<p>他身患<strong>绝症</strong>. 绝症 implies terminal, such as cancel, which is incurable most of time. </p>

<p>Or 他身患<strong>恶疾</strong> means he got a very serious desease.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-15T08:37:07.390Z
2019-12-15T08:37:07.390Z
dan
<p>患上绝症 literally means "have terminal illness"</p>

<p>患上不治之症 literally means "have incurable disease"</p>

<p>To be subtle, you can say "他這個病，怕是不行了" (with this disease, I am afraid it doesn't look good for him) implies his chance of surviving this illness is slim to none, (just don't want to say it out loud that it is terminal)</p>

<p>"我不行了" literally means "I can't keep going", implies "and will soon die"</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-15T12:53:30.050Z
2019-12-15T13:53:32.717Z
2019-12-15T13:53:32.717Z
Tang Ho
<p>Maybe "他身體有狀況"?, or "他快走了"? or"他只剩下幾個月"? or do you want something even more implicit?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-15T07:11:48.237Z
2019-12-15T07:11:48.237Z
Agrit
<p>In English, you can say "My cousin is sick." And that sort of conveys a lot. Your cousin could have cancer and be terminally sick, but could also be crazy ("sick" as in slang for cool), or sick as in disgusting, but also could just have the common cold.</p>

<p>By saying something like "Before my cousin got sick, blahblah," and I think that heavily implies your cousin has been sick long enough for there to be a "before" and an "after." Does this make any sense?</p>

<p>But in Chinese, how would you indicate that someone is terminally ill? Like, you don't want to be specific and say they have cancer/other illness, you just want to say that they're sick and IMPLY it's terminal, without explicitly saying so. </p>

<p>TL;DR: I know when someone is sick you can differentiate by saying  她感冒了， 她发烧了，她生病了, etc, but how do you <em>imply</em> someone is terminally ill?</p>

<word-choice><word-requests>
How to imply someone is terminally ill?
# How to imply someone is terminally ill?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-12-15)

In English, you can say "My cousin is sick." And that sort of conveys a lot. Your cousin could have cancer and be terminally sick, but could also be crazy ("sick" as in slang for cool), or sick as in disgusting, but also could just have the common cold.

By saying something like "Before my cousin got sick, blahblah," and I think that heavily implies your cousin has been sick long enough for there to be a "before" and an "after." Does this make any sense?

But in Chinese, how would you indicate that someone is terminally ill? Like, you don't want to be specific and say they have cancer/other illness, you just want to say that they're sick and IMPLY it's terminal, without explicitly saying so.

TL;DR: I know when someone is sick you can differentiate by saying 她感冒了， 她发烧了，她生病了, etc, but how do you *imply* someone is terminally ill?

**Tags:** word-choice, word-requests


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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-12-15. Score: 2

他身患**绝症**. 绝症 implies terminal, such as cancel, which is incurable most of time.

Or 他身患**恶疾** means he got a very serious desease.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2019-12-15. Score: 2

患上绝症 literally means "have terminal illness"

患上不治之症 literally means "have incurable disease"

To be subtle, you can say "他這個病，怕是不行了" (with this disease, I am afraid it doesn't look good for him) implies his chance of surviving this illness is slim to none, (just don't want to say it out loud that it is terminal)

"我不行了" literally means "I can't keep going", implies "and will soon die"


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### Answer by username_3 on 2019-12-15. Score: 0

Maybe "他身體有狀況"?, or "他快走了"? or"他只剩下幾個月"? or do you want something even more implicit?


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