COVID-19: Talking about coronavirus in English – vocabulary & expressions

  Today, I'm connecting to you from my home,and maybe you're watching or working from your home during this time of the coronavirus. Wherever you are, I hope you and your familyare all safe and well and yeah, this is a difficult, challenging time for all of usand we have a lot of information coming at us, so much information, so fast that it canmake us feel confused and worried and scared sometimes, right? So, there's also a lot of new vocabulary,and old vocabulary that's being used in different ways, so I wanted to help you to understandthis vocabulary in English and also to be able to speak about it to your friends, yourcolleagues or even to medical staff if you need to, alright? So, this video is going to be a little bitdifferent from our usual lesson, but I'm going to try to give you a lot of information thatI hope will help you, alright? So, first of all, just a few points. As you know, I'm an English teacher, right? I'm not a doctor and I'm teaching you English. I am not giving you any medical advice. Second, when it comes to your health, it'sso important that you communicate and listen, hear, understand in your own language as muchas possible. When it comes to your health, you want tobe as clear as possible about the instructions that people give you, okay? So, whenever possible, use your own nativelanguage for that purpose. However, if you live, right now, in an Englishspeaking country and you need to understand what's being said around you about this virusby the medical authorities, by the media, then this video will definitely help you andalso, if you just want to use this time to improve your English, to be able to understandmore of what's being said, to be able to discuss this issue, the problems, the issues, thesolutions, okay? Then, again, this lesson will give you manyof the words and concepts that you need to be able to do that, okay? So, let's get started. So, first of all, let's start with the nameof this illness. Officially now, it's called COVID-19. That comes from the words "coronavirus disease2019", alright? So, how do we say that somebody has the virusor this illness? We can do it in a number of different ways. For example, you could say, "He has COVID-19",or, you could make it negative and say, "He doesn't have COVID-19". Another way you could just say, "He has coronavirus",or "He doesn't have coronavirus", okay? They're using different terms for this illness. They're saying "COVID-19", "coronavirus","the coronavirus", "the new coronavirus" "the novel coronavirus", "novel" just means "new",okay? So, you might hear different expressions forthis illness itself. Another way you could say it is, as I said,"She has the coronavirus.", instead of just saying "She has coronavirus". Both ways are being used. Or, "She doesn't have the coronavirus", alright? A little more formal way they often use andyou might hear on the news is "They tested positive for the coronavirus", or "They testednegative for COVID-19", so if somebody tested positive, it means they have the virus, andif they tested negative, they don't have the virus, alright? Let's go on from there. So, what are some of the symptoms that peoplemight have if they have this illness? So, what does the word "symptoms" mean? It means that you're showing some kind ofphysical or mental signs of this illness, and what are some of those common symptomsof the coronavirus? First one is a cough. What's a cough? Something like this [coughs], right? You know that. And you saw, of course, and you know becauseI'm sure you get this advice in your language that if you need to cough, or if someone iscoughing, they should cough where? In the bend of their elbow, okay? This is your elbow, you should cough in here. Alright? That's a cough. How do we say that, how do we use that ina sentence? He has a cough. Another symptom, a cold. What's a cold? You know, when your nose is running and you'regoing [sniff] all day long, okay, or you take a tissue and you blow your nose, alright,then you would say: She has a cold. Alright? Another symptom: sneezing. What does it mean to sneeze? I'll try to show you: achoo! Okay, again, into this part of your elbow. He is sneezing, is how we would say that ina sentence. Next is a fever. What does it mean to have a fever? It means your feeling, you know, warm or hot,right? So, how would we say that? You would say: She has a fever. He has a fever. And, what is - what are some of the otherwords connected to having a fever? Basically, having a temperature, okay? So, you could also say: He has a temperature. Temperature just measures the amount of heatin your body, right? Or, if somebody - if you tell somebody thatsomeone has a fever, probably the next question will be "What's his temperature?", or "What'sher temperature?", or "What's your temperature?" right? So, we could say "His temperature is 39 degrees.",or "His temperature is 101 degrees", okay, there's different measurements, right? Celsius and Fahrenheit. Another symptom is a body ache. What does it mean to ache? It means to hurt, right, your body feels sore,so the other way you could say that in a sentence is "Her body hurts", okay, if you're describingto someone else what's happening to someone. A person might also feel fatigue. Fatigue just means very, very tired, okay? A lot of exhaustion, a lot of tiredness, andthe way we would use that in a sentence, really, is just to say or to convey this meaning isto say, "He's very tired", alright, or "He's feeling very tired". Also, you might - the person