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中文
Body & health 100
100
phrases
Describing symptoms
10
咳嗽得厉害 - coughing badly - uses the 得 pattern again to attach severity to a verb. 拉肚子 is the everyday word for diarrhoea, literally "pull the belly", and is not indelicate. 症状什么时候开始的 is the question a doctor asks, so recognising it matters more than producing it.
At the surgery
10
This set is mostly the doctor's lines, not yours: 张开嘴, 深呼吸, 量一下体温. Learning to recognise instructions you will be given is the point. 拍片子 - to take an image - covers X-rays and scans, and 片子 is the film itself.
Taking medicine
10
饭后 - after meals - and 一次两片 - two tablets each time - are the instructions printed on every box, and 片 is the measure word for a tablet. 会不会犯困 asks whether it causes drowsiness, which is the question worth asking before you drive anywhere.
Teeth and eyes
10
洗牙 - to wash teeth - is a scale and polish, and Chinese uses 洗 where English uses "clean". 补一颗牙 fills a cavity, 补 being the same patching verb you met in 补课. 少看手机 - look at your phone less - is advice every optician now gives.
Exercise
10
健身 - literally "strengthen the body" - means working out and is what a gym is called. 我腿酸 uses 酸, sour, for muscle ache, which is the sensation exactly. 别练太狠 - don't train too fiercely - is the warning given to beginners who have just discovered enthusiasm.
Eating well
10
公斤 is the kilogram, but note that Chinese daily speech often uses 斤 - half a kilo - for body weight too, so a number may need doubling. 宵夜 is the late-night meal, an institution in southern China. 慢慢来别急 is the advice that applies to everything in this set.
Sleep
10
睡午觉 - the afternoon nap - is a normal part of the Chinese day, built into school timetables and many workplaces, and saying it carries none of the apology an English speaker might attach. 补个觉 - to patch up sleep - uses 补 once more, this time for catching up.
Stress and rest
10
我看了心理医生 - I saw a psychologist - is a sentence that has become sayable in urban China within one generation, and its presence here is deliberate. 别硬撑 - don't force yourself to hold on - is what a friend says, and it is permission rather than advice.
Health checks
10
体检 is the annual physical, which many Chinese employers arrange and pay for, so it is a shared yearly experience rather than a personal decision. 前一天别吃东西 - don't eat the day before - is the instruction that catches people out, since it means fasting for the blood test.
Getting better
10
退烧了 - the fever has broken - uses 退, to retreat, which is what a fever does. 别急着上班 - don't rush back to work - is what a Chinese colleague will actually say, and 注意别复发 warns against relapse, 复发 being a compound of "again" and "break out".
Related categories
Weather & seasons 100
Phone & messaging 100
Accommodation 100
Work & office 100
School & study 100
Home & daily life 100
Hobbies & leisure 100
Internet & phone 100
中文