How to Talk about Feeling Better in English

Well, hello, and welcome to this English lesson.

As many of you know,

I wasn't feeling well for a little while.

And the number one question that people asked me

when I wasn't feeling well, was, are you still sick?

And sometimes they would say, are you feeling better?

So I thought I would come outside on this snowy day,

and teach you some English phrases

that we normally use when people ask us that question.

There's actually quite a few of them, so let's get started.

So as many of you know, I was sick for a couple of weeks,

and while I was sick, my mom would call every other day,

and she would ask, are you still sick?

And I would usually answer in one of three ways.

I would say, I feel better.

That didn't mean that I was, you know,

completely over the sickness, but I would say I feel better.

Or I would say I'm feeling better,

which is a contraction of, I am feeling better.

Or I would say I'm getting better,

which is a contraction of, I am getting better.

All of those sentences indicate

that I was still a little bit sick,

but it also was a great way to let my mom know

that I was definitely feeling better,

and getting better, that my health was improving.

So those are the probably three most common ways

to answer the question, are you still sick?

And it was really nice that my mom called me,

actually almost every day while I was sick.

Everyone's mom should call them when they're sick.

Even if they're an older person like me,

it's still nice to get a call from your mom

when you're not feeling well.

Now, when you talk about feeling better,

you can talk also about how much better you feel.

And we do this by using the word a little bit and a lot.

So I could respond in this way.

I could say I'm feeling a little bit better.

That would mean I'm still quite sick,

but I'm definitely feeling better than the day before.

I could also say I'm feeling a lot better.

That would mean that I no longer have really bad symptoms,

and I'm starting to feel almost completely healthy again.

So we say things like that, I'm feeling a little bit better,

or I'm feeling a lot better,

to kind of indicate to what degree we are feeling better.

Both are sentences

I definitely used a lot when I was sick as well.

I would often say, oh, I feel a little bit better today.

Or, in particular last Thursday, I said to Jen,

I'm feeling a lot better today.

I was almost 100%.

So you just heard me use the term 100%.

Often when we're talking about how we feel,

we'll talk about whether we're feeling 100% or not.

In fact, we almost always use this in the negative,

or in a way like here, let me give you an example.

If someone said, are you still sick?

I would probably respond by saying I'm not quite 100%,

or I'm not feeling 100%.

When you're feeling 100%, you're not sick at all anymore,

but sometimes you're getting better,

but you're just not quite there yet.

You're just not quite 100% healthy.

And so you would respond by saying,

I don't feel 100%, or I don't quite feel 100%.

There are a couple of other phrases

I wanted to teach you today in this English lesson

that you can use when you're starting to feel better.

The first is to say I'm on the mend.

The English verb to mend means is to fix something,

like if my mitten or my glove had a hole in it,

I could mend it.

And we use this to talk about how we're feeling as well

when we're sick, and starting to feel better.

We sometimes say I'm on the mend.

So I was definitely on the mend last week.

Another phrase we use sometimes

is to say, I think I'm over the worst of it,

or I'm over the worst of it.

When you get sick, you usually are a little bit sick,

and then you're really sick.

And then you start to get better.

And that middle part where you're really, really sick,

we would call that the worst part of the sickness.

So sometimes you'll just say,

I think I'm over the worst of it,

or I'm over the worst of it,

indicating that you were a little bit sick,

you got really sick,

but you're definitely getting better.

So you're either on the mend,

or you're over the worst of it.

Both of those situations are good places to be

when you're sick,

and then it's so fun when you're starting to feel better.

But what do you say if you're totally better?

If you were sick, and now you just aren't sick anymore.

While there's two phrases that come to mind.

You would simply say, I'm better.

Are you still sick?

No, I'm better.

And the second one is, are you still sick?

No, I feel great.

Both of those phrases would indicate

to the person asking the question

that you are no longer sick.

I'm better, or I feel great.

By the way right now, I feel great.

Even though it's -13,

and I'm outside without my winter hat on, I feel great.

It's just, it's so nice to feel a lot better

after being sick for a bit, so I feel great.

Well, thank you for watching this little English lesson

about the things you can say when you're sick,

and when you're starting to feel better.

I hope you were able to learn just a few English phrases

that you can use if you are in that situation.

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