How to Talk to a Doctor in English Basic English Phrases
weekly livestream my name is Alisha and
this week we are talking about how to
talk to a doctor in English this week’s
lesson is going to be very vocabulary
focused so I’m going to number one
introduce key vocabulary words some
verbs and some nouns that you can use to
explain your condition then we’re going
to practice some phrases you can use to
explain your condition and finally we’re
going to talk about treatment how to
understand your doctor’s recommendations
so those are our three main points for
today as we join as you join rather
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thanks very much for joining as I said
today we’re talking about how to talk to
a doctor and as always we do have free
stuff for everybody watching you can
find free pdf vocabulary and phrase
sheets from the link below the video on
YouTube or above the video on Facebook
okay I’m going to share the video and
then I’m going to start the lesson as I
said earlier today’s lesson is going to
be focused on three parts of visiting a
doctor three parts of the experience of
visiting a doctor and will be very
vocabulary heavy so let’s get started I
want to begin on this part of the board
we’re going to start with vocabulary
words for this lesson so I’ve divided
I’ve made this list into like a group of
verbs primarily and then some nouns some
nouns you’ll need to know so let’s begin
with this one right here this verb I
think is probably I would say this is
one point I hope you remember from this
lesson sometimes I hear many learners
say like I have a pain or they say like
I have a hurt or something like that
this verb this word to hurt we should
use as a verb use it as a verb I’ll
explain examples over here to hurt
to injure have the same meaning but
injure sounds more formal so when I
let’s say for example I hit my arm
against the board really hard to
describe that I would say I hurt my arm
I hurt my arm in everyday speech if I
use injure it sounds more serious and it
sounds more formal we use injure this is
pronounced injure we use injure for more
like sports accidents like the athlete
injured his leg for example so for your
everyday little accidents or for
something small use hurt as a verb as a
verb so we’re going to talk about some
examples a bit later so hurt or injure
so this is very general this can be any
kind of accident anything so just a
general accident some kind of general
problem this next pair however this is
more specific this pair this is to break
again a verb to break and to fracture to
fracture so break and fracture these
words they mean the same thing yes but
these words are used for your bones your
bones so if you don’t know the word a
bone it’s the part of your body maybe
you know the word skeleton I don’t know
inside your body the structure of your
body so inside it’s the hard thing
inside your body if you have an injury
if you hurt a bone you might break your
bone so imagine this is like my arm my
wrist I might break a bone that’s to
break or to fracture they are used in
the same way to break a bone or to
fracture a bone so we use these two
verbs with bones we don’t use like I
don’t know stomach or something like
that with this we use this for bones to
break bones to fracture bones so again
same meaning you will hear people
use both of these words I feel brake is
a little more common in past tense broke
past participle broken broken okay let’s
go then to the next verb to itch to itch
please be careful with this verb this is
different from the verb to scratch to
scratch so what is the difference here
to itch we use this in a sentence like
my arm itches my arm itches so that
means my arm has an itchy feeling itchy
is like I want to scratch it so to
scratch is this motion this is
scratching to scratch something but to
itch is the feeling we use a verb to
describe that feeling yes we can use
itchy as an adjective
as in my arm is itchy yes that’s
okay or my arm itches we use it as a
verb as well so please be careful of the
difference between this verb and this
verb to itch describes your condition my
arm itches to scratch is this motion I
scratch my arm so don’t don’t get those
mixed up onward let’s go on then to a
few nouns I want to talk about some
nouns and we’re going to practice using
these in the second part of today’s
lesson so the first one is spot spot
spot is a very general word again a noun
we use to talk about any like dark area
on your skin so if there’s I’m not gonna
draw with my my marker anyway if I had
like a red mark on my on my body I could
say this is a spot a spot so usually a
spot is like just a circle just a simple
circle a spot can be big it can be small
a spot that is the noun the word we use
to describe this
again I will give more examples later so
I have a spot on my arm I have a spot on
my face a spot is the word we use let’s
compare this to this word rash rash is
the pronunciation a rash is different is
quite different from a spot a rash is
usually like something red and something
that itches well sometimes it itches a
bit and it’s usually kind of large so if
a spot is a small place on my arm here a
rash imagine the same like red color all
over my arm and it’s it’s like this kind
of pattern of rash as maybe look looks
more like this all over and it maybe
itches a bit we use rash to describe
that condition so I have a rash on my
arm or this rash itches or this rash is
itchy we can use all of those to
describe that it’s a spot one point rash
is like this kind of larger area usually
like in a red color okay let’s continue
to this word burn burn I’ve marched this
