 What's the difference between embarrassed and ashamed from espressoenglish.net? These two words are very similar, but they're actually used in different situations. If you are embarrassed, it means you feel uncomfortable because other people might think you are strange. For example, you would be embarrassed if you were at work and you discover after lunch that you have spinach stuck in your teeth. It means that other people have seen you with dirty teeth. You would also be embarrassed if you call someone by the wrong name. It's socially uncomfortable, so you would feel embarrassed. Another situation might be if you go to a party and you wear some casual clothes like jeans and a t-shirt, but everyone else at the party has dressed up. They are wearing fancy, nice clothes. You might feel embarrassed that you are not dressed appropriately. Again, you feel uncomfortable because of the social situation. Now, if you feel ashamed, that means you did something bad or wrong, often morally wrong, and now you regret it or feel guilty about it. Some situations in which you might feel ashamed are if you yelled at your kids for no reason and later, after your anger has cooled off, you feel ashamed of yelling at your kids because it was wrong to do so. So now you feel bad about your behavior. Another example would be if you got drunk with alcohol and behaved badly at a party. Maybe you broke something or you insulted some of the guests bad behavior. So later you feel ashamed. You feel bad about what you did wrong. You might also feel ashamed if you lied to your boyfriend or girlfriend. That's morally wrong and later you would feel ashamed. You would feel bad that you lied. Let's put it into practice. Leave a comment on this video and describe a time when you were embarrassed. Again, you felt uncomfortable because of a social situation where other people might think you are strange. And then describe a time when you were ashamed, meaning you did something bad, you did something wrong, and later you felt bad about it. If you'd like to learn the difference between a lot more confusing words, check out my ebook 600 Plus Confusing English Words Explained. I'll teach you over 600 words that English learners often make mistakes with. Click on the link in the video or in the description for more information and a free sample lesson from this book.