gǎn mào
to catch a cold
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我感冒了，喉咙痛。
wǒ gǎnmào le, hóulóng tòng.
I have a cold, my throat hurts.
你感冒了吗？
nǐ gǎnmào le ma?
Do you have a cold?
我吃药了，感冒好了。
wǒ chī yào le, gǎnmào hǎo le.
I took medicine and my cold is better.
伤风 (shāng fēng)
cold
流感 (liú gǎn)
influenza
健康 (jiàn kāng)
healthy
无病 (wú bìng)
free from illness
The Chinese word 感冒 (gǎnmào) for "cold" is a compound of two characters: 感 (gǎn), meaning "to feel" or "to be affected by", and 冒 (mào), meaning "to cover" or "to invade". Together, these characters convey the idea of being affected by an external force, which in the case of a cold, is typically a virus or bacteria.The character 感 (gǎn) is composed of two parts: the radical 心 (xīn), which represents the heart or mind, and the phonetic component 感 (gǎn), which represents the sound. The character 冒 (mào) is also composed of two parts: the radical 艹 (cǎo), which represents grass or plants, and the phonetic component 冒 (mào), which represents the sound.The word 感冒 (gǎnmào) has been used in Chinese for centuries to refer to the common cold. It is a common word that is understood by all Chinese speakers, and it is also used in some other East Asian languages, such as Japanese and Korean.