burn is used as both a noun and as a
verb a noun and a verb Oh Leah I
scription Lee I’ll get to you I’ll come
back to you Leah thanks for that
he is our illustrator okay burn is a
noun or a verb burn is the injury you
get so I use it as a verb earlier injure
is an injury you get from touching
something hot so if you touch a stove
like a hot stove you touch it you get
burned that’s using it as a verb or I
have a burn on my hand so I touch a hot
stove I have a burn on my hand that’s as
a noun or I burned my hand
so past tense burned pasta burned a
Leah’s question thanks for that Leah
Leah asked about this word sorry it’s
really hard to see I’ll write it again
it’s not clear Leah asked in the YouTube
chat what do you call the blue spots
that come out when you bump into
furniture nice one those are called
bruises bruises so singular bruised
bruised so that’s like when you are yeah
exactly when you you can’t see my feet
but if you’re walking into your sofa and
your toe hits the corner of your sofa
and it really hurts and then your your
foot changes color like blue or black or
green that’s called a bruise B are you i
s e bruised bruised in the plural
bruises I have bruises on my legs or I
have a bruise on my arm we can use this
as a verb to I bruised my arm I bruised
my arm Daniel in YouTube chat oh sorry
no Daniel you’re on Facebook rash and
something allergic can be the same thing
yes yes so if you have an allergy like a
food allergy or an allergy to cats this
is another good word allergy an allergy
you may get a rash a rash yes so you can
have a rash as a reaction a reaction
okay uh let’s continue let’s continue to
the next one the next one is chills
chills I’ve put this together with fever
chills and fever
so maybe many of you know fever so a
fever means your body’s temperature is
high your body’s temperature is very
high so like in the u.s. we use like 98
about 98 degrees Fahrenheit what is it
in Celsius 36 degrees I think is regular
temperature so a fever means your body
temperature is high maybe you sweat you
feel really hot chills on the other hand
chills this is a
I’ll mark this here chills a noun refers
that’s the feeling what you have like
you’re sick yes and you feel really cold
so maybe you have a fever
sometimes but you feel cold so it’s not
cold in the room but you are sick you
feel cold we use chills with an S not
this is not the plural form we say I
have chills I have chills you could say
I don’t know I usually use it with this
s we don’t usually say I have a chill we
don’t say that we usually say I have the
chills I have the chills I’ll talk about
this again a bit later all right
so fever as I said refers to high body
temperature high body temperature
finally the last word on this list is
pain I included pain here because it’s a
good general word I talked about hurt as
a verb up here this is just a very
general verb to describe pain or
discomfort in your body pain however is
used to talk about just a feeling and on
something that does not feel good in
your body so I have pain in my arm I
want to point out though like you can
use that pattern I have pain in my arm I
have pain in my body part but this is
not as natural as hurt hurt instead I’ll
introduce some examples later we use
pain in front of the body part that is
not happy in front of the body part that
is injured for example I have stomach
pain or I have lower back pain so I’ll
share some examples of that in the
future but these are the key vocabulary
words I want to talk about today
yes wah Fair on Facebook chills means
you feel very cold you feel very cold
maybe it’s not very cold but because you
are sick you feel cold so we’ll practice
some example sentences with these
vocabulary words in just a moment okay
so with that let’s take a quick break we
don’t have that camera we don’t have
that camera so I will just show you a
few examples of the free stuff as always
I don’t think I have a hospital one I
believe that we have a hospital PDF from
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printed out so I will show you some
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the video Facebook if you’re watching on
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this is the food one on the back you can
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airport and then practice Q&A here in
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let’s continue on then to the next part
of today’s lesson yeah so you can find
that someone asked below if you’re
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let’s continue on if you’re just joining
we’re talking about talking to a doctor
with some key vocabulary words today if
you have not already please make sure to
like and share the video so other
learners can find today’s lesson okay
let’s continue on then I want to talk
about phrases you can use to describe
the details of your condition so we
talked about all of these words over
here let’s use them in sentences and
your task now is to send a comment so in
the chat send a comment and describe
your last illness or injury so last here
means your most recent one so were you
sick or did something happen to your
body recently for example last February
I broke my wrist last February I broke
my wrist that is true that’s February I
broke my wrist snowboarding so describe
your last illness or injury with a
comment try to use today’s vocabulary
I’ll try to check throughout the lesson
so let’s take a look first let’s use the
verbs hurt well let’s use hurt here it’s
more natural I talked about hurt to
describe just a general injury so I hurt
my leg I hurt my leg just means like I
did something to my leg
