Health is wealth – a well-said proverb in English. It is true if you are in good health you rule the world with your creativity and your productivity is at its full potential. In this Spoken English lesson learn some creative English expressions to describe healthy people and lifestyle. These handful expressions are quite unique and would be extremely useful in your English conversation to speak fluent English. Practice these English phrases and make sure you use them in your daily English conversation to sound natural and show that you have a good command over the English language.
Complete Video Transcript –
Hi friends, I’m sure you’ve heard the common saying, or proverb, health is wealth. Do you think it is true? Well, I absolutely agree with it because if you don’t have good health, you have nothing. Alright only if you have good health, you can work. You can exercise; you can live a normal life. Well, so in today’s lesson, we are going to look at how we say or different ways of saying, someone is healthy. Yes and that’s a very good thing. So, let’s take a look at some expressions. The common way of saying is well you look healthy, you look fine, you look great, well that is alright but what are the other ways we could say that someone is healthy?
Well, the first one is, look the picture of health. Now imagine a friend or a colleague or someone that is dear to you is you know recovering from a particular ailment, yeah and of course when you are ill and you’re down, you don’t look energetic. You have no energy; you have no zeal and enthusiasm. yes, but as you recuperate, that means as you recover and you feel better, you feel more energetic, right, you come back to your normal self and that is the time you can always say, wow, you now look the picture of health. That means the person is now extremely healthy and fit to do his or rather to live a normal life and do his routine things. So if you have someone who’s recovering and now finally, looks healthy and has bounced back to his normal self, you could always say, look the picture of health. That means the person is extremely healthy. So to all those who are a little low at the moment and don’t feel too fit, are just unwell or don’t feel too healthy, well I’m sure someday soon, you are going to look the picture of health.
Right, the next one is fit as a fiddle. Now, this is a very common way of saying, someone is really healthy, especially in good physical condition. So if you have a grandparent or your friends or your colleagues or whoever’s grandparent who is say, may be 90 years old, okay and doesn’t look her age and she still looks like this evergreen beauty. And who is healthy and does all the normal things like may be a 35 or a 40 year old woman does. Like maybe she does exercise, she does yoga, she cooks and she looks after the house. Well for a 90-year-old person, it means she is fit as a fiddle. So she is in excellent health condition, touchwood. Alright, she is healthy. So when someone is healthy and in good physical condition, we especially use it for a little senior people because you know as people age, we have aches, pains and issues but if you don’t, wow! You’re lucky, go ahead and use this expression for such people and say, my grandmother, though she is 90 years old, she is fit as a fiddle.
Yes friends, so go ahead and use it for people who are in good physical condition. Let them know and compliment them by saying; you are fit as a fiddle.
Okay, the next one is, hale and hearty. A person who is very healthy mentally and physically. so someone who is still full of hope and positive thoughts and always humorous, laughing, joking no matter how ill or no matter how weak he is but who is always up in spirits. of course is also in good health, you always say, my grandfather, he’s hale and hearty or sometimes when you speak to may be your aunt or your uncle and you ask them, so uncle, how are you? And they say, oh as usual, hale and hearty. That means I’m fine. I’m doing good and of course mentally also I’m doing absolutely fine. So, hale and hearty is an expression used to talk about people who are healthy, not only physically but mentally as well. right, so they are still full of hopes, full of energy, are looking forward to what life has got to bring to them, irrespective of their age and that is the time, you say, he is hale and hearty. Well friends, I really hope and wish that all of you out there are always hale and hearty.
Right, the next one is full of beans. Now full of beans is someone who is full of energy, who is lively, always has wit at the tip of his tongue. Always has humour with him to share and spread with his friends or his colleagues or family members. When someone is full of that kind of enthusiasm and zest, okay, you say, he is full of beans. Now, this is something got to do more with the mental health condition rather than the physical health condition. Of course, it does include the physical health condition but if someone is full of beans that means he is mentally very, yeah. So you can have a person who is on bed rest but when you go meet them, they keep you in splits, that means they really make you laugh with their wit and humour and they are not taken aback by the physical condition of their body and that is the time, you say, despite his suffering he is always full of beans. Well, friends, this state of mind is something that is very important because mentally, it is very important to stay fit and healthy with positive thoughts. Okay, so well if you have one of these friends who are always full of beans, they are people to treasure and they are very precious.
Yes, the next one is, clean bill of health. Now imagine, if you or anyone has a kind of list of tests, medical tests to be done and you undergo the tests and what a sigh of relief, finally you are absolutely fine and your report states that you are perfectly alright. Everything is in the range; right form your blood count to your WBC. Well, there are so many tests that people do. You always say I have the clean bill of health. That means, you are absolutely fine and this statement is made when you undergo a medical examination and your reports come out absolutely clear which is a very good thing. Now many times before you join a company and you take up a new job, you are required to undergo certain medical tests, right? And after you do them and everything is great and the doctor says, well you are fit as a fiddle or you look the picture of health, that means you have a clean bill of health. Now this is something very important and it’s a sigh of relief to have a clean bill of health because if the doctor is suspecting something is not right and so puts you through certain medical examinations, you’re nervous. So when you come out with a sigh of relief remember that you are relieved because you have clean bill of health.
Okay friends, so to all those who are undergoing tests or who are about to, well I really hope, you, I mean soon you have the clean bill of health.
The next one says, in the pink of health. Now, this is also like fit as a fiddle when you want to say that, you’re in good physical condition or when someone is in good physical condition. So, imagine if I ask my friend’s grandmother, grandma, how are you now? And she says, I’m fine, I’m always in the pink of health. That means her health is great. She’s enjoying life and when someone is in the pink of health, it’s just a way of saying, that they are healthy, they are absolutely fine, especially physically. So, of course again we use this more of elder people, obviously, they reply using this expression when they want to say, they are absolutely fine. So that means, to be in the pink of health.
Okay, the last one is vim and vigour. My favourite expression that I like to use when I talk about healthy people and that is vim and vigour. Now, vim and vigour is a person who has vitality, full of energy, zeal, enthusiasm, zest and full of energy and a very nice person to be around because that is what they spread around other people. So if someone is full of vim and vigour, you’re lucky to have them around because they are always full of energy, zest and enthusiasm and zeal and nothing brings them down and nothing in life really stops them from going ahead. So well another important expression to say someone is healthy. He is full of vim and vigour. Now imagine my grandfather who obviously is now retired and he’s really old and he can barely walk but that doesn’t stop him from doing normal things. He does go down for a stroll in the evening. He loves watering the plants and he’s into gardening and when you talk to him, he has so much to share with you and so much to tell you about life. That is because he’s a person who is always full of vim and vigour. Yes, and these people are fun to be around because they always spread happiness.
Well, friends so these are the expressions you could use to talk about healthy people especially from young to the old people. Well, I always wish you all a very happy, healthy life ahead and this brings me to the end of this lesson. I’ll be back soon with a new lesson, till then take care and bye.
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