envy & jealousy, which is good word to describe people's feeling.

[Bill.Gao]

Hi, I got a little confused between the word envy & jealousy. They have similiar meaning to describe people's feeling about other's good condition. But which one is better to describe people's feeling when they only appreciate others.

 

[TheParser]

Hi, I got a little confused between the word envy & jealousy. They have similiar meaning to describe people's feeling about other's good condition. But which one is better to describe people's feeling when they only appreciate others.

NOT A TEACHER

(1) I think that these two words confuse us native speakers, too.

(2) I think that "envy" refers to two people:

You earn $1,000,000 a day. I envy you.

(3) I think that "jealousy" involves at least three people:

You love X. You do not love me. So I am jealous of X (because X

receives your love instead of my receiving your love).

 

[macanudo]

You can say - I'm envious. For example,

A: I just got a new iPod touch 200gb
B: I'm so envious!

Envious usually has the better meaning. Jealousy is more of a secret hate for someone because they have something you have. These two words sometimes have the same meaning for some people though.

EDIT: envy is more of a personal feeling. You feel unhappy or discontent because of someone else's success or advantage. Jealous means you hate the person that has the success or the advantage. So, envy is more of a personal feeling whereas jealousy is hatred against a rival or opponent.