español · A2 · vocabulary · 4 minutes
Health and the pharmacy
Describe symptoms clearly enough to ask for practical help.
Understand the choice
Describe a symptom precisely enough to get help: say what hurts, name fever or cough, state when it began, and understand a dosage. The recurring frame is person pronoun + duele or duelen + body part.
Core rule: Doler uses an indirect-object pronoun and agrees with what hurts: duele or duelen.
Notice it in context
Me duele la garganta y necesito algo para la tos.
My throat hurts and I need something for the cough.
Doler uses an indirect-object pronoun and agrees with what hurts: duele or duelen.
Tengo fiebre desde ayer.
I have had a fever since yesterday.
Tener expresses fever; desde gives the starting point.
Tome una pastilla cada ocho horas.
Take one tablet every eight hours.
The formal command tome gives an instruction.
What to remember
- Use me duele with one painful area and me duelen with a plural subject such as los ojos.
- Receta means a medical prescription as well as a cooking recipe; farmacia and cocina resolve the meaning.
Common trap: Do not make doler agree with the sick person. It agrees with what hurts: me duele la garganta but me duelen las piernas.