might experiencedifficulty breathing. What does it mean to breathe, okay? To breathe is like this. Of course, you don't have to close your eyeslike I just did, you can just --. Okay? This is breathing. So, if somebody's finding it hard to breathe,you could say, "It's hard for her to breathe." Alright? So, those are the symptoms. Now, let's look at some more advanced words,some more advanced nouns that are being used about this subject. So, three very common advanced words thatare being used are the words "outbreak", "epidemic", and "pandemic". So, think of is this way, first of all. An outbreak is like this, an epidemic is likethis, and a pandemic is like that, alright? So, an outbreak is when something happenssuddenly, so a lot of people are affected. In this case, how were those people affected? They got a disease, okay? So, there was an outbreak in Wuhan, China. Next, when the outbreak spread to more peopleor other areas, it became an epidemic. Then, the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The WHO stands for World Health Organization,alright? And they declared, they said, that now, thisdisease has become a pandemic. So, that means the epidemic now spread toan even larger area, maybe even all over the world and became a pandemic. So, another word that you might hear a lotis that the health authorities took various measures to deal with this situation. So, measures here is just, like, actions orsteps, alright, that they took in order to try to control this problem. Another word is transmission. They wanted to limit the transmission of thevirus. So, transmission just means the spread ofthe virus, the passing on of the virus to other people, to more people, okay? Transmission, alright. Let's continue. Isolation. So, a lot of people are being asked to gointo isolation if they have the virus. So, isolation means that somebody has to bealone. They have to be away from everybody else forhealth reasons. So, people who have the coronavirus must bein isolation. They must be away from everybody else. Another word that's being used, which is similarin meaning but a little bit different is the word quarantine. So, people who are - who might have the coronavirusare asked to be in quarantine. So, here also, they're being asked to stayaway from other people because maybe there's a chance that they have the virus. For example, suppose somebody went on a flightand then they found out that somebody on the flight had this virus. So then everybody else who flew on that particularflight might be asked to go into self-quarantine, just in case they are infected by this virus,okay? So, you'll also hear these kinds of words. You should self-isolate, you should self-quarantine. That means you do it to yourself, by yourself. Okay. Another word is lockdown. A lot of cities and countries right now areeither in lockdown or under lockdown or on lockdown. We use different prepositions there. What does that mean? You probably do know because it might be happeningwhere you are, or somewhere else that you've read about. It means that people are not allowed to gowhere they want. Schools, shops, offices, businesses, restaurants,movie theatres, and lots of other places are shut down, okay? Also, maybe travel is restricted. There are many different aspects to a lockdown. A word - a kind of technical word that's beingused but a very important word, expression is really community spread, or community transmission. So, this happens when a disease spreads inthe community, but the health authorities don't know how people got that disease, okay? And they're very concerned about communityspread. The next word I know you probably do knowfor sure, face mask, right? The white mask that people are wearing, manypeople are wearing, face masks. Alright. So, those were many of the nouns that we hear- we're hearing today on the news. Now, let's look at some of the verbs, okay? To declare a pandemic. What does that mean? We talked about it, the WHO declared a pandemic. That means that they said or they announcedsomething officially and publicly, alright? Another verb, to ban, to ban large gatherings. What does it mean, to ban? It means to not allow something. For example, many things are being banned. Large gatherings, many people are not allowedto come together in one place. There's a limit on how many people can betogether at one time. So, large gatherings are banned or, in manycountries today, international flights are also banned. International travelers are banned. Not allowed, okay? Also, in many places, travel is being restricted,okay? To restrict means what? To limit it, okay? Not to stop it altogether, to ban means tostop it completely, but to restrict means to control it, to limit it, to limit travel,for example, to allow only some and not all people, okay? So, some flights to come in, maybe. To restrict something. What's also happening nowadays is that manycountries are sealing their borders. To seal, to seal means to close completely,okay, to close the borders, and the border is what? It's like the line that divides differentcountries. So, many countries are closing or sealingtheir borders. We're being asked also to avoid contact withothers. To avoid something means to try not to dothat. So, when they say avoid contact, right, touching,contact with other people, in order to keep yourself safe and to keep other people safe. Let's look at some more verbs here. Many people are stocking up on groceries,on food, on toilet paper. So, what does it mean to stock up? When people stock up, they're getting a lotof something to use in the