If you're feeling sick, do you know how to express that in English?
On today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'll be teaching you how to talk about sickness in English.
Not only will I be teaching you slang, phrasal verbs and idioms like fight off, catch a bug, puke and queasy, but in this special episode, I'll also be teaching you some grammar too.
I'm excited.
Let's do this.
Hey there, welcome to the Real Life English with Gabby podcast.
I'm your host, Gabby, your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City.
My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs, idioms and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations.
Are you ready to improve your English skills?
Let's jump right in.
Hi there, welcome.
I'm so glad that you're here listening to this awesome episode.
I'm so ready to teach you some English.
I've been wanting to create this episode for a while now.
This is one of my favorite topics to teach in English.
I've done similar videos on my YouTube channel and on Instagram and TikTok, but nothing that's focused on real life English like this episode.
Today's episode is actually going to include some grammar.
So I actually love grammar.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
So I'm glad to bring it to the podcast.
And if you like it, maybe I'll do a little more in the future.
Before we get into the vocabulary section of this episode, I want to focus on popular grammar mistakes that I hear all the time regarding sickness.
All of my former or current students who are listening to this are going to laugh, because I talk about this all the time.
This is the number one mistake that I hear regarding sickness in English.
So ladies and gentlemen, please.
If you're sick, do not say, I feel bad.
Oftentimes my students will send me a message that says Gabby, I'm going to miss class today because I feel bad.
Students use the expression, I feel bad incorrectly.
So let's fix this problem right here, right now.
I feel bad does not mean I feel sick.
What most students do not know is that feel bad is used to express an emotional state.
To feel bad For someone means to feel sorry for them or to feel sympathy for them because of a situation that they're experiencing.
Here's an example.
I feel bad for my cousin because her dog died yesterday.
In this example, I feel sorry, I feel sympathy for my cousin because she's going through a difficult situation.
I know that this is confusing because in many languages, the word bad is used to describe sickness.
However, in English, this is not correct.
Okay, now we cleared that up.
You know saying I feel bad is wrong.
So how do you correctly talk about being sick in English?
Let's get to that right now.
I'm going to give you four options on how to correctly talk about sickness.
So firstly... is to use to be plus sick.
This is the easiest one.
Hey teacher, I'm sick.
My brother won't be in class today.
He's sick.
Did you hear?
The whole class is sick.
Again, to be plus sick.
Option number two is to use the word feel.
There are a few options.
You can use the word feel with sick, like I feel sick.
I'm feeling sick.
I need to go home.
And then you can also use the negative form of feel and use it with well, good, or great.
I don't feel well.
I don't feel so good.
I don't feel so great.
Now, it's kind of strange because we use good and well, but we don't use bad.
So I understand English is very confusing and sometimes does not make sense.
All right, so we've got option number one, I'm sick.
Option number two, I feel sick.
Option number three is actually using idioms.
One idiom that you can use is to feel under the weather.
So you can send a message to your boss and say, I won't be in today.
I'm feeling under the weather.
You can also say, I'm coming down with something or I think I'm coming down with something.
We're going to talk about this more later because it's in the story that I'm going to read you.
Okay, the last option, option number four, is just to say what you're sick with using the word have.
So if you send your boss or your teacher an email, you can say I'm going to be out today because I have the flu.
I have a bad cold.
I have a migraine.
Now, this is something that you only use if you want to be specific.
Sometimes it's okay to just generally say that you're sick.
But if you want to be specific and say exactly what you have, you're going to use the word have plus the sickness.
Okay, let me sum these up for you.
Hey professor, I'm sick.
I'm going to miss class today.
Hey teacher, I'm feeling really sick so I won't be in class.
Hey manager, or you know if your manager's name is Tom.
Hey Tom, just letting you know that I need to stay home today because I'm coming down with something or I'm feeling under the weather.
Hey boss, just want you to know that I have COVID and I'm going to be out the rest of the week.
Before we move on, I just want to get into a small detail here for those of you who work with Americans or you are living in the USA and you don't really know American culture.
