Medical words part 1

Ok, so here are some medical words for mikan-chan. This will be a two or three part series because there are alot of words used to talk about being sick.

So to get us started let's go over three words, sick, ill and injured.

Sick and ill are adjectives. So to use them you must use the verb to be and say:

"I'm sick."

"He's sick."

"They're ill."

They have the same meaning, the only difference is that ill is a bit of an older word so we don't use it so often. This means that ill sounds more formal than sick. "I'm ill" sounds a little strange, you should say "I'm sick".

Now, both ill and sick can be turned into nouns by adding the suffix -ness to them. So ill becomes illness and sick becomes sickness. They are now nouns so you must use the verb to have:

"I have a sickness."

"I have an illness."

Here, things change a little. They no longer have the same meaning. Their meanings are slightly different. Illness is used for physical conditions and sickness is used for mental conditions. Also, both are usually used to talk about SOMEONE ELSE or about the disease itself.

"His illness is spreading quickly."

"That sickness is highly contagious."

Oh, contagious is an adjective which means the virus or bacteria can easily be given to someone else.

Let's talk about getting into an accident and breaking your leg...

"I broke my leg so I have to wear this cast for two months!"

A cast is a wrapping made of plaster that stops you from moving your body so that the bones have time to heal. When you are hurt in an accident, we use the verb to injure. So, "I injured my leg when I fell down the stairs", you are not sick or ill... you are injured(adj).

Sick and ill are used for medical conditions caused by your body(ex: cancer, metabolic diseases) or by bacterias and viruses. Injured, is used when you break something in your body, usually by accident.

"Help! I'm injured, I can't walk".

Injury, is the noun form of injured. So;

"He has a head injury."

"Her injury is not severe so she will be fine in a few weeks."

Well, I think that is enough for now, drop by for the next part in this series!

Phil