future, alright? Maybe normally they don't buy that much, butnow they're buying a little bit more, they're stocking up for the future. That's okay and that's a little bit naturaland normal and it's going on everywhere. What's not okay is the next word, to hoardgoods. To hoard means to buy much, much more thanyou need and that is not looked at in a positive way, because if you hoard food or groceriesor toilet paper, then you have more than you need, but maybe other people don't have anything. Okay? So, stocking up is okay, hoarding is usuallylooked at in a more negative way. What's also happening is that a lot of non-essentialbusinesses are being shut. To shut a business means what? To close it. Just like you shut the door, you can closethe door, you can shut a lot of non-essential businesses. What does that mean? An essential business is something that'sabsolutely necessary, okay? So, right now, supermarkets are still open,many gas stations are open, okay? Because they're considered essential and necessary,otherwise where would you go to buy your food, okay? But non-essential means what is not absolutelynecessary. So, many non-essential businesses are beingshut. Restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and so on. Next, another verb, to cancel. Lots of things are being cancelled right now. Schools, schools are cancelled, universitiesare cancelled, conferences are cancelled, all kinds of things are being cancelled. So, what does it means to cancel something,is to decide that something is not going to happen. It's cancelled, alright? The other word is to postpone. Sometimes, something is not cancelled, butit's postponed. So, to postpone something means to delay something,to plan to have it at a later date. For example, just this morning, I heard thatthe Olympics have currently been postponed, alright? So, they're not cancelled, but they are postponedor delayed until later. Alright. Also, please remember that some of the thingsthat I'm telling you are true today. Maybe they're not going to be true tomorrow,but on the day when I'm doing this lesson for you, it's true. It may change just like so much is changing,alright? Another verb which you can use and which youwill hear is to control, to control the spread of the virus. So, to control the spread of the virus meanswhat? To limit, to limit the spread, okay? Make it as little as possible. Another very simple - sorry, similar wordbut a little more advanced and formal is to contain the transmission. So, if I say to control the spread or to containthe transmission, it really means the same thing, it's just fancier English. To contain in this case means to control orlimit the spread, the transmission, of the virus, alright? Another verb which you can use is to developsymptoms. To develop means to start to have symptoms. And what are symptoms, remember? We said symptoms are a sign, physical or mentalsign of an illness. So, what happens when someone develops serioussymptoms? Usually, they test. To test the patient, or to test people, andthat means simply to check if they have COVID-19, alright? And one of the reasons we are asked to stayat home as much as possible is to protect the vulnerable. So again, you understand all these words,okay, in your own language, because I'm sure you're getting the same news. All you're doing now is you're matching upthe words you've been hearing in your language, maybe, to the words, the same ideas in English,okay? So, to protect the vulnerable means to keepsafe people who are older, who are unwell or ill, or who are just weak, they're notas healthy. Vulnerable refers to this group of people,alright? So, let's move on from there to a few moreverbs. So, you might hear people when they're speakingcasually saying that I'm going to hunker down at home. What does that mean, to hunker down? To hunker down, it kind of means to stay ina safe place for some time until something is over, or danger passes. That's how they're using it right now, okay? Well, I'm not going to go out. The health authorities are saying we shouldgo home, we should stay at home, so I'm just going to hunker down and stay here for a longtime or for some time until this is all over, okay? Why? They're asking us to do this to take careof our own health and also to protect the vulnerable and other people. Another verb which we're hearing a lot oftoday is to livestream. To livestream a press conference. So, what does it mean to livestream? This is a general word, it's not just connectedto the coronavirus, right? So, to livestream means to show live on theinternet through video and audio, something that's happening somewhere, right? Maybe somebody's giving a press conference,the health authorities are speaking. The media is there, the cameras are there,and they're broadcasting it to you live so you can watch it as it is happening. And now, this is an expression that a lotof the health experts use. They say to flatten the curve, and the ideahere is that they're trying to prevent a lot of people from getting sick at the same time,and to try and spread it out so that, instead of, for example, 100 people getting sick atone time and then the hospitals are very busy, having, let's say, ten people getting sickover many days so that the hospitals are not as busy. So, the expression, to flatten the curve,refers to the graph that they show that if you're showing how many people are sick orill at a particular time, the graph might look like this, and this is a curve. So, if they want to flatten the curve, right,they want it to go down like this so that they can extend