Jealousy & Envy Recently my friend asked me about the difference between "jealous" and "envious". I thought it was a great question so I'm sharing my answer. I'm not a real English teacher, it's just one native speaker's opinion. These two words are mostly synonymous, but it depends on who you ask. Some would say that envy involves two people, someone wanting what another has. They would also say that jealousy involves three people, fearing that someone will take something you have with another person (such as a relationship). I, however, only see this difference when talking about romance. In most other topics I can think of the words seem to be synonymous. The only difference is that being jealous often has a slightly more negative tone than envious. For example, these two sentences have generally the same meaning: 1: 'I'm jealous of his Chinese ability.' 2: 'I'm envious of his Chinese ability.' Changing from jealous to envious does not affect this sentence. However, if we look at these two sentences: 3: 'She was a jealous wife' 4: 'She was an envious wife' Without more context, changing from jealous to envious significantly changes the meaning. Sentence 3 could be saying that the wife was suspicious of her husband, and frightened that their relationship would be stolen away by another. Sentence 4 could be saying that the wife often wanted abilities or possessions that others had.