Lesson 3: Heath

Illness

French Vocabulary • Health Illness La maladie
To ache
avoir mal au/à la/à l’/aux…	to have a …ache, to hurt	avoir mal au ventre	to have a bellyache
avoir mal à la tête	to have a headache	avoir mal partout	to ache all over
avoir mal à l’oreille	to have an earache	avoir des maux de cœur	to feel sick, nauseaus
avoir mal aux dents	to have a toothache	Actions
Sickness and Pain		éternuer	to sneeze
être malade	to be sick	s’évanouir	to faint
avoir la grippe	to have the flu	saigner	to bleed
avoir de la fièvre	to have a fever	tousser	to cough
être enrhumé	to have a cold	vomir	to throw up

Simple Future of Irregular Verbs

The simple future of irregular verbs, like the passé composé of many irregular verbs, must be memorized. What makes this somewhat easy is that verbs with similar endings normally have similar future stems.
For example, the future stem of the verb venir is viendr-. Verbs like venir (devenir, revenir) have a very similar stem (deviendr-, reviendr-).

Issuing Commands in French – l’impératif

• The nous form commands are used to say “Let’s…”.
• The subject is not used when giving a command.

Formation

Take away the ending and add on the following shown in the table.

French Grammar • Health The Imperative L’impératif
	-er Verbs		-ir Verbs		-re Verbs
Subject	Ending	Verb	Ending	Verb	Ending	Verb
Tu	-e	Parle!	-is	Finis!	-s	Vends!
Nous	-ons	Parlons!	-issons	Finissons!	-ons	Vendons!
Vous	-ez	Parlez!	-issez	Finissez!	-ez	Vendez!

Affirmative

Negative

The negative imperative is formed by placing the imperative between “ne” and “pas/jamais/rien/etcetera.”
Ne parle pas! (Don’t speak!)
Ne regarde jamais le soleil! (Never look at the sun!)

Adverbs

French adverbs, like their English counterparts, are used to modify adjectives, other adverbs, and verbs or clauses. They do not display any inflection; that is, their form does not change to reflect their precise role, nor any characteristics of what they modify.

Formation

In French, as in English, most adverbs are derived from adjectives. In most cases, this is done by adding the suffix -ment (“-ly”) to the adjective’s feminine singular form. For example, the feminine singular form of lent (“slow”) is lente, so the corresponding adverb is lentement (“slowly”); similarly, heureux ? heureusement (“happy” ? “happily”).

• If the adjective ends in an i, then -ment is added to the masculine singular (default) form, rather than to the feminine singular form:
  • vrai ? vraiment (“real” ? “really”)
  • poli ? poliment (“polite” ? “politely”)
• If the adjective ends in -ant or -ent, then the corresponding adverb ends in -amment or -emment, respectively:
  • constant ? constamment (“constant” ? “constantly”)
  • récent ? récemment (“recent” ? “recently”)
• Some adjectives make other changes:
  • précis ? précisément (“precise” ? “precisely”)
  • gentil ? gentiment (“nice” ? “nicely”)

Some adverbs are derived from adjectives in completely irregular fashions, not even using the suffix -ment:

• bon ? bien (“good” ? “well”)
• mauvais ? mal (“bad” ? “badly”)
• meilleur ? mieux (“better”-adjective ? “better”-adverb)
• pire ? pis (“worse”-adjective ? “worse”-adverb)

And, as in English, many common adverbs are not derived from adjectives at all:

• ainsi (“thus” or “thusly”)

Placement

The placement of French adverbs is almost the same as the placement of English adverbs.
An adverb that modifies an adjective or adverb comes before that adjective or adverb:

• complètement vrai (“completely true”)
• pas possible (“not possible”)
• tellement discrètement (“so discreetly”)

An adverb that modifies an Infinitive (verbal noun) generally comes after the infinitive:

• marcher lentement (“to walk slowly“)

But negative adverbs, such as pas (“not”), plus (“not any more”), and jamais come before the infinitive:

• ne pas marcher (“not to walk”)

An adverb that modifies a main verb or clause comes either after the verb, or before the clause:

• Lentement il commença à marcher or Il commença lentement à marcher (“Slowly, he began to walk” or “He began slowly to walk”).

Note that, unlike in English, this is true even of negative adverbs:

• Jamais je n’ai fait cela or Je n’ai jamais fait cela (“Never have I done that” or “I’ve never done that”)

Visiting the Doctor

Le patient :

• Je suis malade. (I am ill).
• J’ai mal à la tête. (I have a headache).
• J’ai de la fièvre. (I am fevrish)
• J’ai mal au ventre.
• Je vomis.
• Je tousse. (I cough)

Le docteur

• Comment allez-vous ?
• Prenez de l’aspirine.
• Je vais vous prescrire un médicament.
• Prenez une cuillère de sirop matin, midi et soir
• Il faut passer un “scanner”
• Il faut passer des radios.
• Il faut vous opérer.

Visiting the Dentist

• J’ai mal aux dents.
• Vous avez une carie.
• Je dois procéder à une extraction. (Il va enlever la dent)
• J’ai un appareil dentaire.
• Je vais utiliser la roulette.
• Ahhhhhhhhhh !

Healthcare

Emergencies

• Je vais à l’hôpital.
• C’est grave !
• Je vais aux urgences.
• J’ai eu un accident de voiture.
• SAMU=Service Ambulancier Médical d’Urgence
• En cas d’accident grave, il faut téléphoner au SAMU (15) ou aux pompiers (18) ou au 112.

Medicine

Body parts

Here is the vocabulary to speak about body parts :

Body position

And here is the vocabulary for body positions :

Common sentences

When you ‘catch a cold’ you ‘attrapes un rhume’. When you’re sick, tu es malade. When you wish to say that parts of your body are sore, you say “J’ai mal au/à la/à l’/aux [body part] …”. Example: J’ai mal à la tete. (I have a headache); J’ai mal aux dents (My teeth hurt).