Telling doctor stomach hurts: Answering the doctor's questions about your symptoms

💬 Da plus a time covers both "since" and "for": da stamattina "since this morning", da due giorni "for two days".

💬 Descriptive words usually come after the noun in Italian: un dolore leggero "a mild pain", un dolore acuto "a sharp pain".

💬 Italian says "have the fever", using avere "to have" plus la. To answer about yourself: Ho la febbre "I have a fever".

💬 Repeating the noun followed by no is a natural, quick way to rule something out: nausea no "no nausea", vomito no "no vomiting".

💬 Un po' di plus a noun means "a bit of" and works with almost anything: un po' di febbre "a slight fever", un po' di acqua "a little water".

💬 The polite "you" uses the same verb form as "he/she", so ha mangiato can mean "you ate" or "he/she ate". About yourself, say ho mangiato "I ate".

💬 Literally "fruits of the sea". It covers shellfish like mussels and clams, not ordinary fish, which is pesce.

💬 A + il merges into al. The same thing happens elsewhere: al bar "at the bar", and a + la becomes alla, as in alla farmacia "at the pharmacy".

💬 Intossicazione doesn't mean drunkenness. It means poisoning, and on its own it usually refers to food poisoning.

💬 Una shortens to un' before a feminine word starting with a vowel. Masculine words take un with no apostrophe: un antibiotico "an antibiotic".

💬 This is the polite instruction form a doctor uses with patients. A friend would say bevi.

💬 Molto changes its ending to match the noun: molta acqua because acqua is feminine, but molto riposo "lots of rest".

🇮🇹 In bianco "in white" is classic Italian sick-day advice. It means plain pasta or rice with just olive oil or butter and maybe some parmesan, with no tomato sauce or spices.

💬 When you speak to a doctor directly, use dottore alone, with no name. If you add a surname it shortens: dottor Rossi. A female doctor is dottoressa.

🇮🇹 In Italy dottore is also used for any university graduate, so you may hear it addressed to lawyers or office staff too.