English: Health & Lifestyle

Level: B2. Health and lifestyle is a topic you will use in conversation, writing, and exams. It brings together wellbeing vocabulary and two grammar areas you need to control: giving advice with modals, and talking about habits with the present simple and used to. This lesson puts them together.

By the end of this page you can…

…use health and lifestyle vocabulary accurately, give advice at the right strength with modals, and describe your habits now and in the past.

Vocabulary — wellbeing and lifestyle

Group these by area and they stick:

To work out is to exercise, usually at a gym; to keep fit is to stay in good physical condition. A balanced diet has the right mix of foods; to cut down on something is to have less of it (cut down on sugar), while to cut out something is to stop it completely (cut out smoking). Wellbeing is your general state of being healthy and happy.

Giving advice — the modal ladder

The main grammar of this topic is advice, and English grades it by strength. Learn it as a ladder from soft to strong, and link out to should and have to / must for the full forms:

• You could try yoga. — softest, just a suggestion.
• You should / ought to get more sleep. — normal advice.
• Why don’t you go for a walk? — friendly suggestion as a question.
• You had better see a doctor. — strong; hints at a bad result if you don’t.
• If I were you, I’d cut down on coffee. — advice from your own point of view.

Talking about habits — now and in the past

Habits are routines, so they use the present simple with frequency adverbs, not the continuous:

• I usually cook at home. / I rarely eat late. / I never skip breakfast.

For the past, use used to + base verb for a habit that has stopped, and contrast it with be used to + -ing for something now familiar — see used to and would and be used to:

• I used to smoke, but I quit two years ago. (past habit, now stopped)
• I’m used to getting up early. (it feels normal to me now)

A short conversation

A: I’ve been so tired lately. I can’t concentrate at work. B: You should get more sleep. How late do you stay up? A: Too late, honestly. And I drink a lot of coffee. B: If I were you, I’d cut down on the coffee and set a bedtime. A: You’re right. I used to have a routine, but I lost it.

Usage notes

• fit vs healthy: fit is about physical condition from exercise; healthy is the broader state (good diet, no illness). You can be fit but not perfectly healthy.
• diet (two meanings): a healthy diet = what you normally eat; go on a diet = eat less to lose weight. Context decides.
• advice (noun) vs advise (verb): give advice (noun, uncountable); advise someone to do (verb). Note the spelling and the s/c change.
• exercise: uncountable when it means physical activity (do exercise); countable only as a task (a grammar exercise).

Example sentences

Press play and say each line out loud — these are everyday health and advice phrases.

Quick recap before you practise.

Practice

Quiz

Recap cheat-sheet

Next

• Previous lesson: English: Environment & Nature
• Next: more topics on the English lessons hub
• New here? Start with Start Learning English Here