Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles We've all been there, you wake up in the morning and you feel dreadful. You don't want to get up and you certainly don't want to go to work. So you could say I'm unwell, I'm ill, I'm poorly, I'm under the weather, I'm sick. You could also say I'm feeling unwell, or I'm not feeling well, I'm feeling poorly, I'm feeling ill, I'm feeling sick. Now I'm feeling sick is a little bit different to I'm sick. If you say I'm sick it suggests that your poorly or generally unwell, but if you say I'm feeling sick that may suggest that you're feeling nauseous and might want to vomit or throw up so be aware of that difference I'm sick in general, I'm feeling sick. If you're feeling really unwell then you may feel that you shouldn't go to work in which case you would have to call in sick or phone in sick. Hi yeah it's Anna, i'm not feeling very well today I don't think i can come in. Sometimes people pretend to be sick in order to get a day off work. This is called pulling a sickie and it's very naughty. I've never done it ever ever ever. Let's talk about the symptoms of illness so the signs that you're sick. Firstly you might have a pain in your head we call this a headache or if you have a very serious headache you call it a migraine If you have a pain in your ear we call that earache. If you have pain in your teeth then we call that toothache. Toothache and if you have toothache you would normally see the dentist not the doctor. Other symptoms in your head might be a feeling of dizziness. So you might feel dizzy, this is when you feel unbalanced. You might even faint which means you'll become unconscious or lose consciousness. Lots of people at this time of year suffer with a cold or the flu and a cold has many typical symptoms like... Has anybody got a tissue. Oh thank you. Coughing. If when you cough stuff comes up, out of your throat, this is called phlegm. Phlegm, and if you go to the doctor with a serious cough they may ask you what color is your phlegm. If you have the flu and you might have the shivers. I just can't stop shaking. Some people know their unwell because they have a high temperature, this means that they're very very hot, more hot than normal and if you're running a temperature that's very high you may have a fever, this of course can result in sweating. Some people feel unwell in an emotional way, so they could have mood swings or feel very very down. The word for feeling down is to be depressed. If your mood changes regularly and we might say your mood fluctuates or you have mood swings. If your muscles tense up really tight and you're not trying to make them tense then this is called cramp. So you're getting muscle cramp and some people talk about getting up abdominal cramps when they get pain in the muscles in their tummy. Sometimes you might have a problem with flatulence which is also known as wind or gas. If the gas can't escape via the mouth or the bottom then you may have trapped wind which can be very uncomfortable and a similar feeling to trapped wind to feel bloated. If your nose is blocked up and you have a pain here this is called congested, to be congested and people who are congested tend to sound like this because the air can't pass through the nose so they sound very nasal. And it's very hard to understand what they're saying when they sound nasal. I'm very congested sorry, excuse me, sorry. If an area of your body fills with fluid you will have swelling so if you twist a joint the joint might swell. So you'd say to the doctor I have a swollen joint, a swollen knee. Many people go to the doctor because they get some form of rash and a rash is unusual coloring spots on the skin sometimes they're a bit itchy , sometimes they're very red and blotchy, sometimes it weeps and gives off a discharge this means that fluid comes out of it. Talking about fluid you may have to say that you're bleeding in some way, you might be bleeding from your private areas, you might be bleeding from the noses, from the mouth, from the ears; and when you bleed you bleed blood. One of the most unpleasant symptoms is to have diarrhea also known as the runs, this is when your stools or your poo is very runny. Sometimes it's like water it's very very uncomfortable. The opposite to diarrhea is constipation. This is when you can't go to the toilet at all maybe for days and days and days which is very unhealthy. So when we're ill what do we do? The first thing we do is look for sympathy. We tell the people around us that we're not feeling very well and hope that they will look after us or take care of us, this means they will make us tea bring us food, and in the UK we tend to bring grapes when people off unwell, and if you're really poorly someone might bring you flowers to cheer you up. A phrase that we often use when giving sympathy is oh dear, oh dear, it's just a sympathetic expression. Oh dear that's not very good, oh dear that's not very nice at all, and this is used for everybody, men, women and children. Oh dear I'm sorry to hear you're not well. We would also wish the person a speedy recovery so we say I hope you're feeling better soon, get well soon. Sometimes you might send a get well card to wish them a speedy recovery and say that we're thinking about them, on the other hand we could be completely unsympathetic, particularly if someone who is a little bit under the weather is putting it on or laying it on thick. These phrases mean that they're being melodramatic, they're making out like their illness is much worse than it actually is. For example one phrase that we sometimes use when we're ill is: oh I'm dying I'm so ill I'm dying. When in fact they only have a cold, I mean come on. There is also a phrase in the UK we use when a man is being melodramatic about his cold and that is the phrase man flu, so if a man has a cold, a little bit of a sniffle, which means he's got a runny nose, we say - you got man flu have you? Meaning it's not nearly as bad as they're making out. They're just being melodramatic. No I don't think Steve's coming tonight yeah he's got man flu. Exactly. The next step if you're not feeling very well is to go to the pharmacy to buy some medicine. Now the medicine you can buy at the pharmacy without a prescription from your doctor is called over-the-counter medicine and these are things like pain killers which include paracetamol, ibuprofen, you can also buy anti-inflammatories and decongestants things like that. If you need a stronger painkillers or another type of medicine like antibiotics to fight off an infection then you have to see your doctor. In the UK we have the family doctor, the local doctor, which we call a GP this stands for general practitioner GP. Of course if your illness is serious then you may have to take a trip to the hospital. If it's a real emergency then you may even have to dial 999 and call an ambulance. The ambulance will take you to A and E, this stands for accident and emergency. Well that concludes this video I hope none of you are feeling unwell and if you are then I do hope that you feel better soon. But while resting make the most of these videos, also why not check out all the really helpful resources which i've linked to in the comments box below these include some facebook groups including my own, as well as The English Nook, which is an incredible English group and an English group run by my good friend Karim who posts every single day very helpful posts to help you with your English language learning, and finally don't forget to subscribe; to subscribe all you have to do is press this button here and subscribe and then i'll be very happy and I'll start feeling better instantly. All right take care and I'll see you soon.
B1 UK unwell sick doctor flu feeling sick ill FEELING ILL: Learn British English 705 88 Samuel posted on 2018/07/04 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary