How to Ask About Health and Injuries in English Basic English Phrases

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about how to

ask about someone’s health or any

injuries that they might have we’ll talk

about questions you can use some

responses and a few things to be careful

of when you’re asking these questions so

let’s begin okay first I want to start

with this list of questions that you can

ask people about their condition this

first group at the top you can use to

ask about illness so illness means

sickness the first one is a very general

expression are you feeling okay you can

use this when you kind of see someone

maybe they look tired or they might be

sick or maybe they look maybe sad you

could even ask in that case so are you

feeling okay is a general friendly and

caring expression to use we tend to use

it with a little bit of a worried voice

like are you feeling okay that’s kind of

a nice appropriate way to ask this

question another one how are you feeling

how are you feeling how are you feeling

is when we use when we know the other

person is sick like we saw them

yesterday for example and they had a

cold we want to check on their condition

now how are you feeling so this is

something we use after we’ve seen a sick

person or maybe they’re in the process

of recovering from an illness so how are

you feeling is also quite friendly if

you want to be direct you can say are

you sick are you sick

so this is good if you hear someone

coughing or maybe their eyes are red

something may be visually or you can

hear that like you know they sound

terrible maybe you can say are you sick

it’s probably good to use a worried tone

of voice if you ask are you sick and you

sound kind of cold and uncaring you

won’t seem very friendly so if you want

to show you care

about the other person’s condition ask

are you sick are you sick much nicer if

you have a guess you want to guess for

some reason about the other person’s

condition you can ask do you have a cold

do you have a cold so a cold is the

general word we use for like a light

sickness kind of where our nose maybe

get stuffed meaning it doesn’t work

properly it’s hard to breathe and maybe

we need to use tissue a lot to stop it

maybe we have a sore throat and maybe a

cough as well so these are the very

common feelings the common symptoms of a

cold to ask about that do you have a

cold is quite common especially in

colder months and finally are you okay

are you okay this one’s very similar to

are you feeling okay but are you okay is

one we can use not just for illness so

I’ve put it here between illness and

injury we use are you okay to talk about

illness yes are you okay

but we also use it if someone might have

been injured so if for example I drop

something on my foot or maybe I I fall

down someone might ask me are you okay

meaning do you have any injuries do you

have any injuries are you okay we can

also use this to talk about someone’s

emotional state like maybe they get

really upset or something bad happens

and you can ask about their emotional

condition you can use are you okay to do

that so this is relating to injuries and

to illness another one this one down

here this group is specifically relating

to injuries so injuries are like

accident related something happened to

our bodies and we are hurt as a result

so you can ask this question are you

hurt are you hurt

so again if I fall down or there was an

accident

of some kind I want to ask about the

other person’s condition I can say are

you hurt are you hurt

meaning do you have any injuries are you

hurt sounds much like closer much more

friendly do you have any injuries sounds

kind of polite and maybe like something

a doctor would use perhaps a friend or

someone close to you might say are you

hurt okay

another one a more serious one is are

you bleeding are you bleeding

so maybe you have a cut like a kitchen

knife accident and someone asks are you

bleeding

so bleeding is you know blood is that

red substance inside our bodies are you

bleeding means is there blood coming out

of your body so it’s kind of grotesque

kind of disgusting to think about but to

ask this question like for a cut

situation maybe it’s really serious you

can ask this are you bleeding yes or no

okay finally where does it hurt where

does it hurt so for example if you have

an injury and you hurt your leg or you

hurt your arm

and you need to be specific about the

place where the injury happened the

doctor or someone else might ask where

does it hurt where does it hurt which

means what’s the point in your body

that’s the most painful so for example

like I broke my wrist and the doctor

might say where does it hurt I could say

it hurts here it hurts at my wrist it

hurts at this point so you can point and

answer this question it hurts here okay

finally the final question on this list

is a recovery related question so I

mentioned this one how are you feeling

which we can use for some recovery we

can also use this maybe like a week

after a serious illness maybe or like

mmm even a few hours after maybe

something unpleasant happens for example

are you feeling better are you feeling

better so this better we see the

comparative form means are you feeling

better than you were feeling

before like are you feeling better than

you felt yesterday are you feeling

better than you were feeling a few hours

ago so better than before is what this

means okay so we have these groups

illness related questions injury related

questions and a couple of recovery

related questions so to respond to these

questions you can say yes and give some

explanation I’ll go to this in a moment

you can say just a bit or I’m sorry just

a bit tired just a bit tired so this is

a good a good response to are you sick

or do you have a cold or are you okay if

you’re not sick but you are feeling a

little down you can use this just a bit

tired are you sick I’m just a bit tired

if you are fine no problems you can say

no I’m fine no I’m fine like are you

sick no I’m fine so this is one you use

in direct response to a sickness related

question like are you sick or do you

have a cold or are you okay you might

hear no I’m fine

in response to this but I think the

better response is yes I’m fine yes I am

okay another good option here are you

hurt no I’m fine

so you might hear this in that case as

well so again direct responses to direct

questions there but if you want to give

your symptoms you want to explain

something like are you sick yeah you can

use one of these patterns I have or am

depending on the situation and then

describe your illness or your injury

like yeah I have a cold or yeah I have a

broken arm or yeah I have a headache for

example if you’re talking about another

person like a co-worker or a friend you

could say he or she has please note the

conjugation change she has a maybe bad

coffee she has a bad cough or she has a

backache or he has a headache

for example so you can explain your

symptoms or your physical condition with

these patterns so I have or he has you

could use a pattern like my head hurts

or my stomach hurts as well

those are both fine okay so with this I

want to introduce a couple phrases to

use carefully so I’ve listed these three

because if you ask them to directly you

might cause the other person to feel

offended so they might feel angry or

upset about this question so let’s take

a look first one you’re looking a bit

under the weather this expression right

here under the weather this means bad

you look bad you look a bit a bit means

a little you look a bit under the

weather so that means it looks like your

condition is not so good the reason it’s

in this use carefully category is

because if you just directly say this to

like a co-worker for example they might

feel offended

maybe that person feels fine like

there’s no problem they’re not sick

they’re not tired so it’s like you’re

saying directly you look bad today so be

careful with this we would use this the

best case to use this is in a situation

where the co-worker in this case has

told us I feel a bit sick or I have a

cold then you can respond with like yeah

you look a bit under the weather like to

sympathize with that person I see you do

you look a bit under the weather today

that’s much better I don’t recommend

just walking up to someone and

commenting like you look a bit under the

weather today it sounds like you’re just

saying you look bad today so be careful

with this one these are similar you

don’t look so good you don’t look so

good so this is a common one to use like

for stomachaches or for headaches like

for people with tech that visual like a

strong visual of their discomfort like

maybe they’re holding their head or

their posture

is changed because of their stomachache

if you see that and you speak with them

a little bit and they mentioned I have a

stomachache or I have a headache and

then you follow up and you say you don’t

look so good

maybe you should go home that’s much

better it’s much better to sympathize

after you get information again don’t

walk up to someone and say you don’t

look so good unless you’re very close to

that person same thing here with he or

she doesn’t sound good so again a verb

conjugation point you don’t look good he

doesn’t sound good so sound here this

refers to something we can hear so we

would use this for like a cough maybe or

maybe someone’s voice is gone for

example something we can hear we use

this so if your co-worker has a really

bad cough you might say he doesn’t sound

good or she doesn’t sound good but again

just be careful like if your coworker

hears this comment then they might feel

upset especially if nothing’s wrong but

just kind of use these two em to

sympathize rather so don’t don’t be too

direct if you want to use these if

you’re ever worried try one of these

instead these are a little softer and

less direct and just use a caring voice

when you ask the question okay so this

is an introduction to some questions and

some responses you can use to talk about

health and to talk about injuries and

other physical condition related things

I hope that it was helpful for you if

you have any questions or comments or if

you want to practice making an example

sentence please feel free to do so in

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