Vocabulary Related to Diseases in French

We can’t avoid falling ill. Many new diseases are arising these days. While you can’t possibly avoid getting sick, you can have medicines and revive yourselves. In this lesson, learn names of some diseases so you can explain to the doctor what exactly is going wrong.

1. mal à la tête

Meaning: a pain you feel inside your head

English: headache

Example: Il ne pouvait pas dormir à cause d’un mal de tête. (He couldn’t sleep because of the headache.)

2. mal au ventre

Meaning: pain in your stomach

English: stomachache

Example: Elle a eu mal au ventre à force de trop rire. (She got a stomach ache from laughing too much.)

3. mal aux dents

Meaning: pain caused by something being wrong with one of your teeth

English: toothache

Example: Le médecin lui a conseillé de prendre de la glace pour son mal de dents (The doctor advised him to have ice cream for his toothache.)

4. diarrhée

Meaning: an illness in which the body’s solid waste is more liquid than usual and comes out of the body more often

English: Diarrhoea

Example: Elle a bu de l’eau insalubre qui a provoqué la diarrhée. (She drank unclean water which resulted in diarrhoea.)

5. mal à la gorge

Meaning: a condition in which your throat is red and feels painful, especially when you swallow 

English: sore throat

Example: Elle ne pouvait rien manger à cause d’un mal de gorge. (She couldn’t eat anything because of a sore throat.)

6.   la varicelle

Meaning: an infectious disease that causes a slight fever and red spots on the skin

English: chickenpox

Example: Elle est seule dans une pièce pour que les autres n’attrapent pas la varicelle. (She is alone in a room so others don’t catch chickenpox.)

7. nausée

Meaning: the feeling that you are going to vomit

English: nausea

Example: Il a été pris de nausées après avoir mangé de la mauvaise nourriture. (He was overcome with nausea after eating some bad food.)

8. le diabète

Meaning: a disease in which the body cannot control the level of sugar in the blood

English: diabetes

Example: Même s’il souffrait de diabète, il ne sautait pas sa dose quotidienne de sucreries. (Even though he had diabetes, he wouldn’t skip his daily dose of sweets.)

9. le cancer

Meaning :a trip from one place to another

English: cancer

Example: De nos jours, les gens ont peur même juste en écoutant le mot cancer. (People these days are scared even just listening to the word cancer.)

10. Une pneumonie

Meaning: a serious illness in which one or both lungs become red and swollen and filled with liquid

English: pneumonia 

Example: Elle a développé une pneumonie qui l’a amenée à l’hôpital. (She developed pneumonia which landed her in hospital.)

11. Une angine

Meaning: a painful infection of the tonsils

English: tonsillitis 

Example: Ma sœur a une angine quelques jours avant son concours de chant. (My sister is down with tonsillitis days before her singing competition.)

12. Crise cardiaque

Meaning: a serious medical condition in which the heart does not get enough blood, causing great pain and often leading to death

English: heart attack

Example: De nos jours, de nombreuses personnes dans la trentaine font une crise cardiaque. (Many people in their 30s these days get a heart attack.)

13. la tension arterielle

Meaning: a measure of the pressure at which the blood flows through the body

English: blood pressure

Example: Ma mère souffre de problèmes de tension artérielle. (My mother suffers from blood pressure problems.)

14. de la fièvre

Meaning: a medical condition in which the body temperature is higher than usual and the heart beats very fast

English: fever

Example: Elle a attrapé de la fièvre en se trempant sous la pluie. (She caught a fever by drenching in the rain.)

15. la grippe

Meaning: a common infectious illness that causes fever and headache

English: the flu

Example: Steve est toujours cloué au lit avec la grippe. (Steve’s still in bed with the flu.)

Now that you have learnt the meanings of these words in French, use them to talk about any diseases you ever have. For more such vocabulary in French, keep following our blog. You can also learn languages online with us by visiting our website.