You never have to go into detail in American culture.
See, based on the laws, we have something called HIPAA and it's a protection law to protect our privacy.
So if I have a sickness, I don't have to tell my boss.
Now typically, if it's something contagious, like the flu or a stomach virus or COVID, we are supposed to inform our managers.
However, You never have to give details.
Now, sometimes if it's a long period, your job will ask you for a doctor's note.
But if you're going to be out for one or two days, do not feel pressured to give details.
I'll give some examples.
I've had students be very detailed about what's wrong with them.
And I always say, no, that's not necessary.
In English, we have an expression.
This is one of your slang words for today.
And it's TMI.
Too much information.
This is when someone tells us something that we don't want to know.
For example, I once had a male student tell me that he couldn't come to class because he had very bad diarrhea.
And actually I've had a lot of students tell me very private details about their sicknesses that I think they thought I had to know but I didn't.
So I just want to say, in American culture...
Do not give away TMI, too much information.
Let's say you have something that's kind of embarrassing, like you do have diarrhea.
You can just say I have a stomach bug, or you know something like that.
Or for women who have their monthly period.
You can just say I'm not feeling well, I'm having cramps or something like that, but you don't even really need to say that.
So don't ever feel like you have to be embarrassed by giving details out.
Okay, one more thing.
Quickly, I want to talk about sick versus ill.
This is a big difference between American English and British English.
Sometimes my students will send me a message and say, Gabby, I'm ill.
And I see them and I'm like, oh my gosh, they're ill.
What is going on?
Are you okay?
Because in American English, ill is typically used for serious long-term illnesses like cancer, heart disease, something that requires hospitalization, staying in the hospital, getting long-term treatment.
Just keep in mind if you tell an American person that you're ill, they're going to think that what you have is very serious.
Okay, now that we're done talking about the grammar side of talking about sickness, let's talk vocabulary.
There's so much vocabulary with this topic.
And at the end of the episode I'm going to briefly talk about some symptoms, and So here are the 15 words and expressions that I'm going to teach you in this episode.
Catch a bug.
Feel off.
Pick something up.
Come down with something.
Throw up or puke.
To puke my guts out.
To break out in.
Swell up, pass out, worn out.
Stay off your feet laid up in bed, down for the count.
Fight off, get over.
And lastly, the road to recovery.
There's a lot more vocabulary that you're going to learn, but these are the focused words that I'm going to teach you in the story.
Before I read you the story, I just want you to know that there is going to be a study guide that goes along with this episode.
The study guide is going to have the full transcript.
It's going to have the definitions, new examples, and practice activities.
To get the study guide just go to the show notes and click on the link.
If you are already on my email list, you don't need to sign up, because you're going to get it automatically in your email.
In fact you should have already gotten it so go check your email.
Also, there's a new feature if you listen to this on Apple Podcasts, where you can actually look at the transcript while the episode is going on.
So in your Apple app, you can click on the transcript button and it should show it to you.
All right, so let's get into the story.
Gloria was a hardworking nurse at her local hospital and she was known for her dedication and compassion.
For the past week, the hospital had been full of patients that caught a really serious bug.
The patients were very sick and were in bed for four to five days while on the road to recovery.
Up until that point, Gloria hadn't caught the bug, but unfortunately, it finally caught her.
It all began when Gloria started to feel off during her shift.
At first, she thought it was just fatigue from her long work hours.
But then she started to wonder if she had picked something up from a patient.
Her body started to feel hot, and it was then that she realized she was coming down with something.
She began to feel weaker and weaker as the hours passed.
That evening, while she was checking on a patient, Gloria suddenly felt like she was going to throw up.
Rushing to the nearest restroom, she puked her guts out, leaving her feeling drained and dizzy.
She cleaned herself up and, instead of going back to being with patients, she decided to do some administrative work, but her condition continued to get worse.
She wanted to go home, but the hospital was understaffed and they needed everyone because of all the sick patients.
As the night went on, Gloria's symptoms got worse.
