Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
personal matters

personal matters

32 2.8
Private things about someone's life, like family or health issues
  • noun
translation icon : asuntos personales
  • "We haven't had any time for personal matters," Jessica said.
  • such personal matters

So and their own personal matters before the business.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • The letter thanks Mr. Sutton for his recent correspondence and discusses personal matters.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Listen, Jefferson, if you're going to talk about personal matters, then let's go someplace private.

  • Mother, we come with very important news of a highly personal matter.

    Victoria & Abdul (2017)

  • This is a personal matter.

    A Patch of Blue (1965)

  • Why did he always have to get caught in these personal matters?

    Fiction book (1993)

  • The rabbi had been asked to help someone in his community with a personal matter.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • The letters cover many subjects: poetry, book collecting, music, travel, nature, and sometimes personal matters.

    Academic text (2013)

  • Usually people ask me about philosophy, but also about, you know, personal matters about music, about the city that I live in and other things as well.

  • I'd like permission to speak with Sergeant George Lake about a personal matter.

  • His staff said the donation was a personal matter and declined to talk about it further.

Synonyms

personal business
vspersonal matters
16 2.8

Private matters that concern only you

is broader, covering private life topics beyond issues only about oneself
affairs
vspersonal matters
1 3.0

Personal or private matters like money, papers and responsibilities

focuses on private life topics rather than duties or formal responsibilities

Antonyms

public concern
5 3.2

A matter that affects many people in a community

How Private

personal matters
32 2.8
private
∞ 2.2

Surface Forms

personal matters plural

Morphology

personal + matter

The meaning 'subjects or concerns relating to an individual's private life' is directly and compositionally derived from 'personal' (relating to a particular person's private life) + 'matters' (subjects or issues). This adjective+noun combination follows a common, cross-linguistic pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Personal matters comes from the idea of things that belong to a person: personal (belonging to you) and matters (things or issues). These are private concerns someone keeps to themselves, so the phrase means 'private life' or 'affairs'.