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SICKNESS vocabulary!

This week we’re doing Sickness vocabulary.

Recently, I got sick. Now did I have a cold? Or did I have the flu? Both put you in bed and out of work for a few days, maybe a week. But, there is a difference. With a cold, usually it’s a few days, it hits you fast and it leaves in a few days. The flu however, it’s the longer one, it’s the more serious one. Usually it’s like a week, where you’re in bed, you’re sweating, you have a fever, everything’s terrible. And you also might hear the expression, “man flu”. What’s “man flu”? This comes from the stereotype that men handle colds much worse than women do. We complain a lot more, we exaggerate the symptoms a lot more. Usually, I don’t like to promote stereotypes but in this case, this is me when I have a cold. Goodbye mother, you’ve always been good to me. Tell everyone I love them. I’m dying now. So, if you know a guy who’s like this, exaggerate a cold, you can say: You’ve just got man flu. Just have some water and sleep, you’ll be fine.

And these are some ways you can say, I’m sick: so two very common ways to say I’m sick are, I’m sick or I’m ill. Both mean you have a cold, the flu, whatever. But there is a very British way of saying that and that’s I’m poorly. Americans, Canadians, probably Australians too, they don’t use, I’m poorly. British people, we do. Other expressions are: I’m a little bit under the weather. That just means, it’s normal. You have a cold, you have the flu, whatever.

But if you want to be really dramatic about it, and who doesn’t want to do that? You can say these: I’m sick as a dog, I feel like death warmed up, mate I feel like shit. Or if you want to be super dramatic: I’m at death’s door. When you’re very sick, say that one, I’m at death’s door. So when I’m ill and I don’t know whether it’s because I was ill recently or maybe I’m just fat now. My face does this, in that situation, you say my face is puffy. So not only when you’re sick but if you wake up too early and your face is like, like a little chubby hamster, you can say, my face is puffy. Puffy is the adjective to mean, like a little fat hamster.

A puffy face is a symptom, a sign of being ill. What are some other symptoms? When your nose is doing this thing, with green stuff. You would say: my nose is runny or I have a runny nose. And if you have a runny nose, probably you can’t breathe either. In that case you say: my nose is blocked or stuffy or bummed up. Those are quite neutral expressions, they’re not formal expressions. A formal expression is congested, my nose is very congested. You don’t say that to friends. You would say that to your doctor or the pharmacist. Hey pharmacist I need some medicine. What medicine do you need? I don’t know, my nose is congested. I have congestion.

So, pronunciation, repeat these with me. My nose is runny. My nose is blocked. My nose is stuffy. For this one, you, commonly you wouldn’t say my nose is bunged up. You would say, I’m all bunged up. Hello, why do you sound weird? I’m all bummed up. That’s how we would say it usually. And the last one, congested.

But remember you can say: I have a runny nose, I have a blocked nose, I have a stuffy nose, I have a bunged up nose; Again, not very common., I’m all bunged up. Also, a really common mistake, I hear from, I think it’s, maybe only Spanish. But in Spanish you say: I have mucus, which in English sounds so gross. Do you have a cold? Yes, I have mucus. So, yes you do have mucus but, don’t say it in English. It sounds really gross. Say one of these instead, other things which happen with your nose.

Maybe, if you chew, that is called a sneeze. And when someone sneezes, it’s very common for the other person to say: bless you or god bless you. Now, this is like Christmas in England. It really doesn’t have anything to do with religion. It’s just a polite thing to say when someone sneezes. And the pronunciation is like this: not bless you, you connect the words with a “sh” sound. Bless you, bless you. Say it with me, bless you or god bless you.

Also about the mucous thing, yes, this is called mucous but that is what you say to your doctor or your pharmacist. But, informally we call it, snot. It sounds gross and it is gross but the word is, snot, informally. So, if you’re with other people and you need to get rid of this, Hmm I’m not gonna actually do it now cuz that’s gross, that sound was sexy though. You can say, I need to blow my nose.

Moving down from the nose, takes us to the throat. I know this is a difficult word to pronounce so let’s practice, throat, throat. First get the “th” sound then bring your tongue down and back for the throat, throat, then faster, throat, throat. So, if your throat is red and it really hurts to swallow or eat food, you have a sore throat. Your throat is sore. Sore just means it hurts. And often with a sore throat, you might have a, a cough. If you have a sore throat and a cough, probably your voice, sound like this. And if your voice sounds like this, you say: my voice is hoarse. Yes, the same pronunciation as horse. Hoarse, your voice is hoarse. Same pronunciation, different spelling.

If your head is like boom-boom-boom, you say: I’ve got a headache, headache. The pronunciation mistake I hear with this, is headache. It’s not that, it’s headache. Imagine it’s like a “k”, headache. Now, not only your head but, maybe all over your body. If it hurts just everywhere then you would say: I feel achy. Again this just means, it hurts everywhere, in your muscles joints, maybe, everywhere hurts.

If you feel like this, you just want to sleep all the time. In this case you feel, tired. Be careful of the pronunciation, it’s not tie-red, no, it’s tired, tired. Say it with me, tired. Usually from illness or stress, you work too much, it’s common to say: I feel rundown. I feel very rundown. And the more formal version, you would say to your doctor: I feel fatigued. These are not informal, they’re all fine but this one is the medical term for this.

Moving further down the body now. If the problem is in, this area, your tummy or your stomach, you would say: I’ve got a tummy ache or I’ve got a stomachache. Now tummy ache is what kids say or if you really want sympathy, you might say: I’ve got a tummy ache, make me some soup. But, as adults we say: I’ve got a stomachache. Pronunciation is kind of easy, stomachache, stomachache. I’ve got a stomachache. A stomachache might lead to, this is a fart. Fart is a verb, it’s also a noun. This is a fart and he just farted. It’s a regular verb. If you’re poo is purple, definitely go see a doctor. But if you have a stomachache and your poo is like water, this is called: I’ve got diarrhea. There are two spellings for this, that’s the American one, that’s the English one. But it doesn’t really matter. Everyone uses this one, anyway. It’s fine. When was the last time you had diarrhea? Let me know in the comments.

The final symptoms involve this, your temperature is very, very high, you’re in bed and water is coming out of you, from everywhere. First of all, the water that’s coming out of your head, is called sweat. That’s a verb and a noun. You can say this like: I’m sweaty. That’s an adjective. I’m really sweaty. Use it like a verb: I’m sweating so much. And to talk about this, the high temperature, you’d say: I’ve got a fever. I’ve got a fever. I’m sweaty, I’m gross. If your friend is ill, you want to ask: do you have medicine? Are you eating medicine? That’s not the question to ask. We don’t say, to eat a pill or to eat medicine. We say to take medicine, to take a pill. So, the question should be: Ah, you’re ill, that sucks. Are you taking anything? And your answer should be: yeah, I’m taking aspirin. Very simple, I’m taking, name of medicine. I’m taking ibuprofen. I’m taking paracetamol. I’m taking aspirin. If you have a medicine which lasts, like a week, you have to take one pill every day, you would say: I’m on, name of medicine. For example: I’m on antibiotics. Let me know your experiences with colds or the flu in the comments below. Tell me about your symptoms. Don’t be afraid to be disgusting.