She began to break out in a cold sweat and her body started to swell up with fever.
Then she suddenly passed out on the floor.
The next thing Gloria knew, she woke up in a hospital bed, feeling worn out and exhausted.
The doctor informed her that she had caught the same bug as the patients and would need to stay off her feet for a while to recover.
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For three days, Gloria was laid up in bed as her body was trying to fight off this bug.
She was completely down for the count.
At the hospital they gave her soup, a lot of fluids and told her to rest as she slowly began to get through the worst of it.
She went back to work after six days.
However, it took her more than two weeks to truly get over the virus and feel normal again.
This time around, the one who normally cares for others was able to be cared for herself.
There is a lot of vocabulary to unpack here, so let's talk about it.
First, we talk about patients who caught a bug.
So a bug in English usually means a virus.
We say stomach bug for a stomach virus.
And so catch a bug is to get some kind of illness or infection, that typically something that is contagious, meaning that it can go from person to person.
We often use catch a bug for a cold, flu, anything like that.
Next, we have the expression to feel off.
Feeling off is when you experience this feeling or sense of something not being right with your health.
So you feel like you are getting sick, like you are unwell.
Sometimes you can't figure out specific symptoms, but like your body just feels different and you know that you're getting sick.
Then we talk about how she says she picked something up from patients.
This is when you get some kind of sickness.
Usually it's an infection or illness from someone else.
So if my husband is sick or my kids are sick and then I get sick from them, I'll say I picked something up from them.
Or maybe if I go to a very crowded place and the next day I feel sick, I say oh, I think I picked something up.
I'm sure you're thinking that pick up has a lot of different definitions and it does like if my bag falls and I pick it up.
But this is one of the many definitions.
Next we have the expression come down with which you actually heard earlier in the grammar section.
We often say, ooh, I think I'm coming down with something.
This is when you become sick and a sickness develops slowly.
So maybe first you feel tired, then maybe your body starts to hurt.
You get a headache, you get a fever.
It's like slowly you get sicker and sicker.
And so we say, oh, I'm coming down with something.
I know I'm sick and it's developing slowly.
I don't know what it is yet, but I know something is wrong.
All right, the next two are kind of disgusting, but it's very important that you know these expressions.
Firstly, we have throw up and puke.
So throw up is the phrasal verb and puke is the slang.
And these are the informal ways of saying vomit.
Some of you know the word vomit.
The word vomit is when anything in your stomach comes out forcibly through your mouth.
Oftentimes, it's due to illness or nausea, which we're going to talk about after this.
Now, the next one is a slang expression that uses puke.
Puke my guts out.
Okay, so let's break this down.
Guts is your stomach, your intestines.
So when we say, oh my gosh, I puked my guts out.
This is a very exaggerated expression, like very dramatic.
And we use it when we're vomiting a lot.
So a year ago, my family got like this crazy, crazy stomach bug.
I have never cleaned up so much vomit in my house.
So I was like, oh my gosh, we're puking our guts out.
It's a very dramatic expression, but it means puking a lot.
A lot of people use it, like when they're hungover, when they're drunk, they say oh, I'm never drinking like that again.
I puked my guts out.
Next, we have to break out in a cold sweat.
Let's break this down.
Break out in is actually a three-word phrasal verb, and it means to start something suddenly.
For example, you could say we broke out in laughter during the comedy show.
But in this case, to break out in a cold sweat is when you start sweating very quickly because of fear or anxiety or illness or like some kind of intense emotion.
If I'm at an interview or if I want to get a role as an actor, I say, oh my gosh.
Before the audition, I broke out in a cold sweat.
But it's also when we're sick.
Like at night, maybe you're sleeping, you break out in a cold sweat.
Okay, the next one is a phrasal verb, swell up.
This is when something becomes enlarged or big.
We say swollen.
Usually it's due to some kind of inflammation or liquid or fluid is underneath your skin.
So if you're in a fight, someone punches you in the eye or on your face, and then your face gets bigger or swollen.
We also use swell up actually with allergic reactions.
