Vocabulary exercises to help learn words related to health.

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Average: 4.4 (13 votes)

Submitted by howtosay_ on Mon, 12/12/2022 - 01:07

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Hello!

Could you please answer the following questions regarding expression of our health state:

1. Is it correct to say "I feel good" about our mental health and mood, and I "feel well" about our physical health?

2. I've heard we might say "I don't feel bad" when talking about our physical state, but "I feel bad" about our emotional one only. Is that correct?

Hello howtosay_,

1. In general, yes, that is correct. But in context, 'good' can definitely be used to refer to physical health (e.g. 'I'm going to lay down; I don't feel very good' -- you could also say 'very well' here) and 'well' can be used to refer to one's life more generally (e.g. 'How's your sister doing at uni?'; 'She's doing really well!'). So that's a good general rule, but context is king.

2. Again, the context is really important here, but in general 'I feel bad' is definitely used to speak about our emotional state. We generally say 'I feel bad' to express regret or sympathy. If someone was asking me about how I feel physically, I might say 'I don't feel bad' to say I feel OK, but I'd be far more likely to say 'Not bad' to mean that I feel OK.

It's also worth mentioning that there are also a lot of differing opinions about what proper English is. You can get a taste of this in this article if you're interested.

I wish I could give you less equivocal answers! I hope that helps, though.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Hello, Kirk!

Thank you so much for your answers and the article!!!

And I have one more question. If I am to ask a person about their health, should I say "How are your feeling" or "How do you feel"?. And I've aslo seen a variant "How do you feel today?" (in an English workbook by Pearson, but it's about of 2005 year), but isn't "today" a marker for Present Perfect, because today hasn't already ended untill it's about plans like I'm going to,,,,,,,,,today.

Hello again howtosay_,

Both of those sentences are fine, though they could also be used to ask about someone's emotional state. For example, if a friend's boyfriend had just left her, I could ask the same questions to ask about how she was feeling emotionally. Context is really important.

'How do you feel today?' is correct and, like the two questions you asked about, could be used to ask about health or emotions, though I think it's probably more commonly used to ask about physical health. It is possible to use the present perfect with 'today', but there are many other possibilities:

  • How do you feel today?
  • How are you feeling today?
  • Weren't you going to call the doctor today?
  • Have you called the doctor today?

When we speak about 'markers' for tenses, these are more like helpful hints for learners than strict rules. What really determines the tense is the meaning we are trying to communicate. The Verbs section of our grammar pages might be useful for you to have a look it if you'd like to review these.

All the best!
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by clarahk9723 on Sat, 29/10/2022 - 04:25

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I am anxious when I go to the hospital. Although the doctors and the nurses are excellent, I am afraid of such checks as MRI and CT. A nurse gives me an injection before checking. Then I need to lie in a machine.The horrible noise from the MRI machine drives me crazy.

Submitted by Sofia Hryhorieva on Mon, 08/08/2022 - 11:39

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Last time I visited a doctor during my annual workplace health check. It was about two months ago. I had no any troubles or pain with this visit.

Submitted by valerieprokopchuk on Sun, 15/05/2022 - 12:51

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So,i don`t remember when visited a doctor,it was more than 3 years ago .It has some reasons .At first i feel much better at last 4 years . I changed my food ,stopped drink and started do exercise on stadium of my past school.Now i want to buy a gym ticket and do stretch with my coach.
I`m from Ukraine and this website help me to improve mi english skills and in future i going to visited many countris of world. thanks to the developers

Hello valerieprokopchuk,

It's always great to hear that our users find our work useful.

Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by William.Fordanovich on Wed, 09/02/2022 - 09:02

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I get ill pretty rarely. In most cases it`s a light form of common cold without high temperature. It can be treated with medicine, which you can get without a recipe, so you don't need to go to the doctor. Last time I`ve visited dentist more than five years ago, but, I think, less than 10. So maybe I should visit him this year.