Tuesday, June 17, 2008

I'm gonna throw up...

OK, today I am gonna talk about feeling sick and wanting to vomit. There are many many words for this in English and I will just cover some of the most popular...

vomit: this is a MEDICAL term, you will most often hear it in hospitals or from doctors.

Saying "I'm gonna vomit" sounds pretty strange.

puke or barf: instead you'd say "I'm gonna puke" or "I'm gonna barf".

These are both casual English but barf is a little childish.

throw up: "I'm gonna throw up" is the most popular phrase for vomit.

Now, before you get sick you might want to warn people. So here are some more useful words:

nauseous: causing nausea, sickening. It means you feel sick to the stomach and want to vomit.

ex: That roller coaster made me nauseous.

queasy: the same as nauseous but more casual.

ex: The sight of blood makes me queasy.

Many times we feel sick to our stomach because of a car, plane or boat. So we have some special words that cover motion sickness.

carsick: to throw up because of a car's motion

airsick: to throw up because of a plane's motion

seasick: to throw up because of a boat or ship's motion

You will notice that I often said sick, in English if you say "I'm gonna be sick" it means "I'm gonna throw up"!

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