The difference between sick and ill

The difference between ill and sick is that sick is mostly an attributive, while ill is mostly a predicate.

For example: My dog ??is ill.

Look that sick dog, it`s mine.

(1) When it means "sick", in the UK, sick can only be used as an attributive, such as a sick child, a sick dog. If used as a predicative, it means "disgusting" or "wanting to vomit", such as I feel sick (I want to vomit). Therefore, sick can also mean "disgust", such as I am sick of the tedious work. In the United States, whether used as an attributive or predicative, it is interpreted as "sick".

(2) When ill means "sickness", it is generally used as a predicative, such as She falls ill and She is ill with fever and is rarely used as an attributive. When used as an attributive, ill usually means "bad", while sick is not used in this way. For example, ill person (bad person), ill temper (bad temper), ill nature (ill intention).

(3) When used as an predicative to express "sickness", Americans generally use sick, while British people use ill.

(4) Generally speaking, sick is used in a wider range of situations than ill. When used as an attributive, sick can modify many nouns, such as sick horse (sick horse), sick berth (sick bed), sick room ( Ward), sick leave (sick leave), sick mind (abnormal psychology), sick man (patient), sick look (sick appearance), etc., and ill cannot modify these words.

Please compare several sentences below to distinguish the usage situations of sick and ill:

She is sick.

She is sick. (American usage)

She is ill.

She is ill. (British usage)

He is sick with influenza.

He is suffering from influenza.

I feel sick． (British usage)

I feel like vomiting.

Mr. Huang was taken ill last night．

Mr. Huang fell ill last night.

Mr. Liu is an ill man to please.

Mr. Liu is a difficult person to please.

Ill news runs apace.

Evil deeds spread thousands of miles.

It's an ill wind that blows nobody good．

There is no wind in the world that is not beneficial to everyone.

It is worth noting that in addition to being an adjective, ill can also be used as an adverb and a noun. Example:

I can ill afford the money． (adv.)

I cannot pay this amount.

These are the social ills! (n.)

These are the ills of society!

ill can also be used as a prefix, meaning "badly", such as: ill-treat, ill-fated, ill-bred, ill-advised, ill-tempered, ill-equipped. When it means "patient", you can say either a sick person or the sick, but you cannot say an ill person because its meaning is "bad person".

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