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I'm confused about the following:

  • I have cancer

  • I have coronavirus

  • I have a cold

  • I have the flu

  • I have the plague

What is the rule here?

Cherona
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  • "I have coronavirus" isn't a great example, since "coronavirus" is a class of diseases instead of the specific 2019-nCoV disease that the speaker most likely intends. – jsheeran Feb 07 '20 at 13:12
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    Related/Duplicates: https://ell.stackexchange.com/q/82976/48224 and https://ell.stackexchange.com/q/234531/48224 – Davo Feb 07 '20 at 13:24
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    People used to speak of a cancer when referring to a visible tumour. Cancer is the name of the disease whatever form it takes. – Kate Bunting Feb 07 '20 at 20:36
  • Additionally, "coronovirus" is a difficult example, because we also can say "I have the coronovirus. In this case, the definite article is referring to the specific coronovirus (out of the class of diseases) that is currently in the news/public attention. We can be specific, or we can be vague, depending on the semantic context. – wanderling Mar 15 '20 at 02:26

1 Answers1

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In English do not use the indefinite article or the definite article with the names of the diseases or medical conditions,

"My grandmother has arthritis". Not the arthritis or an arthritis.

"Hypertension is called the silent killer". Not A hypertension...or the hypertension.

You should say: I have cancer or I have lung cancer.

Exceptions: You use definite articles with the measles, the flu, the mumps. With symptoms of the diseases you can use definite articles, indefinite articles or plurals, such as: Sore throats are one of the most common health complaints

Eddie Kal
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Gogui
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  • I think it's useful to note that the exceptions of diseases which do take an article are pretty much all illnesses which have been affecting common people historically for a very long time ("a cold", "the flu", "the mumps", etc). This is, I believe, because it used to be common to use articles with diseases a long time ago (i.e. the middle ages), but it is not the practice anymore in modern English, so the only ones which do are anachronisms from the past. – Foogod Mar 06 '20 at 21:21
  • And with colds, you can use an article or not, as you please. You can either catch cold or catch a cold. – Mike Scott Mar 12 '20 at 21:52