maybe I don’t know what like I have a
mysterious injury a mysterious pain
maybe I ran into
a table or something you can’t see the
tape but if I want to just generally
describe something I use hurt I hurt my
leg I hurt my arm I hurt my head
somehow we can also use this pattern my
leg hurts my leg hurts so what’s the
difference here in this sentence my
subject is I me so that means me I’m
responsible for my injury I did
something and now my leg is not happy at
all
in this example though my leg hurts
maybe I don’t know what happened maybe I
I woke up this morning and my leg hurts
I don’t know why what happened so this
is the difference here if you are
responsible or someone else is
responsible you can use this pattern if
you don’t really know like ah for
example my stomach hurts so I didn’t do
anything but my stomach hurts you can
use this pattern of course you can’t
change the subject he could say like he
hurt my leg or like he broke my arm you
can do that yes so please keep in mind
you can change the subject to make more
to give more information ok
Javier why did you not add or use
headache in your vocabulary because I
believe many students watching today’s
lesson maybe know the word headache
already
ok let’s move on to this one I broke my
arm I talked about broke or fracture
fracture this word they mean the same
thing so break in past tense is broke
fracture in past tense is fractured just
a D at the end fractured fractured so I
broke my arm or in my example I broke my
wrist I broke my wrist or I broke my
nose are like he broke my nose he
punched me he broke my nose so to break
is present tense broke is past tense
it broke my arm we talked about this
verb itches itches so you’ll notice here
we use the body part just before the
verb and make sure you conjugate so
change itch to itches it itches my nose
itches my arm itches my leg itches my
ear itches whatever itches itches I saw
somebody wrote like my leg itches or
something like that it’s gone no that’s
okay
I thought okay so let’s continue though
let’s practice using some of these nouns
I talked about earlier though I talked
about spot rash burn and chills okay so
first I talked about spot remember a
spot is like a mark like this usually
kind of a round mark a spot so I could
say there is a spot on my shoulder
there’s a spot on my shoulder so that
means again one like round place a spot
on my shoulder I could use this there’s
a rash on my leg or there’s a rash on my
shoulder again so a couple points here
things not to miss this and this these
are things that learners often miss I’m
using the reduced forms here so not
there there’s spot or something make
sure this there’s a is clearly
pronounced so this there’s is there is
there is and this up spot so in this
example sentence this is one spot one
only if you want to talk about more
maybe you have two or three you can say
there are spots use the plural there are
spots on my shoulder there are spots on
my shoulder
same thing here there’s up rash on my
leg there’s a rash on my leg so rash I
suppose you could use the plural you
could say I have rashes or there are
rashes on my
legs if you need to but if the rash if
it’s like really big usually we just say
I have a huge rash I have a big rash on
my body so we use a rash and spot in
this way
good nice examples there is a spot on my
shoulders as someone and I have some
spots on my hand
good yeah Johan on YouTube used a
different pattern used I have you can
use the I have pattern I have a spot on
my hand I have a rash on my leg perfect
nice ok let’s continue to some other
ones ok let’s continue to this one I
have a burn on my hand I have a burn so
I talked about burn as a noun or as a
verb this is using it as a noun
I have a burn on my hand or I burned my
hand just as with this pattern we would
use burn in the place of broke here so
past tense of burned past tense birth
okay on to this one I have chills or you
will also hear I have the chills I have
the chills that describes that like cold
feeling it’s not cold but your body
feels cold I have the chills I have the
chills
someone says after a bruise on my leg
what word can I use when my leg expands
outward nice question the verb we use
there is to swell I will add that here
after bruise to swell to swell means to
become bigger to become bigger so we
would say like my leg swelled so in past
tense we take an e d ending for this
verb sorry swell s well.2 swell means to
get bigger we also use
the word swollen this is an adjective
form my leg is swollen my leg is swollen
my arm is swollen my tongue is swollen
this is kind of a gross lesson okay good
I have to continue because time is going
quickly thanks for that question now um
where was I I have the chills yes when
you feel cold last to here I want to
point out this verb this expression is
I’m running up degree fever so sometimes
we’ll use just this pattern I’m running
a fever which means I have a fever but
you will hear this running used to talk
about that I’m running a fever my son is
running a fever means he has a fever so
it doesn’t have any relationship to
jogging or running it means it’s
happening now yes someone says swell
also means it’s going good that is
correct but this is also there are
different meaning okay so to run a fever
means to have a fever often we will
include the degree for the fever so I’m
running a hundred and one degree fever
if you use Fahrenheit something like
that you can include that or just say
I’m running a fever or I have a fever
finally there’s pain in my lower back
there’s pain in my lower back this is a
kind of basic pattern you can use if you
want to there’s pain in my lower back
