BBC: new pre-eclampsia test for pregnant women

Today's story is about health in pregnancy. 

Okay, let's hear more about that from this BBC World Service News report. 

Scientists in Britain say a simple blood test could greatly improve the speed and accuracy of pre-eclampsia diaganoses. The realatively common  condition which affects pregnant women can prove fatal. 

If left untreated, 100 women around the world die of the condition every day. Researchers at King's College London say a new blood test that measures the concentration of a protein is more reliable than the traditional methods of using blood pressure and urine samples. 

So preeclampsia is a condition that can occur in preganat women. 

It's relatively common, and if it's untreated, it can kill the preganat women. So, um, it's important to, um, treat this disease. Now scientists have discovered a new blood test, which is more accurate and faster than previous methods of diagnosis. So it's a good news story for pregnant women.

Yeah, it's very positive. 

Okay. And we've been looking at words and expressions that, uh, our viewers can use to talk about this story. What have we got for them, Catherine?

We have imprecise. To be and roll out. 

Imprecise to be and roll out. Okay. Let's have the first headline then please. 

Sure. Until now, medics have had to use relatively imprecise techniques to detect the potentially-lethal condition in  pregnant women. 

Imprecise not accurate or exact. Hmm. So what kind of a word is this then?

Well, it's an adjective. Um, and we use it often. It coates, it goes together very strongly with certain words. Like we can have an imprecise description, imprecise figures, an imprecise measurement. Ooh. 

Uh, like in cooking, like when, you know, um, okay, so sometimes when I open a recipe it says you need like three cups of flour. 

And I go inside my kitchen cupboard and there's like, I've got six different types of cups and they're all different sizes. And I'm like, hang on, why can't they just tell me in kilograms or grams or it's imprecise?

Well, that's because you're not American. If you were in America, you'd know exactly what a cup was because they're quite standard in American. 

Gotcha. In America.

Okay. So technically  it's our imprecise. 

It's your imprecise knowledge of cooking. Of American  cooking. So Im is interesting. It's a perfix. Um, and it means not because you take the word precise, you add the prefix Im, and it makes it, it means not precise. 

Such as immature. 

Impossible. 

Impossible or impatient. 

If you can't be bothered to wait for someone. 

Exactly. All those words start with Im and it means they're opposite. Be careful because it can sound and look like in. Mm, and we'd use the word like inaccurate. So you have to listen and read quite carefully whether it's and in or an Im. The prefix that means not. 

And inaccurate. There is a synonym of imprecise. 

It is.

Yes. 

Do we have another one?

Inexact. Haha.

Very nice. 

With an In. 

Very nice. 

Thank you very much for that. Not imprecise explanation of imprecise. 

You're very welcome. 

Let's have our next headline then please. 

So BBC News NHS to offer mums-to-be new blood tests for preeclampsia. 

To be happening or becoming in the future. Okay. Now you have to give me, forgive me, but you know, this is my big Shakespear moment to be or not to be. 

That is the question. Is there anything to do with that?

Uh, no. 

Ah, okay. Well, I enjoy doing the sha. Thank you very much. I enjoyed that. Anyway. 

No, it's nothing to do with Shakespear except in the sense that, um, Be means exist. Mm-hmm. Happen. Occur. So if something is to be. It's going to happen. 

Okay. It's kind of like a future infinitive, right?

It's a future Infinitive. Yeah. You see it in the headlines  a lot. You know, you can say, um, prince Harry and Megan, his wife are parents-to-be okay. And we use the phrase, we use the words to be hyphenated. After a noun to say this is going to happen. So a mom-to-be is a woman who's going to have a baby.

Okay. 

And do we have any other sortr of common nouns that we use this with?

It's often used with family relationships that are going to happen. So if you're going to get married, you can talk about you.You're a bride. If you're a woman, you're a bride-to-be. You can be a husband-to-be, if you're a mother, grandparent-to-be. 

Ah, okay. So that means expecting or coming soon. 

Something is, yes. Expecting or coming soon. 

But is it. Only family words or can we use it in a wider context?

You can use it in a wider context, kind of really informally, you know, you can say somebody's a manager-to-be or a boss-to-be but you probably won't see it written down. 

It's less common, but it is possible. 

It is.