- When things go wrong, you are sad whereas when things go right as you wish, you are happy. When you get the expected promotion, you are happy; if you don't, you feel sad. Here you cannot use joyful. Happy is connected with expected one but joyful is with unexpected moments.
- When you miss something or somebody, you are sad. When you find them again, you are happy. When you lose in business or in game, you are sad. When you gain in business or win in game, you are happy. Here you don't use joyful.
- When you want to say, how you felt or how you would feel in a particular period of time, you use happy. e.g. happy childhood days, happy school days, happy marriage and the like. But joyful is connected with moments and occasions. When you go on tour, you catch the joyful moments. Your college annual day is a special occasion when you clap and dance. Here you are joyful that shows higher level of happiness.
- Happiness is feeling good or feeling better about something but joyfulness is being moved in heart, feeling excited, especially as a response to something. Songs of the bird, gentle kiss of the wind and lovely touch of the buds on your cheeks can make you joyful at that moment. They don't just make you happy.
- But both happy and joyful are just two different feelings of the soul, varying in degree. Are you happy now? Or joyful?