the time when people get sickand have more resources and hospitals and doctors and medicines and test kits availablefor more people. So, you might hear very often this expression,to flatten the curve, alright? Let's move on, okay? I know, so much vocabulary, right? But also, so much opportunity to learn thisspecific vocabulary which will be used in this context but also in other situations. So, let's look at some adjectives now thatare being used very often. Contagious. So, they may say the virus, the COVID virus,is contagious. This just means that it can pass easily orpass to others, alright? It's contagious, it can pass on to others,other people can get it. Another adjective, confirmed. Confirmed means yes, for sure, for certain. For example, she tested positive, it is aconfirmed case. That means they don't have any doubt, they'resaying yes, it's right, it's confirmed, it's true, it's a confirmed case. Alright? Next, we have a kind of pair of words. One is symptomatic, the other one is asymptomatic. So, this comes from the word which we learnedin the beginning, right? Symptom, symptom is what? Remember? A sign of an illness, physical or mental. So, if you're - if someone, not you, if someoneis symptomatic, it means they're showing some of the signs of the illness, okay? People are - people who show signs of illnessare symptomatic, but people who don't show any signs of the illness are asymptomatic. That means they are not showing any signsof the illness. Alright. Another pair of words that are often usedare mandatory and voluntary. For example, it's mandatory for him to bein isolation. So, mandatory here means he has to be, hehas no choice, okay? He has to do it, he must do it, it's mandatory,alright? The other word is voluntary. When something is voluntary, you can choose,you can decide whether to do it or not, okay? For example, and again, this might not betrue everywhere, it is voluntary to work from home, alright? In some cases, remember, right now, dependingon your city, your country, it might not be voluntary, but in some places, it might bevoluntary to work from home, that means you decide. Another word is fatal. So, if something is fatal, it means peoplecan die from that. For example, COVID-19 can be fatal. It can kill people. They can die, alright? That's what the word fatal means. The noun of that is fatality. Another word we're hearing a lot at this timeis unprecedented, and this means, well first, let me give you a sentence with it, maybeyou'll understand by yourself. All these events are unprecedented in my lifetime. So, what it means is that they have neverhappened before in my life. Alright? When something is unprecedented, it has neverhappened before, okay? Alright. So, let's move from there now to some of therecommendations and suggestions that we're hearing from the health authorities in differentparts of the world to help us during this time. We're being asked to maintain social distancing. Now, that has a lot of different meaningsand I will go into it very soon, but it means to do many things or take various steps tobasically stay away from other people, alright? We'll look at that in a second. We're being asked to avoid contact with peoplewho are sick or unwell. To avoid means to try not to do something,right? So, try not to have contact with people whoare unwell. Stay away from people who are not well. Of course, we all know we're supposed to dowhat with our hands? You know, wash our hands frequently with soapand water. Frequently means often, okay, not just a fewtimes, many times, wash our hands with soap. And, if you don't have soap and you're outside,we're being asked to do what? Use something called hand sanitizer, it'sa special liquid you can use to clean your hands, alright? Next, we're talking about - we're also beingtold to avoid touching our face or mouth or nose or eyes, to prevent ourselves from gettingsick, alright? Trying not to do something. Okay. Another recommendation, we're being told again,we talked a little bit about this, to cough or sneeze into a tissue, right, tissue paper,we can cough or, if we don't have a tissue paper close to use, we can cough or sneezeinto the bend of our elbow. Also, we are told, do not visit vulnerablepeople. You know now vulnerable people are the elderly,elderly is a nice way of saying old people, okay? The elderly, people who are unwell or weak,alright? So, those people we want to avoid visitingbecause it's easier for them to become sick than healthier people, okay? And we're being told that we should, as muchas possible, work from our home. Alright. So, I told you I would talk a little bit moreabout the social distancing, so let's do that. So, what does that social distancing? Again, I'm sure you know in your own language. Let's try to put an English take on it. So, it means do not get close to other people. We're being asked to stay at least two metersor six feet away from other people, as much as possible. Don't touch other people, don't visit otherpeople, don't invite a lot of people to your house or, really, anybody to your house, anddon't go out socially, okay, don't go to restaurants, don't go to clubs, don't go to crowded places. In any case, in many places, all of theseplaces are currently closed, so you don't really have the options, but sometimes peopleare still going out to beaches and parks and if there are too many people there, then thatis not a good thing according to the health authorities. So, we're being told to avoid, try our bestnot to, and stay away from large groups or crowds, to avoid public transportation, becauseof