Hello this is Simon,<\/p>\n
I get hay fever<\/strong><\/em> from time to time. I am allergic to<\/strong><\/em> some plants in fall but I’m not sure which ones. At the moment I only have mild hay fever.<\/strong> My eyes aren’t itchy<\/strong><\/em>, but my nose tickles<\/strong><\/em>, and occasionally I’ll have a fit of sneezing<\/strong><\/em> for a few seconds. It always happens at the most embarrassing times. I try to hold back the sneeze, and pull some ridiculous faces while doing so, causing the students to burst into fits of laughter. My nose isn’t really runny, there is just a trickl<\/strong>e<\/strong><\/em>, so I dab it with a tissue. Spring on the other hand is completely different. There is a period of about a week or two when my allergies really play up<\/strong><\/em>. My eyes feel like<\/strong><\/em> there are small spiky particles in them. They get incredibly itchy. I wake up some mornings, and my eyelashes are glued together with sleep<\/strong><\/em>. My throat is rough, and I get a raspy cough<\/strong><\/em>. My nose swings from between being a little stuffy<\/strong><\/em>, to completely blocked<\/strong><\/em>, to running like a tap<\/strong><\/em>. Stuff just gushes<\/strong><\/em> from it sometimes. I think I have a cedar allergy<\/strong><\/em>, and that’s what causes my most unpleasant symptoms. This spring I had a couple of difficult weeks. But so far this fall, it hasn’t been so bad. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for now, and try to enjoy theses lovely sunny days of recent.<\/p>\n With the change of seasons a few people have told me of their autumn hay fever, so I thought it would be a good chance to introduce some new words and expressions you could use.<\/p>\n \u201cGet\u201d and \u201chave\u201d are two verbs that often get mixed up when talking about illness and ailments. This is because \u201chave\u201d is a stative verb, which describes a current state (I have a headache now.) or often a past state (I had a headache this morning.) \u201cGet\u201d on the other hand is an active verb, which means to “come to have\u201d something. It is often used to talk about a recurring ailment (I get headaches occasionally.) or to talk about an ailment coming on (The music was so loud that I started to get a headache.\/I got a headache after drinking ice cold water.) There are two common ways to talk about the things that we have allergic reactions to. One is using the noun \u201callergy\u201d (e.g. I have a peanut allergy.) And, the other is using the adjective \u201callergic\u201d (e.g. I am allergic to peanuts.) To be \u201callergic to\u201d can also mean to dislike something a lot (e.g. He\u2019s allergic to hard work.)<\/p>\n I think \u201citchy\u201d is an adjective that most people are familiar with, but sometimes there isn\u2019t an adjective to describe the exact feeling or sensation you have, in which case you have to create your own expression to best describe how you feel. The phrases \u201cI feel like….\u201d and \u201cMy…feels like…\u201d are useful for this. \u201cI feel like my head\u2019s going to explode.\u201d and \u201cMy … feels like it\u2019s on fire.\u201d are commonly used for a variety of situations.<\/p>\n This expression probably didn\u2019t make any sense when you first read it. That\u2019s because of the word \u201csleep\u201d, right? The noun \u201csleep\u201d actually has a meaning as follows: \u201ca yellowish substance sometimes found in the corners of the eyes after sleeping\u201d. It is a word used in conversation (e.g. Every morning I use a wet cloth to wipe my daughters face, and wipe the sleep from her eyes.)<\/p>\n The above words and expressions describe a few different states or conditions your nose may be in if you have hay fever or a cold. \u201cMy nose tickles\u201d describes a very mild irritation that can often lead to sneezing. I think a lot of you will be familiar with the expressions \u201cI have a blocked nose.\u201d or \u201cI have a runny nose.\u201d A stuffy nose, means it is filled with mucus. It is partially blocked. \u201cStuffy\u201d can also be used to describe a room that has poor ventilation, which is often hot, or a person who is not open to new ideas.<\/p>\n A “fit” in this case means “a sudden, uncontrolled period of doing something or feeling something”. You can have a “fit” of things such as sneezing, coughing, or laughing.<\/p>\n A “trickle” means a slow but steady flow of liquid. The word trickle can be both a noun (There was just a trickle of water coming out of the tap.)\u00a0or a verb (Water trickled out of the tap).<\/p>\n Both of the above expressions are hyperbole, but we often use exaggerated expressions in English to describe our illnesses and ailments. \u201cRunning like a tap\u201d, I\u2019m sure gives a clear image of the kind of condition it describes. The verb \u201cgush\u201d means to flow out of something quickly and in large amounts.<\/p>\n To \u201cplay up\u201d means to misbehave, and so is a phrase that is often used when talking about children. You can imagine what kinds of problems your allergies cause when they misbehave. This phrase can also be used to describe things such machines that don\u2019t perform or operate as they should (My car has been playing up a lot recently. I think I\u2019d better take it to the mechanic.)<\/p>\n The adjective \u201craspy\u201d means hoarse or rough sounding. You can have a raspy voice, throat or cough. It comes from the noun \u201crasp\u201d which is a rough tool that is used for scraping hard materials such as metal or wood.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There are a number of ways to describe the different symptoms of hay fever. The ones I listed are some of the symptoms I myself have experienced in the past. Hopefully there were some new words or expressions in this that you may be able to put to use.<\/p>\n I hope this was helpful.<\/p>\n See you next month!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello this is Simon, I get hay fever from time to time. I am allergic to some plants in fall but I’m not sure which ones. At the moment I only have mild hay fever. My eyes aren’t itchy, bu…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":8022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[276,441,5],"tags":[100,213,460,22],"class_list":{"0":"post-7120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-native","8":"category-word","9":"category-learning","10":"tag-english-learning","11":"tag-213","12":"tag-460","13":"tag-22","14":"article cf"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7120"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7191,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7120\/revisions\/7191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fruitfulenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}“I get hay fever” \/ “I only have mild hay fever”<\/h2>\n
\n*** \u201cGet\u201d is generally used for non-contagious ailments. For contagious illnesses such as a cold or the flu, the active verb \u201ccatch\u201d is used. ***<\/p>\n“I am allergic to… \/ \u201cI have a … allergy\u201d<\/h2>\n
“My eyes aren’t itchy” \/ “My eyes feel like….”<\/h2>\n
“my eyelashes are glued together with sleep”<\/h2>\n
“my nose tickles” \/ “stuffy” \/ “blocked”<\/h2>\n
“have a fit of (sneezing)”<\/h2>\n
“just a trickle”<\/h2>\n
“running like a tap” \/ “stuff just gushes”<\/h2>\n
“my allergies really play up”<\/h2>\n
“a raspy cough”<\/h2>\n