Learn medical phrases
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| Hey guys, today’s lesson is going to be pretty straightforward. We are just going to talk about the names of certain medicines and how to say that you want them. So you are in the pharmacy, you figure out where the western medicine is as opposed to the Chinese medicine and you walk into the counter and you tell the pharmacist standing there what you want. How do you do that? Well it depends on what you want. Let’s start with pain killer okay. So you say to somebody 我要(Wǒ yào), the phrase is 我要(Wǒ yào), it means I want. 我要(Wǒ yào), third tone 我(wǒ) and then fourth tone 要(yào), 我要(Wǒ yào) and then the name of whatever it is you want, 我要(Wǒ yào) painkiller. In Chinese, pain killer is 止疼药(zhǐ téng yào). Third tone 止(zhǐ), second tone 疼(téng), fourth tone 药(yào), 止疼药(zhǐ téng yào). Literally 止(zhǐ) means to stop, 疼(téng) means pain and 药(yào) means medicine, 止疼药(zhǐ téng yào), stop pain medicine, pain killer, 止疼药(zhǐ téng yào). So you walk up to the pharmacist and you say 我要止疼药(Wǒ yào zhǐ téng yào.) It means I want pain killer, I want pain killer, 我要止疼药(Wǒ yào zhǐ téng yào.) Most likely I’d say 90% of the time, maybe 99% of the time, she will reach back, she will give you a box and she will ask for certain amount of money. It should be that simple. And let’s say you want Aspirin. You are pretty specific in your needs. The Chinese for Aspirin is 阿斯匹林(ā sī pī lín). The Chinese took the word Aspirin and gave it a Chinese pronunciation. They used Chinese characters that they already had to make a word that sounds like Aspirin, 阿斯匹林(ā sī pī lín). This happens sometimes in Chinese with foreign words. They take foreign words or foreign names and use Chinese characters to approximate that foreign word. It doesn’t always sound exactly like the foreign word but sometimes you can pick it out, 阿斯匹林(ā sī pī lín) The tones are first tone 阿(ā), first tone again 斯(sī), first tone one more time 匹(pī) and then second tone 林(lín), 阿斯匹林(ā sī pī lín). That is Aspirin, 我要阿斯匹林(Wǒ yào ā sī pī lín.) I want Aspirin. Now I just went over the way to say Aspirin or pain killer. In general though knowing the word 药(yào), medicine, you can just say whatever sickness you have and then say the word medicine and they will understand you. It may not be exactly the right word for it but they will understand you. The word for headache medicine or for, there is a word for headache medicine, people say 头疼药(tóu téng yào), literally head pain medicine, 头疼药(tóu téng yào). Your ailment, your sickness, headache and medicine, headache medicine, 头疼药(tóu téng yào). Second tone 头(tóu), second tone again 疼(téng), fourth tone 药(yào), 头疼药(tóu téng yào). You can also do this with the word cold as in I have a cold, I am sick. The word for cold is 感冒(gǎn mào), third tone, then fourth tone, 感冒(gǎn mào), but you can ask for 感冒药(gǎn mào yào). 我要感冒药(Wǒ yào gǎn mào yào.) I want cold medicine. 我要(Wǒ yào), I want, 感冒(gǎn mào), cold, 药(yào), medicine. You got that guys? |
| All right, to close our today’s lesson, we’d like you to practice what we’ve just learned. I will provide you with the English equivalent of a phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out loud. You will have a few seconds before I give you the answer. So 加油(Jiā yóu!) I want painkillers, 我要止疼药(Wǒ yào zhǐ téng yào.) I want Aspirin, 我要阿斯匹林(Wǒ yào ā sī pī lín.) I want headache medicine, 我要头疼药(Wǒ yào tóuténg yào.) I want cold medicine, 我要感冒药(Wǒ yào gǎn mào yào.) |
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