What you will be able to do
- Describe a symptom with a body part plus 疼, and grade it with 很, 有点儿 or 不.
- Use 了 on 感冒, 发烧 and 好 to report a change of state, not a past event.
- Give and understand advice with 应该, with 多 or 少 in front of a verb, and with 别.
- Handle a pharmacy instruction: 一天三次，一次两片.
Chinese words in this text can be activated to show a dictionary gloss.
Saying what is wrong
The question you will be asked
Walk into a clinic and the first thing you hear is ？ Nǐ nǎr bù shūfu? — literally where are you not comfortable? shūfu covers physical comfort and general wellbeing at once, and its negative is the ordinary way to say you feel ill: 。 Wǒ jīntiān bù shūfu.
Learn the question as a block. It is not what is the matter with you; it asks for a place, and a place is what your answer should supply.
takes the body part as its subject
téng means to hurt, and it behaves exactly like an adjective: the part that hurts is the subject and is the entire predicate. No verb to have, no possessive pronoun.
- 。 Wǒ tóu téng. — I have a headache.
- 。 Wǒ sǎngzi téng. — My throat hurts.
- 。 Wǒ dùzi téng.
- 。 Wǒ yá téng.
Because it is an adjective, it takes the degree words you already have: hěn téng, yǒudiǎnr téng, bù téng, and the verb-not-verb question ？ téng bu téng?
The that means now
Words for illness almost always arrive with , and that is not a past tense. It reports a change of state — something that was not true and now is.
- 。 Wǒ gǎnmào le. — I have caught a cold, and I have one now.
- 。 Wǒ fāshāo le. — I have a fever.
- 。 Tā shēngbìng le.
- 。 Wǒ hǎo le. — I am better.
Take the away and sounds like the opening of a sentence that never finished.
At the counter
- chī yào — to take medicine. Chinese eats medicine whatever its form; is reserved for something genuinely liquid.
- ，。 Yì tiān sān cì, yí cì liǎng piàn. — three times a day, two tablets each time. piàn is the measure word for a tablet, and cì counts occasions.
- dǎzhēn — to have an injection.
- jiǎnchá — to examine: 。 Yīshēng gěi wǒ jiǎnchá le yíxià.
Advice runs on three small words
- yīnggāi should, straight in front of the verb: 。 Nǐ yīnggāi duō xiūxi.
- duō and shǎo before a verb: duō hē shuǐ drink more water, shǎo chī diǎnr eat a little less. English puts more after the verb; Chinese puts it in front, where it modifies the action rather than the object.
- bié don't: 。 Bié dānxīn. 。 Bié chī liáng de dōngxi.
and
Both are verb-plus-object pairs already welded together, and both belong to the patient. shēngbìng is to fall ill; kànbìng is to go and be seen about it, even though on its own means to look at. 。 Wǒ qù yīyuàn kànbìng. is the sentence you want. Because the object is already inside the verb, a duration goes between the two halves: 。 Tā shēng le sān tiān bìng.
How to work through it
One question, one kind of answerread
Read the first two sections, then answer 你哪儿不舒服？ four times with a different body part each time. The answer is always a place plus 疼, never a translation of *I have a*.
Ten words for a clinicvocabulary
Learn 感冒, 发烧 and 生病 together with 了 attached — the bare forms are almost never what you say. Keep 舒服 in its negative shape, which is where you will meet it nine times out of ten.
Build a symptom, then grade itsentence
Say each row three ways — plain, with 有点儿, and with 很: 头疼 / 嗓子疼 / 肚子疼 / 牙疼. Then add the change-of-state 了 to four more: 我感冒了。我发烧了。他生病了。我好了。
The 了 of a new situationquiz
Ten items. Six decide whether a sentence needs the change-of-state 了; four decide whether 很 belongs in front of 疼 and 舒服 or not.
Two minutes at the clinicspeaking
Play both roles. Doctor: 你哪儿不舒服？ Patient: 我头疼，还有点儿发烧。 Doctor: 我给你检查一下。 … 你感冒了，应该多休息，多喝水。 Patient: 要吃药吗？ Doctor: 要，一天三次，一次两片。 Then swap.