Oh boy! We all have to go to the doctor sometimes. This means we have to talk to a doctor! This is not always a great experience in your native language, and the experience can be more difficult and tiring if you are trying to do it English. First, let’s move forward thinking that we are not going to the emergency room right now. Right now, we are going to a doctor that is called a “GP”. This stands for “general practitioner”. This doctor provides general medical treatment, rather than specialized medical treatment. Basically, this is the doctor you go to when you get sick.

So there’s our first piece of vocabulary: 

I’m sick.

Another useful word for this topic is the verb “see”. You know this word. Here we use it to mean “visit”

Example: 
       
I need to see a GP.

or

I’m trying to find a GP to see.

Another piece of dreaded vocabulary for this topic is “insurance”.

*this comes from the verb “dread”: 
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/learner-english/dread

Insurance can be very frustrating. If you don’t have insurance, you will need to pay “out of pocket”, which just means that you actually have to pay for the doctor’s services.

If you do have insurance, the staff at the doctor’s office will ask you for different information from your card, like an “ID Number” They may also ask if you have “HMO” or “PPO”. These are acronyms, similar to USA or EU or UN. HMO and PPO are different types of insurance plans and your card will probably have one of them.

Let’s do some more vocabulary. In English, we have phrases called “collocations”. These are combinations of words. A good collocation for doctors is “make an appointment” (instead of “take an appointment” or “do an appointment”.

Example:        
I need to make an appointment to see Dr.——-.

Another piece of vocabulary that you will probably hear at the doctor’s office is “fill out”, which is a phrasal verb that means “complete”. Phrasal verbs are verbs that have more than one word, and their meaning is usually different from that of the main verb by itself.

Example:        
Please fill out this form while you are waiting.

There are other phrasal verbs and collocations that you might here at the doctor’s office. Here are some possibilities:

“Please, roll up your sleeve”                                    

roll up (phrasal verb)

Because…

“I’m going to take your blood pressure.”               

take one’s blood pressure (collocation)

Or

“Open up”                                                                  

open up (phrasal verb)

(this means open your mouth)

Because…

“I’m going to take your temperature.”                   

take one’s temperature (collocation)

Note: temperature is a strange medical word because it can just mean the number:

Example:                    
Your temperature is 98.6.

However, it can also mean that your body temperature is high if we make a collocation with the verb “have”.

Example:                    
Oh, you have a temperature. It’s 102!

You might also hear a phrasal verb or a collocation to communicate the same idea:

Example:                    
What kind of medications are you taking?            

to take medication (collocation)

What kind of medication are you on?

to be on (yes! Phrasal verb!)

These are some ways that the nurse might communicate with you. Now we should consider some ways that you can communicate with the doctor. When we do this, we are usually talking about pain (noun).

We can do this by using verbs and adjectives to describe other nouns (parts of our body).

Two common words for this are the verb “hurt” and the adjective “sore”.

Example:        
My throat/back hurts.    


Or        

I have a sore throat/back.                                                                      

Another common method is to combine a part of the body with the word “ache” in order to form a noun and create another collocation with the verb “have”

Example:           
I have a headache.

I have an earache.

Hopefully this has been a helpful introduction to useful English language vocabulary for talking to the doctor, and hopefully you will not need this vocabulary anytime soon!

For some extra practice, here’s an excellent link to a picture dictionary in the Internet Archive that can help you learn the parts of the body in English:

https://archive.org/details/oxfordpicturedictionary3rdedition/page/n111/mode/2up

There are many challenges when you are learning English (or any foreign language). One of these challenges is especially tricky: how to make requests sound polite. 

What does “tricky” mean? Here is a great dictionary to use: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/learner-english/tricky

Ok. Let’s continue. It is very important in English to understand how to use language that is polite. Using polite speech varies greatly between different languages, especially if you try to translate.

Let’s look at some possible ways to express a need or desire. Let’s talk about pens. Yes, pens. A pen is a simple object, but getting a pen is a little complicated if you want to sound polite in English.

(What does “complicated” mean? 

Have a look: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/learner-english/complicated)

Let’s look at some different ways to communicate the same idea. The first few examples are not very polite, but they become more polite as we continue:

Example:        Give me a pen.

Ok. This is not polite speech in English for several reasons. First, it is a command. In English we use the imperative tense for this-notice that this sentence does not have a subject included. Second, it is very short and direct. Sometimes this can make spoken English sound impolite. Third, because it is a statement instead of a question, it is not a request.

Example:        I need a pen.

Hmm. This example sounds a little better in English because we are not commanding or ordering someone to do something. In fact, this sentence really should be acceptable, but it is still too direct for it to sound polite in English. This is when translating can be a problem because in many languages the statement “I need a pen.” would sound ok.

Example:        Can I use your pen?

Now we are starting to be in an area of language that sounds more polite. Even though “can” is not the most suitable word according to the strict rules of the English language, the word “can” is usually very acceptable to most English speakers. It is important to remember that most native speakers in English (just like native speakers in your language) use language that most other speakers accept as normal, rather than using grammar and vocabulary that language books say is correct.

Example:        May I borrow the pen?

Now we are really getting polite (and even more formal). This is because we are using the verb “may” for permission. Even though “may” is technically the verb we should use for polite requests, it has come to sound a little formal (especially in American English) because so many native speakers use “can” instead. Notice that this example and the previous example are both in the form of questions instead of statements. 

Example:        
Would you mind if I borrow your pen?

This is another good example of making a request using polite speech. The reason is the use of the phrase “Would you mind”. First this is a commonly accepted wording for how to make requests sound polite. Second, it makes the question longer and therefore, sound less direct. 

We can see that the words we choose are very important. We must also remember that the sound (or “tone”) of our voice is extremely important. Usually when the pitch of our voice sounds higher, the needs or requests that we are trying to communicate will sound more polite.

We hope this has been helpful in understanding how to make requests sound polite in English. Remember to listen for examples like these when you are practicing listening in English!