Take a medicine or take a pill? - English Language Learners ...

To take a medicine is used less often than to take a pill. But that doesn't mean that the word medicine is used less common in this sense ... EnglishLanguageLearnersStackExchangeisaquestionandanswersiteforspeakersofotherlanguageslearningEnglish.Itonlytakesaminutetosignup. Signuptojointhiscommunity Anybodycanaskaquestion Anybodycananswer Thebestanswersarevotedupandrisetothetop Home Public Questions Tags Users Unanswered Teams StackOverflowforTeams –Startcollaboratingandsharingorganizationalknowledge. CreateafreeTeam WhyTeams? Teams CreatefreeTeam Teams Q&Aforwork Connectandshareknowledgewithinasinglelocationthatisstructuredandeasytosearch. Learnmore Takeamedicineortakeapill? AskQuestion Asked 6years,11monthsago Modified 4years,3monthsago Viewed 56ktimes 2 1 Forsomereason,takeamedicinedoesn'tsoundnaturaltomyears. Isthephrasetakeamedicinewrongorunnatural? Iwouldusuallysay: takeapill or takesomemedicine Whatwordwouldyouusetoemphasisethatthepillislegitimateandmedical? Moreonthewordmedicine WiktionaryandOnlineOxfordDictionaryseemtosaythatthewordiscountable. IthoughtIcouldusethewordmedicineasagroupofthings,pills,liquid,thatyoutaketohelpyourecoverfromanillness.SoIthoughtitwasamassnoun. Whatdoesitmeanifyousayamedicine? Icouldn'tfindagoodexamplesentence.However,Icouldfindsomesentencesthatusethewordinthepluralform. Isitonlyusedinthepluralformwhenitisusedasacountablenoun? word-usageword-choice Share Improvethisquestion Follow editedJul4,2015at21:31 ColleenV 11.6k1111goldbadges4343silverbadges8080bronzebadges askedJun10,2015at0:41 AscendantAscendant 38733goldbadges55silverbadges1616bronzebadges 1 1 Onewaytoindicateuseofillegalpills,(orillegallyacquiredlegalpills,orevenagreater-than-prescribednumberofpills)ispoppingpills – BrianHitchcock Jun10,2015at9:27 Addacomment  |  1Answer 1 Sortedby: Resettodefault Highestscore(default) Datemodified(newestfirst) Datecreated(oldestfirst) 2 Youcanusebothmedicineandpillandbothcanmeanthatyouaretakinglegitimatetherapy.However,sometimesthesetermsareinterchangeable,andsometimesnot. Historically,apillwasadosageformmademanually,usingtheactivesubstance,asugarandaliquidbindingagent: small,round,solidpharmaceuticaloraldosageformofmedicationthatwasinusebeforetheadventoftabletsandcapsules.Pillsweremadebymixingtheactiveingredientswithanexcipientsuchasglucosesyrupinamortarandpestletoformapaste,thenrollingthemassintoalongcylindricalshape(calleda"pipe"),anddividingitintoequalportions,whichwerethenrolledintoballs,andoftencoatedwithsugartomakethemmorepalatable.(Wikipedia) Todayapillreferstoalloralsoliddosageformsthatareintendedtobeswallowedassuch(notethataneffervescenttabletforexample,mostlikelywon'tbereferredtoasapill). ThepillorcapitalizedThePill(definition2)refersspecificallytobirthcontrolpills(i.e.oralcontraceptives). Ineveryday(colloquial)usagetousethetermpillmeaningmedicinetakenorallyinasoliddosageformisfine,butasatechnicaltermitwouldbeincorrect(unlessofcourseyouaremakinganexhibitionaboutthehistoryofpharmacy). Butwhatifyouaretakingamedicineinadifferentdosageform? Youmightneedtotakeasyrup,aninjection(insuline.g.),useaninhaleretc.Inthiscasepilldoesn'tworkandyouhavetousethetermmedicineorusethetermforaspecificdosageform. Totakeamedicineisusedlessoftenthantotakeapill.Butthatdoesn'tmeanthatthewordmedicineisusedlesscommoninthissensethanthewordpill.Medicineismoreoftenusedindifferentconstructions: Takethismedicine: Youneedtotakethismedicinethreetimesaday;thisoneyouneedtotaketwiceaday. Takethemedicine Take+personalpronoun+medicine: Makesurethatthechildrentaketheirmedicine. or Kangareplied,“Roo,dear,youmusttakeyourmedicine"[...] “IlikeditbetterwhenTiggeratemymedicineforme,”saidRoo.(HouseatPoohCorner,byA.A.Milne) Thewordmedicinecanbebothcountableanduncountable,accordingtoLDOCE. ThisGoogleNgramshowsthatinfact,medicine(green)isusedmoreoftenthanpill(brightblueanddarkred)exceptwhentheyareusedwiththeindefinitearticle: Asidenote:medicinescanalsobeadministeredand(especiallyfortopicalmedicines)applied.(Seemoreinthispost.Youdefinitelydon'teatamedicine,butthisdoesn'tapplytoTiggers,because"that'swhattheylikebest". Share Improvethisanswer Follow editedJun16,2020at9:11 CommunityBot 1 answeredJun10,2015at2:13 LuckyLucky 2,68611goldbadge1313silverbadges2727bronzebadges Addacomment  |  Youmustlogintoanswerthisquestion. Nottheansweryou'relookingfor?Browseotherquestionstaggedword-usageword-choice. 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