Like if you eat something that you're allergic to, your tongue or your lips begin to get bigger and we say swell up.
Next, we have the word pass out.
This is a pretty popular one.
This means to faint.
So faint is when you lose consciousness suddenly.
So like, boom, you're like, one minute you're up, the next minute, boom, you're on the floor.
And you're like, whoa, what just happened?
This is often due to fatigue, illness, some kind of medical condition.
This actually happened to me many years ago on the New York City subway.
It was really embarrassing.
I had just had my blood taken for testing.
And at the time, I was anemic, low iron.
I didn't know it.
And so after I got my blood taken...
I went, I got on the subway and I started to feel really hot.
And then boom, on the floor, I opened my eyes and everyone's around me.
They let me have their seat.
Someone gave me like food to start eating.
It was really funny.
I mean, really embarrassing.
It was really embarrassing.
But I was thankful that everyone helped me.
Okay, next we have another phrasal verb.
It comes from wear out.
This is to be worn out.
This is extremely tired, exhausted, no energy.
Usually this happens when you have just worked really hard mentally or physically.
You are worn out.
The doctor tells Gloria she has to stay off her feet.
This is just when you have to not stand or walk and you have to like sit down or lay down in order to recover from an injury or an illness.
Then we have the expression to be laid up in bed.
This is when you have some kind of illness, some kind of injury.
You are recovering and you have to stay in bed.
So this is usually like someone has no other choice because physically they do not feel well enough to get up.
So they are laid up in bed.
Next, we have the expression down for the count.
Down for the count is when you are totally unable to walk or just continue what you're doing because you are exhausted, because you have an injury or because you are sick.
Maybe you're watching a boxing match and someone gets knocked out and you're like ooh, he's down for the count.
Or if you're sick, you might tell your friend, oh man, I was down for the count for like three days.
Next, we have a phrasal verb, to fight off anger.
This is when your body resists or defends itself against some kind of sickness.
The body's immune system works hard to make you better.
Then we have get over.
Get over has a lot of different meanings, but in this context it's to recover or get better from an illness.
We can also use it for getting through a difficult situation slowly.
So get over means returning to a normal state.
If you had someone in your family die or if you had a really bad end or breakup to your relationship, you would also use get over.
But in this case, it's for your physical well-being.
And lastly, we have the road to recovery.
The road to recovery is an expression we use when someone has started to get better, but it's going to take a long time.
So if someone had surgery, for example, they're on the road to recovery.
Or maybe if someone has a serious illness and they're getting treatment for it, then you would say they're on the road to recovery.
All right.
So those were the 16 words and expressions that I taught you through the story.
But before the episode is over, I want to go through some of the symptoms that you heard me say in today's episode, especially in the story.
You heard me say the word fever, okay?
Fever is when your body temperature goes over a certain point.
If you use Fahrenheit, it is 1004, but for those of you who use Celsius, it's if your temperature goes above 38 Celsius.
I also use the word fatigue.
Fatigue is extreme tiredness.
Your body has very little energy.
I also said that she was dizzy.
Dizzy is when you feel like the world is spinning, but you are standing still.
I also used the word nausea.
Nausea is when you feel like you need to throw up.
You feel like we say a pit in your stomach.
Your stomach hurts, but you feel like you need to throw up.
I also use the two words headache and migraine.
Headache is when your head hurts.
And a migraine is an extreme headache.
It's really bad.
A lot of times you cannot function.
In the study guide I'm actually going to have a lot more symptoms explained so that when you go to the doctor you can tell them exactly what the problem is.
So make sure to grab the study guide in the show notes.
I'll see you next time.
Listen to this episode again, do the practice activities, and then guess what?
You're ready to talk about sickness in English.
If you want some more content like this in video form, I'm also going to link the YouTube video where I talk about this same topic.
So head to the show notes and go watch that content.
Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast.
Be sure to download today's study guide so that you can learn how to use this vocabulary confidently.
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe for more weekly adventures in English learning.
Also, I love to hear from you, so please leave me a review.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
