“I kind of feel obligated to go, you know?”
You and family have been invited to someone's house for their daughter's birthday party. You don't really want to go because it's a long drive and you have other things you'd rather do that day. But you feel like you have to go because they invited you. You're discussing it with your husband and say this.
I kind of feel obligated to go, you know?
Want Video and Sound? Follow us on YouTube
kind of (do something)
"Kind of" means "a little" or "somewhat". All of these words are most commonly used before an adjective:
I feel kind of obligated to go.
You look a little sick. Are you OK?
It's somewhat smaller than I thought it would be.
But only "kind of" sounds right before a verb, and only in casual conversation:
I kind of wanted to go with them.
We want to move, but we're kind of waiting for him to finish school.
People sometimes pronounce "kind of" in a way that sounds like "kinda".
you know?
Some English speakers, especially younger ones, use "you know?" on the end of their sentences. There's not a lot of meaning to it, but people use it when they want the listener to agree with the feeling or emotion of what they're saying. For example:
In this example, someone doesn't want to go to a party, but she feels like she has to. She wants the listener to agree with that feeling, so she says "you know?" at the end of the sentence. Another example:
There are some people who over-use "you know" and put it in almost half of their sentences. It doesn't sound very intelligent when you do this.
When someone who's speaking to you says "you know?", it's good to nod your head or say something like "Yeah."
feel obligated to (do something)
"Feeling obligated" to do something means that you feel like you have to do it. You're afraid that it would be rude not to do it.
People usually feel obligated to do things for social reasons, like because a friend or neighbor asked them to do it. For instance, if someone gives you a gift, you might "feel obligated" to give them a gift back in return. We usually talk about "feeling obligated" to do things that we don't want to do.
You can use this phrase in a sentence like this:
I feel obligated to help because, you know, he helped us out a couple of months ago.
I don't really want to go, but I feel kind of obligated.
You can also tell someone not to feel obligated to do something:
Don't feel obligated to come if you're too busy.