Estar enfermo

[Cifi]

Even though there hasn't been too much response to my questions lately, I've got another one:

If I say "estoy enferma del estómago", how is that understood without any context?

The question came up here: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/3150 ... l-estómago, where the vast majority of English speakers stated that they would use the given translation "I'm sick to my stomach" in figurative sense, and not for being ill in a physical/medical way.

Is the Spanish sentence ambiguous and can mean both depending on context, or does it have some kind of "default interpretation"?

And what about "ponerse enfermo"? When I searched for "me pongo enfermo" on Reverso context, most results seemed to be in the context of being unable to stand something, while the results for "me puse enfermo" seemed mostly related to actual medical/physical illness.

[Julian_L.]

At least to me, the only interpretation that «estoy enfermo/a del estómago» can have is the medical one. The closest thing with a metaphorical sense that I have ever heard is «se me revuelve el estómago».

The thing about «ponerse enfermo» with the medical sense was more or less answered in the sentence "A young woman got sick because her dog died":
«ponerse enfermo» is commonly used in Spain, while «enfermarse» is preferred in the Americas.

About the metaphorical sense, I don't think I can answer about «ponerse enfermo» because again, I'm not expert in its medical sense, but I think it makes sense if the present tense («me pone enfermo») is more commonly used with the metaphorical sense; I would expect the medical one to be «soy alérgico (a)». «Enfermarse» has the metaphorical sense as well.

[Cifi]

Great, thank you so much, Julian!

Then it's quite logical that for another expression I came across, "I'm sick to death of something" (which I take as almost exclusively figurative in English), the translations didn't even involve anything about illness, it usually was "estar harto de ...".

[gscottoliver]

And it appears to me that harto comes from Latin fartus, “stuffed”, so akin to “fed up”.

[Stasia]

Then it's quite logical that for another expression I came across, "I'm sick to death of something" (which I take as figurative in English), the translations didn't even involve anything about illness, it usually was "estar harto de ...".

Indeed. Idiomatic expressions very rarely translate literally. If you want to learn idioms in your target language, there should be an "Idioms and Proverbs" section available to buy in the shop on Duolingo. Protip: it's way cheaper to buy it on the web version than the app version (on the app it costs 1000 gems, on the web it's only 30 lingots).

And it appears to me that harto comes from Latin fartus, “stuffed”, so akin to “fed up”.

Well that explains the origin of a certain English word, which also has to do with being stuffed, although with a rather gaseous matter!

[Cifi]

Indeed. Idiomatic expressions very rarely translate literally. If you want to learn idioms in your target language, there should be an "Idioms and Proverbs" section available to buy in the shop on Duolingo.

Thanks, Stasia. I bought this extra skill when I was pretty new on Duolingo, but didn't find it that useful. This might have been because I wasn't familiar with some of the English idioms and sayings either, and it can be hard to get a feeling for both the English and the Spanish without any context.