English Phrasal Verbs for Sickness

English for your every day life, or everyday English is what I focus on teaching you each and every week right here at and on English Outside the Box!

As you’ll notice this week, when you watch the video below, I am feeling a little under the weather. I am feeling a lit bit sick, a little run down. (You’ll likely notice this from my voice). Because I’ve been feeling like this, I’ve been using a lot of phrasal verbs related to sickness. You know that every time I find myself utilizing different vocabulary or using a lot of English expressions that could help you to learn even more vocabulary, I try to teach a lesson about it.

That why today’s everyday English lesson is going to review English Phrasal Verbs for Sickness! This is going to help you talk about when you are sick. So, it today’s lesson you’ll learn:

5 new phrasal verbs for sickness in English
how they sound naturally in context
how to practice them for your own use

Let’s do it!

First, let’s hear them naturally in context:

Unfortunately I’ve come down with a cold. I think I probably picked it up on the plane. I recently went to Texas, and I probably picked up some germs or picked up a bug from the flight, or maybe for being in a new environment.

I am getting over it, though, it might not sound like it, but I am getting over it. I’ve been fighting it off with a few natural remedies. I’m getting a lot of sleep, I’m drinking a lot of green juice, getting my vitamins and a lot of fruits and vegetables. I don’t really like medicine so I try to get through the sickness as natural as possible. Luckily, there are tons of natural remedies when I am feeling this run down.

Psssst…you can review more vocabulary about sickness here.

5 English Phrasal Verbs for Sickness

To come down (with something – like a sickness)

To begin feeling, or having, some kind of sickness/illness.

To come down with a fever. To come down with a cold/the flu.

to pick (something) up

To pick a sickness up means to get the sickness, to be exposed to the virus or bacteria.

I probably picked up a bug from the flight.

get over a sickness

To get over an sickness/illness means to begin to feel better, to start to feel better and become healthy again

When you come down with the flu, how did you get over it?

I hope you get over this sore throat soon.

fight (something-like a sickess) off

To try and recover from the illness

What do you think was the most important thing to fight of that terrible sickness?

What natural remedies do you use to fight off a cold?

get through (something- like a sickness)

To finally pass and go beyond the sickness – to finish the sickness and become healthy.

I only got through the flu after taking medicines and vitamins.

Bonus vocabulary words

Remedy – something you do to get better

I prefer using some natural remedies to recover from the flu.

Run down – an adjective that means feeling bad or feeling sick. Notice that this is not a phrasal verb.

So good to see you teaching even though you are a little run down.

Practice makes perfect

Practice using these phrasal verbs by filling in the blank.

**IMPORTANT NOTE: There may be more than one phrasal verb that is possible and please focus on the accurate verb tense and structure (don’t just use the base verb)

What do you do to ______a sickness when you’ve ________ it?
Medicines help _____ an illness off quicker, but I prefer to get ______ it naturally.
It’s hard to avoid __________ on a plane because germs are everywhere!
Most people ______ with a cold every year.
Rest will always help you ______ a cold or flu.

Practice even more

Listen to the phrasal verbs, learn all of them, create your own sentences and use the comment box here or in the video on Youtube to ask me questions about illness using the phrasal verbs you just learned.

Answers from the fill in the blank exercise:

fight off/get over/get through, come down with

fight, over/through

picking something up

come down with

get over/through

I hope you never have to use these phrasal verbs and you never get sick; however, it’s probably inevitable that you’ll need them sometime. So now, you’re ready!

Until next time,

Happy Studying! ♥

If you love learning with me, the continue the fun and join my Phrasal Verb Conversation Club, which is a monthly training program. If you do need to improve your natural English, and if you want to improve your fluency by learning more natural expressions, join me and learners around the world to improve your skills. Get the details here:

Do you want to speak more natural and fluent English?

JOIN THE CONVERSATION CLUB AND GET WEEKLY SPEAKING PRACTICE & REAL CONVERSATIONS TO IMPROVE YOUR SPEAKING FLUENCY

The Conversation Club will provide you with 6 group conversation calls to practice with a real teacher and a group message community to connect with other members.

You will also get weekly English lessons to help your vocabulary, listening, reading, pronunciation, and more!

Try the Club for 1 week, free! Join the 1-week free trial here.

Posted in Language Use, Suggestions & Tips, Vocabulary and tagged English fluency, everyday english lesson, phrasal verbs, vocabulary, youtube video