Learn English Vocabulary: TOUCH or FEEL?

The words 'touch' and 'feel' both seem to mean the same thing, so how do you know which one to use? While they are similar words, we use them differently. If you want to use them correctly, you need to know the difference between them. In this English vocabulary lesson, I'll define 'touch' and 'feel', and show you example sentences where each is used. By the end of the lesson you'll know when to use each word depending on the context.
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TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill from engVid, and today we have a lesson about two verbs: "to touch" and "to feel", and we're going to look at how they are used. They... Because they mean something very similar, it's to do with the same sort of action of touching or feeling, it's very easy to get them confused. So sometimes you use "touch", other times you use "feel". So, I'm going to show a few examples just to illustrate how they are used.

Okay, so let's first have a look at the verb "to touch", and it's an active verb. It's something you actively do, physically. If you just touch... Touch something like that, it can be quite a light, brief, a short time, touching. It's not something that you hold on to. It's short, usually, touch. Or if you just touch someone on the arm to get their attention or on the shoulder. Okay.

So, here's the first example, then: "I touched the kettle to see if it was still hot." And if you're not sure what a kettle is, you boil water in the kettle to make a cup of tea or coffee, so you boil the water in an electric kettle or on the gas. So: "I touched"-past tense-"the kettle to see if it was still hot". So, "touched". So, with something that might be very hot, you don't want to hold your hand on it for too long because you could burn your hand, so you just touched it lightly like that. So it's a short, quick touch to see if it's hot. Okay?

And second example: "If you touch the cat, she might scratch you!" So it's a warning. "To scratch", if the cat doesn't like to be touched... Some cats don't like people to touch them, especially if they're total strangers. Cats are very particular, I think. So if you touch the cat, be careful, she might scratch you with the sharp claws. So, again, if you were going to just stroke the cat like that and: "No, don't stroke the cat. She doesn't like it." So: "If you touch the cat, she might scratch you! Be careful." Okay? So it's a sort of light, short time of contact. Okay.

So moving on to "feel", this is also quite an active verb. For example, it's still making contact like this. For example, this material, like on a blouse or a shirt: "This material is so silky"-kind of silk-"just feel it!" Oo, just feel. Oh, lovely. Soft and smooth. Isn't that nice? So with "feel" you sort of... It sort of suggests a longer time that you're in contact with what it is that you're feeling. Okay, so: "Just feel it", like that.

And another example: "I'm feeling around in the dark." So we're adding a preposition here. "To feel around in the dark". For example, if you're sleeping in a friend's house and you've never been there before, you wake up in the middle of the night, you know that you're not in your own home, it's completely dark and you want to put the light on for some reason, to see the time or whatever. So, you get out of bed and you're not quite sure... You want to put the light on, you're not quite sure where it is, so you're doing this in the dark, feeling around for the wall, trying to find the switch on the wall or find a lamp, turn on the lamp. You don't know the room, so you're having to feel around. So it's about stretching out your hand, making contact with things to find your way to where you're trying to get. So: "I'm feeling around in the dark."

And then for people who shave... I luckily don't have to shave. Some women do, apparently. But I shouldn't joke about that because it's not funny. If you shaved you might: "Feel your face after shaving", to see if it's rough or smooth. Okay? To see if you... It's a good razor, a good sharp, razor that you've used. Or an electric razor that goes: "Mmmm", like that sort of sound. So you feel your face after shaving to see if it's nice and smooth. So, again, making contact and for quite a long time. Not just touching. Touching would be like that. But feeling is more like that. Okay.

Okay, so that's "touch" and "feel". And there's one other use of the verb "to feel", a slightly different way of using it in a kind of more general way to do with how you feel inside yourself, emotionally or in your head, how you're thinking. Or physically, it can be physically as well. So if you walk into a room and you say: "It feels cold in here!" Okay? Just the physical sensation is: "Oo, it's cold. We need to put some heating on." So that's the physical feeling that you're sort of receiving a signal that the temperature is low.