I was playing around with some words on Google Translate trying to see if I can form a sentence while learning some new words. I came across this translation -
- 咳 translates to cough
- 止め translates to stop
- 薬 translates to medicine
Both combinations - 咳止め and 咳薬 - translate to cough medicine. It makes sense to combine the words for cough and medicine but I've also seen a few kanji that have one meaning when used alone, and have a different meaning when used in a different context or with another kanji.
This is where I'm a bit confused; which one of them is the correct usage? If both are correct, in which situation or context are they used?
As a side note, DeepL translates them as follows:
- 咳止め - cough medicine/cough syrup
- 咳薬 - cough medicine/remedy for cough