Organs and illnesses
| Spanish | English |
|---|
| el órgano | an organ of the body |
| el riñón | the kidney |
| la infección | the infection |
| el diagnóstico | the diagnosis |
| la depresión | depression, the illness |
Donar goes with organs, just as it does with blood.
Where English puts the organ first, everyday Spanish usually adds it with de: a kidney infection is una infección de riñón (doctors also say infección renal).
Depression and appetite
Estar deprimido usually describes how someone feels; la depresión is the illness, and it usually goes with sufrir or tener.
El apetito is the wish to eat; el hambre is hunger itself. You usually tener or perder el apetito.
Preventing problems
Prevenir is to take precautions against something bad in general (illnesses, risks, accidents); evitar is to avoid something, and also to stop one particular thing from happening: evitar un accidente. Prevenir is built on venir: prevengo, previene, previenen.
A saying you will hear from doctors and grandparents alike:
The spine
La columna is the spine, and also a column in a building. Agacharse, to bend down, takes a pronoun: me agacho, agáchate.
Constante has one form for masculine and feminine: un dolor constante, una tos constante.
