Feelings and emotions are often spoken of as being one and the same and it is easy to get them mixed up and confused. In fact, feeling and emotion are essentially different in neuroscience.
根據大腦權威專家 Antonio Damasio 對 emotions 情感和 feelings 感覺兩者本質的分辨：”The essence of emotion and the essence of feeling are different. The world of emotions is largely one of actions carried out in our bodies such as facial expressions and bodily postures. Feelings of emotion are composite perceptions [知覺的合成物] of what happens in our body and mind when we are emoting [表露感情]”. 達瑪西奧博士說：Emotion 情感，就其本質來講，是大腦神經通路所覺察到的身體狀態，和思想狀態發生的一组變化，而 feelings 感覺，是對這些變化的經歷。
Feelings 和 emotions 對於一般英語學習者，並不需要那麼複雜，我們只要擴充相關的字彙，留心其正確和自然的用法，那便足夠了。
Feeling
Feeling，字義解釋是 an awareness by your body of something in it or on it，相等於 sensation 或 consciousness。例如：feelings of joy/sorrow/anger/love。
Feelings 有 pleasant 愉快的和 unpleasant 不快的兩大分野：You feel happy 的常用詞匯有：ecstatic/cheerful/delighted/contented。You feel unhappy 的常用詞匯有：miserable/disappointed/sick and tired/fed up/depressed/frustrated。
Generally, when you are excited 興奮, you feel inspired/enthusiastic/thrilled. When you are extremely angry 極怒, you feel furious/livid/seething. When you are anxious 焦慮, you feel very nervous/apprehensive/worried/upset.
但請留意用法：you can use really, extremely, and very with most of the above adjectives, though usually not with extreme adjectives 本身己經非常強烈的感情字眼，e.g. ecstatic, thrilled, livid, seething, furious。
Emotion
Emotion 情感，根據心理學的定義，比較複雜，既表現為肉體上強烈的欲望，也表現為精神上緊張的情緒。Emotion 的一般解釋，簡單得多，等於 a strong feeling 或 passion such as love, hate, joy, fear, anger, grief，愛、恨、樂、懼、怒、悲，都是情感的例子，亦即是 the part of a person’s character that consists of feelings。
在不同情況下，你用激情、情緒來繙譯 emotion 這個字均可。Mixed emotions 指複雜混合的情緒，相等於 mixed feelings about doing something，即是 I am not sure if I want to do this or not。
Emotional 情感的 = having strong feelings and often showing excessive emotion，往往表示強烈的感情：例如 an emotional young man 指 a passionate, sensitive, sentimental guy 易動感情的年青人。
He delivers a very emotional speech 他發表一篇動人心弦的演說。Capital punishment and abortion are emotional issues，死刑和墮胎，都是容易引起激烈爭論的議題（issues that cause people to feel strong emotions）。An emotional rollercoaster 可以是感情過山車那樣剌激。
描述 emotional experience 的慣用語有：get emotional/on top of the world/at the end of your tether/cry your eyes out/go off your deep end/scream your head off/down in the dumps/at your wits’ end/sob your heart out/go to pieces 等。
Emotive means arousing emotion or causing people to feel strong emotions, as opposed to reason，通常有別於理智，表達激動人心、富感染力等意思。例如：emotive language 有感染力的語言，a highly emotive book 激動人心的作品，an emotive issue 富爭議性的議題（causing strong emotions for or against something）。嚴格區分：Emotional = affected by emotion, showing strong emotion；Emotive = arousing emotion。
Mood
Mood 多指心情、心境、情緒，the state of the feelings at a particular time。A moody person is emotional 情緒化的人脾氣壞，容易鬧情緒：she is in one of her moods。You are moody means you often change and become angry or unhappy for no obvious reason 喜怒無常。
Moody 和 sensitive 類似，但後者有兩個意思：a positive meaning：able to understand people’s feelings and problems 善解人意，體恤別人；a more negative meaning：easily upset or offended, e.g. she is sensitive about her weight or appearance 容易生氣，神經過敏。
心情大好是 in a good mood；a mood of optimism，可以說 in high spirits/full of the joys of spring/on top of the world。情緒低落是 in a bad mood：You feel angry or unhappy at a particular time 悶悶不樂；You are in a foul mood of despair。脾氣暴躁可以說：like a bear with a sore head 急性子。You get up on the wrong side of the bed 一起床就無緣無故地情緒不佳。
最後，情緒和動詞一起搭配，可以考慮：your mood changes。Things depend on your mood/affect your mood/lift your mood，環境會影響心情，mood swings。形容詞搭配情緒，可以選擇：defiant 反抗的/festive 喜氣洋洋的/upbeat 樂觀的/lazy 懶洋洋的不同心情。
本專欄逢周二、五刊登
