How to Describe Being Sick in English!
So it's Sunday morning, and I'm a little bit worried
that I might be coming down with something. In English,
when you say that you are coming down with something,
it means that you're not sick yet, but you're pretty
sure you're going to get sick.
I have a little bit of a tickle in my throat.
You can probably hear it in my voice.
I sound a little bit gravelly, so I
don't feel sick right now, but I'm pretty
sure I'm coming down with something.
And that makes sense because something
was going around at work.
In English, when you say something's going around,
when you're talking about sickness, you mean that
other people have also been sick.
So I think I might have to call in sick tomorrow.
Tomorrow's Monday.
I have a funny feeling if things get worse, if my symptoms
get worse, I might have to call in sick and then maybe
take a day off and fight off whatever I have.
So in this English lesson, I'll teach you a
few more ways to describe being sick in English.
So let's talk a little bit about symptoms.
Symptoms are how you describe how you're feeling.
When we talk about the throat, we often
say that we have a sore throat.
I don't have a sore throat right now, but
I have a bit of a tickle in my
throat, like, it feels just a little bit sore.
But I do know it's a little
bit hard to swallow as well.
When you drink water or eat food, you swallow,
and it's a little bit hard for me to
swallow right now, which makes me think that by
tomorrow I will have a sore throat.
I will certainly sound different.
I might even lose my voice tomorrow. Who knows?
We'll have to see.
Also, when you describe symptoms,
you might have a cough.
Right now, I don't really have a cough.
That's not one of the symptoms I have.
But I have been coughing just a little bit every
once in a while, so certainly coughing is another symptom.
And then there's, of course, fever.
I do think I might have a bit of a fever.
A fever is when your body temperature
is a few degrees higher than normal,
one or two degrees higher than normal.
And fevers are kind of funny because
yesterday, last night, it was really warm
in our house, but I felt chilly.
That is one sign of a fever.
Even though your body temperature is higher, you
can sometimes feel a little bit chilly.
And then also I had muscle aches,
which can be another sign of fever.
So let's talk a little bit about
symptoms of the nose and lungs.
Sometimes you are congested.
I'm a little bit congested right now.
I have a little bit of snot in my nose,
and when I breathe, I wheeze a little bit.
When you wheeze, it means you can hear yourself breathing
because you have a bit of fluid in your lungs.
When your nose is stuffed up, it
means that it's full of snot.
And sometimes you need to blow your
nose to get the snot out.
It's not a pleasant thing to have to do.
And sometimes you have a runny nose.
That means that on its own, the snot drips out and you have
to wipe your nose every so often to get rid of it.
And then sometimes when you have a
stuffed up nose, you will sneeze.
You will sneeze a lot.
A little different than coughing.
Coughing is through the mouth,
sneezing is through the nose.
And then also you might have the sniffles.
When you have the sniffles, sorry to make that sound.
It's kind of a gross sound.
But when you have the sniffles, it means your nose is
running a little bit and you breathe in quickly to kind
of, I guess bring the snot back into your nose.
That's kind of gross.
Anyways, sometimes when you're not feeling well, you
have congestion, you wheeze a little bit
when you breathe, and your nose is a
little bit stuffed up. One of your symptoms
might simply be that you have a headache.
Your head just hurts.
That's a pretty common thing to have,
especially if you already have a fever.
So hopefully you can take some
medicine to get rid of that.
Maybe some acetaminophen or some ibuprofen.
I'm not sure what name brand they go by in
your country, but here we call it Tylenol and Advil.
Those are the two most common ones.
So I'm kind of happy because
I don't have an upset stomach.
When you say that you have an upset stomach, or
when you say that your stomach is upset, it means
that it hurts and you might throw up or you
might vomit, or worse yet, you might have diarrhea.
That's when you go to the bathroom a lot.
You end up sitting on the toilet a lot.
I think you can imagine what's happening there.
So when I get sick, if I have a cold
or if I have a headache, or if I have
a flu or a fever, I can handle that.
That's okay with me.
But when I have an upset stomach, when I have
to throw up or when I have diarrhea, I hate
that. That is my least favorite way of being sick.
Not that anyone actually likes being sick,
but certainly I would rather have a
stuffed up nose than an upset stomach.
Well, hey, hopefully whatever I have isn't too bad, and
hopefully I'm back on my feet as soon as possible.
Hopefully, I'm feeling 100% as soon as possible.
I certainly don't feel 100% now, and I have
this little sneaky suspicion that this might get worse,
so I'll actually post in the comments how I'm
feeling when I post this video.
Anyways, thanks for watching this English lesson about
how to describe your symptoms when you're sick.
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