How to talk about virus and epidemics in Spanish
Spanish warm up!
Before we beginn with the lesson, I want to prove to you that you already can understand a lot in Spanish just by relating what you see and hear to your knowledge of English, your mother language and other languages that you might know.
I have written a simple text in Spanish for you to learn some expressions, dont worry, you will find a translation of the words you need right next to it.
Focus on understanding the meaning, not translating word by word!
¿Qué es un coronavirus?
Los coronavirus son una extensa familia de virus que pueden causar enfermedades tanto en animales como en humanos. En los humanos, se sabe que varios coronavirus causan infecciones respiratorias que pueden ir desde el resfriado común hasta enfermedades más graves. El coronavirus que se ha descubierto más recientemente causa la enfermedad por coronavirus COVID-19.
¿Qué es la COVID-19?
La COVID-19 es la enfermedad infecciosa causada por el coronavirus que se ha descubierto más recientemente. Tanto el nuevo virus como la enfermedad eran desconocidos antes de que estallara el brote en Wuhan (China) en diciembre de 2019.
¿Cuáles son los síntomas de la COVID-19?
Los síntomas más comunes de la COVID-19 son fiebre, cansancio y tos seca.
Fuente original: https://www.who.int/es/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/q-a-coronaviruses
Useful words:
extenso– extensive
poder causar– to be able to cause
tanto en… como en… – in both A and B
infección – infection
respiratorio– related to breathing
el resfriado común– the common flu
descubrir– to dicover, to find out
recientemente– recently
infeccioso– infectious
desconocido– unknown
antes de – before the…
estallar– to burst
el brote– the outbreak
Today’s lesson!
We need to be able to talk about viruses and epidemics in todays world. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 it is everywhere around the news and everyone is talking about it.
So, I have prepared for you some of the most common words and prhases for you to use when talking about this topic.
¡Vamos!
El virus del Covid-19
The first word we need is “virus” and in Spanish we need the preposition “de” + the name of the virus.
1. El virus se contagia fácilmente.
Let’s break that down:
Contagiarse significa “to catch an illness” or to “spread it” and it’s the first verb that we can relate to any virus.
It can be a reflexive verb (contagiarse – to catch an illness oneself) in which case it is conjugated like the verb “llamarse”:
me contagio, te contagias, se contagia, se contagian…
Or it can be a normal verb (contagiar a – to spread an illness to someone else) in wich case we conjugate it like any regular verb:
contagio a…, contagias a…, contagia a…, contagiamos a…
Carlos nos contagia la gripe todos los años.
Pronunciation notes:
Remember that the combination <gi> and <ge> sound like the English “H” in “home”… so we say /kon.ta’xjar/
Note: everything written in “<…>” is an orthographic transcription, meaning it is exactly the way we spell and write that word or phrase. Everything written in “/…/” is a phonetic transcription, which means it is the way we pronounce it. In the phonetic transcription we separate the syllables with a dot “.” and we mark the strongest syllable with an apostrophe ” … ‘ … “. So <hablar> is pronounced /a.‘blar/
2. El virus se previene
Let’s break that down:
Prevenir litteraly means “to prevent” and it means to do things that help avoiding the spreading of a virus.
Yo me lavo las manos frecuentemente para prevenir el Covid-19.
El Covid-19 se puede prevenir evitando lugares con muchas personas.
El gobierno previene la propagación del Covid-19 con una cuarentena.
Pronunciation notes:
Remember than the sound of <V> and <B> in Spanish is the same. So we say /pre.be.nir/
3. El virus puede tratarse
Let’s break that down:
Tratar un virus o una enfermedad means “to use medication or vaccines to cure an illness”.
Para tratar el virus se están buscando vacunas.
Aún no hay medicamentos efectivos para tratar el virus del Covid-19.
Grammar notes:
El sustantivo de “tratar” es… “el tratamiento”
El tratamiento de una enfermedad infecciosa incluye antibióticos.
Now…
¡Quiero saber de tí!
(I wanna know about you)
Have you ever had to use a phrase like these ones?
Tell me in the comments 😀
Do you have any questions?
Leave them in the comments and I will do my best to answer them promptly.
