A Cold, The Flu

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Anne. I’m calling from Dallas.

Great. Well, welcome to the show. And what can we do for you?

Thank you. I just had a quick question.

Our 15-month-old daughter came down with croup this month.

And over the course of the week, I kept hearing my husband tell people she has the croup.

And so we kind of laughed about it.

And I said, I really think you just say croup.

Which then got us wondering why you say you have the flu, you have a cold,

But then you just say you have croup.

So I think it has to do with article adjectives, and I just was curious about that.

Oh, that’s a really good question.

So croup, as you understand it, is a disease of the throat.

Is it an infection or inflammation of the larynx and something else in there, right?

Correct.

Right.

When we talk about things like the flu, we are using that article in that way, right?

We’re using a definite article to mean the flu in a way that indicates to other people that we are aware that is being currently being transmitted and passed around.

The flu is a thing which the hearer probably has heard of, right?

So like, did you go to the store?

Not the store, but I went to the other store, right?

We do this when we try to be really specific, for example, with the definite article.

And with a thing like the croup or croup, it’s not really infectious, as I understand it, right?

Correct, yes.

Right.

And so it’s not a thing where the other person may have heard of cases of it going around or an epidemic happening or some seasonal thing, right?

And so it’s just croup.

However, those articles, the definite article, can be really fluid.

Some people do say the flu.

Some people just say flu.

I understand in the United Kingdom they are just as likely to say she’s home with flu today.

As they are to say she’s home with the flu today.

But you don’t say I have the cold.

No, you don’t.

You say I have a cold.

Right, I have a cold.

Or I caught cold.

And so cold doesn’t take the definite article because it’s such an ordinary thing.

We don’t need to call it out with special specific attention by using the definite article.

I have a cold.

It’s so fascinating to me.

We pick up these little cues from learning language,

And so we all kind of learn unconsciously the behavior that we need to take

When we talk about these certain kinds of diseases.

That said, there’s a lot of variation on this.

I do know, for example, diabetes has a form, kind of a colloquial version or a dialect version where it’s called the sugar, which is really interesting.

And it takes that definite article, the sugar.

She’s got the sugar.

She’s got to watch her sweets.

Interesting.

Thank you so much.

It’s been such a fun conversation in our household.

She’s all better, right?

Yeah, I hope she’s better.

She’s doing great.

Very happy again.

Okay, very good.

Well, Anne, thank you so much for calling.

Well, we’re such a big fan of y’all.

Thank you so much.

Oh, it’s our pleasure.

Take care now.

You too.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye, Anne.

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