Learn how to describe pain and intensity
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: What Seems to be the Problem in the UK? David Here. |
| Kellie: Hello. I'm Kellie. |
| David: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to describe pain and intensity. The conversation takes place at the Doctor’s office. |
| Kellie: The speakers are strangers. |
| David: So they will use both formal and informal English. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Doctor: Hello Katrina, what's the problem today? |
| Katrina: I was playing squash and I fell over. I hurt my wrist and it's been painful for the last couple of days. |
| Doctor: Does it hurt when I press here? |
| Katrina: A little. |
| Doctor: How about here? |
| Katrina: Ouch! That hurts a lot! |
| Doctor: It's just a sprain so be careful. No more squash for a while! |
| Katrina: Okay, Doctor. Thank you. |
| David: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Doctor: Hello Katrina, what's the problem today? |
| Katrina: I was playing squash and I fell over. I hurt my wrist and it's been painful for the last couple of days. |
| Doctor: Does it hurt when I press here? |
| Katrina: A little. |
| Doctor: How about here? |
| Katrina: Ouch! That hurts a lot! |
| Doctor: It's just a sprain so be careful. No more squash for a while! |
| Katrina: Okay, Doctor. Thank you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: Poor Katrina, she hurt herself playing squash. |
| Kellie: Luckily she wasn’t hurt badly. |
| David: Yeah, the Doctor said she’d be fine. Kellie, what is seeing a doctor in the UK like? |
| Kellie: In the UK there is a public health service called the NHS - the National Health Service. This means that all healthcare is free. |
| David: Everything is free? |
| Kellie: Well, if you work you have to pay national insurance towards it, but the amount you pay isn’t linked to the care that you get. If you’re unemployed and not paying national insurance you’re entitled to the same level of care as someone who does pay. |
| David: What does the NHS cover? |
| Kellie: Practically everything. Katrina’s trip to the doctor would have been free, and if she had needed a hospital stay or surgery that would have been free too. |
| David: Wow. That sounds great! |
| Kellie: It is, but sometimes there can be long waiting lists at hospitals and doctors surgeries for non-emergencies, so people sometimes go private. |
| David: What do you mean, “go private”? |
| Kellie: They pay for private health care in order to be seen quicker. Some private hospitals are nicer than NHS ones too. |
| David: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Kellie: problem [natural native speed] |
| David: an obstacle, a source of distress, a negative issue |
| Kellie: problem[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: problem [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: to fall [natural native speed] |
| David: to suddenly drop to a lower position, often involuntarily |
| Kellie: to fall[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: to fall [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: over [natural native speed] |
| David: above |
| Kellie: over[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: over [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: painful [natural native speed] |
| David: causing hurt |
| Kellie: painful[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: painful [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: couple [natural native speed] |
| David: two people or two things, a few |
| Kellie: couple[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: couple [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: ouch [natural native speed] |
| David: exclamation said to express pain |
| Kellie: ouch[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: ouch [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: sprain [natural native speed] |
| David: a strain or stretch of muscle joints that doesn't result in a broken bone |
| Kellie: sprain[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: sprain [natural native speed] |
| David: And last.. |
| Kellie: careful [natural native speed] |
| David: taking much care, paying much attention |
| Kellie: careful[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: careful [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| David: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Kellie: fell over |
| David: meaning "to fall down" |
| Kellie: “Fall” means to suddenly drop to a lower position and “over” is a preposition that usually refers to something above. |
| David: Above? But this phrase means fall down... |
| Kellie: Yeah, kinda weird, huh? We use it a lot when we lose our balance and fall to the ground, or trip over something. “I fell over.” |
| David: Can it be used for anything else? |
| Kellie: Yeah, it can be used for objects that go from an upright position to the floor. |
| David: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Kellie: Sure. For example, you can say.. “Don't pile the dishes too high or they will fall over.” |
| David: ..which means "Don’t pile the dishes too high or they will fall to the ground." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Kellie: ouch |
| David: meaning "exclamation said to express pain". I say this all of the time. |
| Kellie: Me too! It’s one of those words that native speakers just say without thinking. We can use it whenever we feel pain, whether it’s only a slight pain or something that is really painful. |
| David: Yeah, like you said, we say it without thinking. So, if you stub your toe or hit your elbow on a table, you’re likely to say “ouch”. |
| Kellie: That’s right. We can also use it in a sarcastic way to sympathise in a bad situation. |
| David: Oh, like if somebody talks about a large bill they’ve received. |
| Kellie: Yeah. It’s mentally painful to pay large bills, right? |
| David: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Kellie: Sure. For example, you can say.. Ouch! I burnt my tongue on this hot coffee. |
| David: .. which means "I burnt my tongue on this hot coffee and it hurts." |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: In this lesson, you'll learn how to describe pain and intensity. If we’re going to describe pain correctly, we need to explain how the pain happened. |
| Kellie: That’s right. A good tense to explain this is the past continuous tense. We use this tense to show that a longer action in the past was interrupted by a shorter one. |
| David: Katrina uses this in the dialogue to describe her accident. |
| Kellie: Yes. She says “I was playing squash and I fell over”. That’s a perfect example of it. Playing squash is the longer action, and falling over is the shorter action that stopped it. |
| David: How do we make these sentences? |
| Kellie: First we need a subject, then either “was” or “were”, followed by the present participle. |
| David: “playing” is the present participle of “play”. So “I was playing squash”. |
| Kellie: Then the interrupting action is in the simple past. |
| David: “I fell over”. |
| Kellie: Right. You can also use a specific time as the interruption. “I was playing squash at 5pm” is an example of this. |
| David: Can you give one more example? |
| Kellie: Sure. “I was sleeping when the phone rang.” You often see the word “when” used in-between the two clauses. |
| David: Also, when describing pain we’ll need to say how long it’s been painful for. Katrina says in the dialogue that “it has been painful for the last couple of days.” |
| Kellie: The word “couple” is what we call a quantifier. It’s a word that lets us count nouns. In this case, the noun is “day”. |
| David: We can use numbers to count nouns too. |
| Kellie: Yeah, Katrina could have said “two days”, but words like “a couple” are often used. Sometimes we don’t know the exact number or it isn’t important. But, we do have to be careful because there are different types of nouns. |
| David: Ah, yes. Countable and uncountable nouns. Can you tell us about those? |
| Kellie: Countable nouns are those that can easily be broken down into individual units. When they are plural, they have an “S” attached. |
| David: So things like “dog,” “table,” “animal,” “book.” |
| Kellie: Yes. Uncountable nouns can’t be broken down and are usually more abstract. That’s things like “time,” “advice” or “news”. |
| David: We have to use different quantifiers for each type of noun. |
| Kellie: For countable nouns, we can use words like “many” or “few”. For example, “I have many dogs.” and “I have few cats.” |
| David: For uncountable nouns we can use words like “little”, “much” or “some”. For example, “I have little pain”, “I have much pain,” and “I have some pain”. |
| Kellie: Some quantifiers can be used for both though. For example, you can use “enough” for both. |
| David: That’s handy! |
Outro |
| David: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Kellie: Bye. |
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