Travelling is a whole lot of fun, especially when you can speak the local language! But on some unfortunate occasions, we might need to put our language skills to use for the sake of our health.
Whether it’s nipping into a pharmacy to get help after a dodgy moules-frites, or going to the hospital to sort out a medical emergency, our French conversations might require knowledge of these topics to keep ourselves safe and well.
This edition of our blog will cover the most useful words, phrases and expressions to help you manoeuvre around the topic of medical help – this also includes the signage you might need to look out for, and numbers to call.
The first expressions involve describing how you feel or explaining where it hurts:
avoir mal à… to have a sore… [followed by the body part where you have an ache or pain]
J’ai mal au dos. My back is sore.
Quand je me suis réveillée, j’avais très mal à la tête. When I woke up, I had a really bad headache.
Mon père a mal à l’estomac après avoir mangé des huîtres. My dad has stomach ache after having eaten some oysters.
On voudrait voir un dentiste. Mes fils ont mal aux dents, tous les deux ! We’d like to see a dentist. Both of my sons have got toothache!
But depending on what’s wrong, you might just need to use a single verb to go on to explain your condition, rather than using this set phrase.
The most common verbs in this type of scenario are:
avoir de la fièvre to have a temperature
avoir des vertiges to feel dizzy; to have vertigo
avoir des palpitations to have palpitations
avoir la diarrhée to have diarrhea
avoir la grippe to have the flu
avoir la nausée to have nausea
avoir une cystite to have cystitis
avoir une toux (sèche) to have a (dry) cough
avoir le rhume des foins to have hayfever
avoir le diabète de type un / deux to have type one / two diabetes
avoir d’attaque to have a fit
être allergique à la / à l’ / au / aux… to be allergic to… [use our French dictionary to find and insert your noun here]
être diabétique to be diabetic
faire de l’hypertension to have high blood pressure
As for pharmacies, you’ll see that they are abundant in France. But this is not without good reason! Unlike in the UK, where you can buy things like paracetamol and antihistamines off the shelf (even in supermarkets), you’ll need to go into a pharmacy and ask for medicine over the counter.
You’re looking out for a big green cross or plus sign – which is usually lit up in the dark – and the word pharmacie.
If you don’t know which medicine to get and need to tell someone what’s wrong, head back to the first section of this blog for phrases. You can insert medical conditions from the list into this phrase, simply remove the first verb:
Est-ce que vous avez quelque chose contre le / la / l’/ les ____ ? Do you have anything for ____?
For example: Est-ce que vous avez quelque chose contre la diarrhée ? Do you have anything for diarrhea?
If you know what you need to buy or get prescribed, you can insert any of the following medicines into this phrase:
Est-ce que je peux avoir _____, s’il vous plaît ? Can I have ____, please?
des analgésiques painkillers
du paracétamol paracetamol
de l’aspirine asprin
des antihistaminiques antihistamines
des antidépresseurs antidepressants
des antibiotiques antibiotics
la pilule the pill (contraceptive pill)
la pilule du lendemain the morning-after-pill
The pharmacist might have some further questions for you:
Qu’est-ce qui vous arrive ? What seems to be the problem?
Cela fait combien de temps que vous vous sentez comme ça ? How long have you been feeling like this?
Est-ce que vous avez des problèmes de santé ? Do you have any existing medical conditions?
Est-ce que vous prenez d’autres médicaments ? Are you taking any other medication?
Je peux avoir les informations concernant votre assurance maladie ? Can I have your medical insurance details?
We won’t go into the details of forming different types of questions, as you can find more information in our Learning French blog on asking questions.
For more serious illnesses or accidents, you might need emergency help. You can call the European emergency number 112. Or in France specifically, there are different two-digit numbers for each emergency service. The number for urgent medical help is 15.
This blog covers important words and phrases used in face-to-face conversations. If you want to learn about how you might express yourself to get help by phone, we recommend reading our blog about speaking on the phone.
If someone is kind enough to help you in the street first, you might want to ask:
Est-ce que vous pouvez appeler une ambulance, s’il vous plaît ? Can you call an ambulance, please?
On a besoin d’une ambulance de toute urgence. We urgently need an ambulance.
If you’re able to get a taxi or public transport to a hospital, some useful words include:
l’hôpital (m) hospital
les urgences (f) A&E
Or maybe you can ask:
Est-ce que vous pouvez nous emmener à l’hôpital le plus proche ? Can you take us to the nearest hospital?
Où est l’hôpital ? Where is the hospital?
Well, this topic might not be the most exciting for our monthly conversation blog, but it might come in handy one day on your travels. We hope that it hasn’t been too much of a pain to get to grips with! Take care – and get well soon to anyone who needs it…
Language In Use
Here is a summary of the most useful phrases from this blog:
avoir mal à…. to have a sore…. [insert body part]
être allergique à la / au / aux… to be allergic to… [insert noun]
avoir la diarrhée / une cystite / de la fièvre to have diarrhea / cystitis / a temperature
Est-ce que vous prenez d’autres médicaments ? Are you taking any other medication?
Oui je prends… Yes, I am taking….[insert medication]
les antidépresseurs / l’aspirine / la pilule antidepressants / asprin / the pill
Est-ce que vous pouvez appeler une ambulance ? Can you call an ambulance?
Est-ce que vous pouvez m’emmener à l’hôpital ? Can you take me to the hospital?
Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
