larger portion of text, then it might dictate which of these two words best describes the situation.<\/p>\n

For instance, Bob might really need the money to pay off a debt or even a ransom, explaining that he is afraid<\/strong> of what would happen should he fail to impress his superiors in his new role. In this situation, anxious<\/em> is the better word to use because he is very nervous. However, if Bob was excited<\/strong> about his new job and the opportunities ahead, then eager<\/em> would be the better word to use.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Yvette was anxious<\/em> about her upcoming operation, presumably because she was nervous<\/strong> about the procedure itself. Having gone under the knife a few times myself, I can’t blame her! However, if we discovered that Yvette had a lot of health problems and this operation was going to solve them all, then she might be more eager<\/em> than anxious<\/em> for the operation to begin so she could reap the benefits.<\/p>\n

As you can see, it quite often comes down to context when deciding which of these two words to use. If someone is nervous about an outcome, use anxious<\/em>. If someone is excited or keen about something being done, then eager<\/em> is probably best to use.<\/p>\n

Hope that helps! Happy writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are you anxious to read this or just eager?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":508,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions\/508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}