there’s pain in my stomach there’s pain
in my arm someone asked earlier what’s
the difference between pain and eight
pain is the more general word ache is
used for like a low constant pain so for
example when your stomach doesn’t feel
good it’s like there’s just this kind of
constant uncomfortable feeling when we
think of pain often it’s like a quick
like stabbing motion like a knife pain
almost
like chest pain is like a knife maybe
but if you feel an ache it’s like a long
constant feeling it doesn’t stop like a
head ache or maybe you have a back ache
it’s always going it’s constant we use
pain a little bit more often for like
quick things or sometimes we feel it
like sharp sharp pain so that’s the
difference between pain and ache gent
very generally speaking very generally
speaking okay I have to go quickly to
our last points for today
just a couple expressions for treatment
for treatment so treatment treatment
this is a noun this means how to fix
your illness how to fix your end
inge industry injury how to fix your
injury is a treatment so medicine so a
key point here is the verb take take we
use the verb take I’ve got this note
here we use the verb take for pills or
for liquids so that means medicine you
have to swallow we use take some
languages use drink maybe some use eat
we use take so take this medicine with
every meal take this medicine with every
meal this is a common treatment plan so
that means when you eat breakfast take
the medicine when you eat lunch take the
medicine when you eat dinner take the
medicine every meal so a meal is the
breakfast lunch dinner so take this
medicine with every meal or just the
doctor may say take this with every meal
another expression you might hear is
take this once a day take this twice a
day or take this three times a day
whatever so once one time twice two
times three times and so on so these are
common at
treatment plans for medicine you may
also hear something like this take two
of these in the morning take two of
these in the morning two of these means
of these pills so usually a doctor will
give it to you or a pharmacist will give
you medicine and say take two of these
pills of these pills in the morning okay
another expression you might hear is
come back in a week for a check-up or
come back in a month for a check-up come
back means come back to the hospital
come back to the doctor’s office for a
checkup
so checkup means checking your condition
come back in a week for a checkup or
come back and see me for a checkup
why don’t you use thrice instead of
three times because it’s extremely
old-fashioned it sounds totally
old-fashioned we don’t use thrice in
everyday English now okay can I use I am
suffering from a fever you can but it
sounds way too formal I am suffering
from a fever sounds very formal instead
use I have a fever or I’m running a
fever that sounds much more natural okay
last last last point sorry everybody it
is this I want to mention this verb here
apply apply so these are key verbs for
medicine and for treatment apply to
apply past tense applied applied and
past participle applied apply is used
for like lotions and creams so if you
have a spot or a rash or a burn you may
receive as medicine a lotion or a cream
or something
we don’t use take we use take for things
we drink or eat for lotions and creams
we use apply for example apply this
cream every morning or apply this cream
twice a day apply this cream at night so
please use the verb apply when your
talking about those kinds of treatments
so those are a couple points to take
away so in recap for today I would
recommend you practice using hurt as a
verb to describe your injuries to
describe your illnesses and these are I
think some good patterns to get you
started talking about that so if you
know like right now ah there’s something
like I need to explain to a doctor or
maybe you just want to describe a recent
injury like a bruise like I have one on
my leg because I ran into my sofa
something like that just think about how
you might explain that in English and
also think about these two verbs for
medicine okay we have to finish for
today though so that was a lot wow that
was a lot of vocabulary but I hope that
that’s helpful for you and I hope that
it’s a little more information so you
can describe things more clearly on how
says is the word painkillers
old-fashioned no painkiller is normal
usually we say like medicine is
different from painkiller because
painkiller has a specific job to stop
pain to kill pain maybe other medicines
just maybe there’s no pain but they have
to fix like a virus or a bacteria
there’s no pain but they have to fix it
so painkillers have a specific purpose
to kill pain okay what do I need to do
next week next week’s lesson next week
will be how to talk about your favorite
music I asked you an Instagram what you
wanted to talk about and some of you
said music like pop stars your favorite
pop stars your favorite music and so on
so next week I want to talk about of
course your favorite artists and your
favorite bands but also talking about
going to concerts and seeing live
performances and so on so please join us
that will be Wednesday June 19th at 10
p.m. Eastern Standard Time
yes June 19th okay so if you don’t know
your local time please google it and
join us live them and don’t forget if
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English class 101 so thank you so much
for joining us this week I hope that it
was helpful thank you very much for
liking and sharing the video too we
really appreciate it
enjoy the rest of your week have a nice
weekend and I will see you next time bye
you