Telling pharmacist stomach hurts (Advanced): Describing the pain

💬 どんな + a noun asks "what kind of": どんな薬 (donna kusuri) "what kind of medicine".

💬 Japanese describes pain with sound-like words plus する. キリキリ means a sharp, twisting pain, and ズキズキ (zukizuki) means "throbbing".

💬 Use A + というより to say "not so much A, more...". It's handy for correcting a guess politely: 痛いというより "not painful so much as...".

💬 To join two descriptions, change 重い to 重くて (omokute) and keep going. ムカムカ is the sound-word for a queasy, churning stomach.

🇯🇵 You'll see 食後 on Japanese medicine labels as the instruction to take a dose "after meals". 食前 (shokuzen) means "before meals".

💬 〜たりしますか means "does it ever do things like...?". It makes the question soft and open rather than a blunt yes/no.

💬 や links nouns as examples, like "fever, nausea, that sort of thing", whereas と would list them exactly.

💬 To say something is getting more so, change the final い to く and add なる: ひどい becomes ひどくなる. Likewise 痛い becomes 痛くなる (itaku naru) "starts to hurt".

💬 Put と after a plain action to mean "whenever I do that": 飲むと (nomu to) "whenever I drink it".

💬 Here は is said (wa), and it sets fever apart from the other symptoms, as in "fever, no, but...".

💬 In Japanese you "have" a symptom with があります rather than feel it: 熱があります (netsu ga arimasu) "I have a fever".

🇯🇵 This is staff-to-customer politeness, stronger than わかりました. You'll hear it from staff, but you don't need to use it yourself as the customer.

💬 Medicine is "drunk" in Japanese, with 飲む, even pills. Here 飲まれて is the respectful form used when asking about someone else.

🇯🇵 Japanese pharmacists routinely ask this before selling stomach or pain medicine. It helps to know the names of what you take, or to carry your お薬手帳 (okusuri techō) "medicine record booklet".

💬 薬 becomes (yaku) when it's attached to another word, so 頭痛薬 is (zutsūyaku). The same happens in 胃薬 (igusuri) except it softens to (gusuri) there.

💬 って is a casual stand-in for は, used for "that thing we just mentioned". The ending でしょうか then keeps the question polite.

💬 止め means "stopper", so this is literally a "pain-stopper". Compare 咳止め (sekidome) "cough medicine".

💬 Put any body part before に負担がかかる to say something is hard on it: 肝臓に (kanzō ni) "on the liver".

💬 Past form + ほうがいい means "you'd better". Note that the past form is used even for advice about the future: 休んだほうがいい (yasunda hō ga ii) "you should rest".

🇯🇵 控える means to hold back or cut down, not necessarily to stop completely. It's the gentle, typical way Japanese staff phrase health advice.

🇯🇵 You'll see おすすめ on handwritten shop signs everywhere in Japan, marking the staff's pick. Here it's said while pointing to a product.

🇯🇵 じゃあ is the natural way to wrap up a decision at a shop counter, followed by それをお願いします "I'll take that, please".

💬 〜をお願いします works for asking for almost anything: point and swap in the item, like これをお願いします "this one, please" or 水をお願いします "water, please".

🇯🇵 This is how you'd naturally close the exchange once the pharmacist recommends something. It's polite but casual enough for any shop counter.

💬 なければ turns a verb into "if it doesn't...": 治る (naoru) "to get better" becomes 治らなければ (naoranakereba). The same ending works elsewhere, like 行かなければ (ikanakereba) "if I don't go".

💬 Watch the long vowel: 病院 is (byōin), and dropping it gives 美容院 (biyōin) "hair salon".

🇯🇵 In Japan 病院 is used loosely for any doctor's office, including small neighborhood clinics, not just big hospitals.

🇯🇵 Pharmacists often advise this if over-the-counter medicine doesn't help. A small local clinic is usually the expected first stop, since big hospitals may charge extra without a referral.

🇯🇵 Pharmacy and clinic staff say this to anyone unwell as they leave. A simple ありがとうございます "thank you" is the natural reply.