course, buses and trains and subways can be very crowded and we don't - we're not supposedto be in those situations, and in general, to avoid travelling, okay? Whether it's locally or internationally. Of course, you know that a lot of airlineshave cancelled their flights, they're not flying to different countries, and a lot ofcountries have sealed their borders so anyway, the airlines cannot fly there. Okay? So, what are we being told to do? We should stay home, work from home, keepin touch with other people by phone, by video, okay? Just because we're at home or maybe even unwellor isolated or in quarantine, it doesn't mean you can't talk to other people on the phoneor by video, and we should do that, you should do that. Keep in touch with family, friends, colleagues,so you don't feel lonely. You might be alone, but you don't need tofeel lonely or sad or bad, okay? Try to stay positive and happy, that's mysuggestion, as much as possible, with all respect to everything that's going on. And why are they asking us to take these measures,or these actions, or these steps? To reduce or lower the chances of catchingthe virus and reduce or lower the chances of passing it on to other people, okay? So, you want to avoid catching it and youwant to avoid passing it on to anyone else. Alright, let's look at some things that youmight hear people saying, okay, these days. They may be saying, oh, this situation isunprecedented. You know what it means, right? We talked about it; it means it's never happenedbefore. That's also why people are feeling reallynervous and scared and confused. It's a lot, it's so much happening, right? They might be saying, oh, these are very unpredictabletimes. Unpredictable means you cannot say what'sgoing to happen tomorrow, alright? There's a lot of uncertainty. You can't be sure, you can't be certain, alright? So, people are using these kind of sentencesand expressions to talk about the situation. People might be saying something like, youknow what, I'm really concerned about my health. I'm concerned about my family. I'm concerned about my job. So, what does it mean to be concerned aboutsomething? To, like, be worried, okay? To be a little bit worried about it, or veryworried. Many people, as you know, are losing theirjobs or have lost their jobs or have been laid off, so they may be really concernedabout their finances also, their money. Or, at a different level, people might sayI'm concerned about the economy. I'm concerned about the world. So, the economy, of course, refers to anykind of activities that are related to trade or industry or work that people do to makemoney, okay, within a country. People might also be saying things like this:I hope the situation improves soon, or I hope and pray that everything will be alright,okay? People are expressing their views, their ideas,their feelings, their emotions in many different ways, so these are some of the common expressionsand sentences you may hear. So, what can we do? Let's try to stay calm, right? Calm means don't panic, stay cool, okay? Take it easy. Stay as positive as you can. It's good for you, it's good for your health,good for people around you if we try to stay positive instead of being too, you know, stressedout, alright? Try to stay positive. Follow the advice of health experts and localauthorities about what to do, and these rules and regulations, another word for rules, aredifferent in different parts of the world, so pay attention to your local news always,and your national news, not just the international. Make the most of our time, okay? Let's do that. Many of us feel like we're kind of stuck athome, but maybe it's - we can use this time to do some things. We can all use this time to do some thingsthat we've always wanted to do. Maybe you can work on your English. Maybe you can learn something else that you'vealways wanted to learn. Use your time in a positive way so that youcan still feel that you're moving forward in your life in some way, alright? You're not stuck. You might be at home, but you're not stuck. That's your attitude, alright? Let's take care of ourselves. Let's take care of ourselves, first of all,alright? Because you can't help somebody if you'renot well, so take care of ourselves, our families, and do things to help us all to relax. Whatever that means for you, okay, maybe youlike to meditate. Maybe you like to do yoga, you could reada book, you could listen to music - peaceful music, maybe, or whatever music makes youhappy. Watch movies, watch a show, okay, do somethings to feel good. So, keep your heart happy, keep your mindhappy, right? And let's be kind, be nice, be kind, be helpfulto each other. Let's take care of each other and help eachother as much as we can through these difficult, uncertain days, alright? So, what could you say to others? Suppose you're working somewhere and you'reworking from home, but you are in contact with your colleagues, with your manager orother people, or even just family and other friends. So, some expressions that you can use at thistime, at the end of a conversation usually, is something like be well, stay healthy, staystrong, alright? Simple expressions. Be well, stay healthy, stay strong, okay? And last of all, on behalf of all of us atwww.engvid.com , I would just like to say thank you for always caring about learningand growing and becoming better and better, okay? It means so much. We're all fine here at www.engvid.com andwe wish all of you the same. May you, your family, may you and your familystay safe, stay healthy, and stay strong. Thank you so much.