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Find Out Just How Hard It Is for the Chicago Med Cast to Say "Pharmaceutical" and Other Medical Jargon

Colin Donnell, Torrey DeVitto, Oliver Platt and more cast members from NBC's newest drama confess their medical tongue-twisters

By Jean Bentley Nov 17, 2015 8:00 PMTags
Chicago MedElizabeth Morris/NBC

You know when you're watching a medical drama and the doctors and nurses have a conversation about a patient and use so many crazy medical words that it sounds like they're speaking a different language? Yeah, it's kind of like that for the actors playing the hospital staff, too.

"It's a completely different language," admits Brian Tee, who stars as a doctor in NBC's latest addition to the Dick Wolf Chicago universe, Chicago Med, which premieres tonight. "The way these real doctors really pull it off is really unbelievable."

His costar Marlyne Barrett feels the same way, telling E! News that she gets tripped up by plenty of her dialogue. "Some words, I'm like, are we speaking English?"

There's one that always messes her up, though: "Pharmaceutical will get you every time," she admits. "I don't think T, Z, Q and C should come together and make a sound!"

Watch: "Chicago Med" Stars Reveal Most Difficult Medical Jargon

Costar Torrey DeVitto is fine with single words, it's when you have to join them together that's the problem. "When you take words and you have to put them in sentences," you're in trouble, says DeVitto. "If I'm not very articulate it all goes to crap and I have to start over."

Press play on the video above to see if the cast's hardest medical jargon lines still trip them up. (Spoiler: They totally do. Keep on trying, though, Colin Donnell! We believe in you!)

Chicago Med premieres tonight at 9 p.m. on NBC.

(E! and NBC are both members of the NBCUniversal family.)