English at the Doctor: The Phrases B1 Needs in a Real Appointment
Most courses cover health as a vocabulary topic: a list of body parts, a list of illnesses, and a dialogue that ends after two lines. A real appointment does not work like that. You have to describe when something started, how it feels, what you have already taken, and then understand instructions delivered quickly by someone who says them fifty times a day. The gap between the list and the room is where people freeze.
This list is pinned to B1 on purpose. At A2 you can name a body part and say that it hurts, which is enough to be sent to the right room. At B1 you are expected to give a history: when it began, whether it is constant, what makes it worse, and what you have already done about it. That is a different set of words, and almost none of them are medical.
If you want the general B1 layer underneath this one, the free B1 vocabulary list covers it. What follows is the part that only appears in a clinic.
Booking and arriving
The appointment starts before the appointment. Reception is usually the fastest English in the whole visit, and it is almost entirely fixed phrases, which means it can be learned as blocks rather than assembled word by word.
- I would like to make an appointment with a doctor.
- Do you have anything earlier? This is quite urgent.
- It is not an emergency, but it has been going on for a while.
- I am registered here. My name is spelled ...
- Is there a walk in clinic nearby?
- I have an appointment at half past two.
- Do I need to bring my insurance card?
- Sorry, could you repeat that more slowly?
Describing a symptom instead of naming it
The single most useful move at B1 is to stop hunting for the correct noun and describe the sensation instead. You do not need the word for a specific kind of pain if you can say where it is, what it feels like and when it happens. Native speakers do exactly the same thing.
Notice how many of these are ordinary adjectives doing medical work. Sharp, dull, tight and stiff are not health vocabulary. They are B1 words used in a place a textbook rarely puts them.
| Word | What it describes | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| sharp | sudden and narrow | I get a sharp pain when I breathe in. |
| dull | low, constant, hard to locate | There is a dull ache in my lower back. |
| tight | pressure, restriction | My chest feels tight in the morning. |
| stiff | hard to move | My neck has been stiff since Monday. |
| swollen | larger than normal | My ankle is swollen and warm. |
| numb | no feeling | Two of my fingers go numb at night. |
| dizzy | unsteady, spinning | I feel dizzy when I stand up quickly. |
| itchy | makes you want to scratch | The rash is itchy but not painful. |
Putting it in time
Doctors ask about time before they ask about anything else, and this is where the grammar actually matters. A symptom that started in the past and continues now takes the present perfect, which is why for and since do so much work in this room.
For is followed by a length of time. Since is followed by the point it began. I have had this cough for two weeks. I have had this cough since the start of the month. Getting this pair wrong will not stop you being treated, but it will cost you a follow up question every time.
The other pattern worth having ready is the frequency answer, because it is asked in every appointment and rarely taught: it comes and goes, it is there all the time, it is worse at night, it only happens when I walk upstairs.
- It started about ten days ago.
- I have had it since last Tuesday.
- I have had it for roughly three weeks.
- It comes and goes.
- It is getting worse rather than better.
- It was fine until I started the new job.
- This is the third time this year.
What you have already done about it
This part is usually skipped in course books and asked in every real appointment. You need to be able to report what you have taken, what you are taking regularly, and what has happened before.
- I have been taking paracetamol, but it only helps for an hour or two.
- I am allergic to penicillin.
- I am on medication for my blood pressure.
- I had the same thing two years ago and it cleared up on its own.
- I have never had anything like this before.
- My previous doctor prescribed something similar, but I do not remember the name.
Understanding the answer
Comprehension is the half that people prepare least and need most. The doctor will use a small set of verbs, and they are worth recognising before you are in the chair rather than after.
Take is used for tablets, and the instruction almost always carries a time expression with it: take one tablet three times a day, take it with food, take the full course even if you feel better. Refer means to send you to someone else. Rule out means to test for something in order to eliminate it, which sounds alarming and usually is not.
| Verb | What it means here |
|---|---|
| prescribe | to write you a medicine you collect at a pharmacy |
| refer | to send you to a specialist |
| rule out | to test in order to eliminate a possibility |
| monitor | to watch it over time before acting |
| clear up | to get better without further treatment |
| flare up | to become suddenly worse again |
| run some tests | to order blood work or a scan |
The three sentences to have ready
If you take nothing else from this list, take these. They are the ones that keep an appointment moving when your English runs out, and none of them require you to know the vocabulary you are missing.
Sorry, I did not catch that. Could you say it again? How do you spell that? And the most useful of all: I am not sure I understood. Does that mean I should stop taking the other tablets?
Where MindDory fits
Vocabulary like this has a specific problem: you need it rarely and completely. A word you meet once a year is a word you will have forgotten by the time it matters, which is exactly the case spaced repetition was built for.
MindDory is built around that gap. You add the words you actually met, including the ones from a real appointment, and they come back on the schedule that keeps them available rather than the schedule that lets them fade. If you are not sure which level you are working at, the level checker takes a few minutes and tells you where to aim.