gǎn mào
to catch a cold
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
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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.
