Ashamed of means feeling shame about something: I'm ashamed of what I said. People use it for guilt over something bad that they or someone close to them did, or for a shortcoming of their own. After of, use a noun, a pronoun or an -ing form.
Want to remember ashamed of?
Write a sentence — we'll show the mistakes right away and suggest how to say it more naturally.
The check is taking longer than usual. Your feedback will appear here automatically.
be ashamed of + noun/-ing; be ashamed of yourself; ashamed to + verb
- He was ashamed of shouting at his little sister and apologised the next morning.
- I'm a bit ashamed of how little I know about my country's history.
- There's nothing to be ashamed of in asking for help at work.
What changed
First versionI'm ashamed for my behaviour at the party last night.
RevisionI'm ashamed of my behaviour at the party last night.
It's easy to reach for for, as in sorry for or apologise for. But in English, what you're ashamed of is introduced with of: ashamed of my behaviour. Only the preposition was changed.
Ashamed is shame about having done something wrong. If you simply feel awkward, for example because you got a new colleague's name wrong, say embarrassed: I was so embarrassed when I called my boss by the wrong name. Ashamed would sound far too heavy here.
Your turn
You should be ashamed ___ yourself for being so rude to the waiter.
Show the answer
of — You should be ashamed of yourself is a set way of telling someone they've behaved badly. Being ashamed of yourself only works with of. For is already taken in this sentence by the reason, for being so rude, and ashamed for yourself isn't used in English.
Think of something you did that you felt ashamed of. Say what you did and how you put things right afterwards.
I was ashamed of forgetting my best friend's birthday, so I took her out for dinner the next weekend.
Learn to use new words without mistakes
Write phrases with the words you are learning. LetsWords shows mistakes in usage and grammar, suggests corrections and explains them, and review helps the words stick.