Telling doctor stomach hurts: Understanding your treatment and how to take your medicine

💬 Medicine is taken with tomar, the same verb as for drinks, never beber. tengo que "I have to" plus any action is a reusable pattern: tengo que descansar "I have to rest".

💬 The double l in pastilla sounds like an English y: (pahs-TEE-yah).

💬 cada "every" never changes shape and takes a plain number: cada doce horas "every twelve hours", cada día "every day".

🇲🇽 Mexican pharmacies, often right next to a small doctor's office, can fill this on the spot. Many people jot the schedule on the box to keep track.

💬 After después de, Spanish uses the basic "to" form of the verb, not an -ing form. Try antes de dormir "before sleeping".

💬 After antes de and después de, Spanish uses the basic verb form ending in -r, where English uses -ing: antes de dormir "before sleeping".

💬 vaso is a drinking glass. Glass the material is vidrio, so don't mix them up.

🇲🇽 perdón is the normal polite opener for interrupting or asking someone to repeat, not only an apology.

💬 Spanish often uses a plain question instead of 'could you': ¿me repite? is literally "you repeat to me?". Same trick: ¿me ayuda? "could you help me?".

💬 cuántas matches horas, which is feminine and plural; with days it becomes ¿cada cuántos días?.

💬 For a polite instruction to usted, -ar verbs switch their ending to -e: tomar becomes tome. The same form appears in regrese "come back".

🇲🇽 Doctors in Mexico normally speak to patients with formal usted forms like tome. Answering in usted too keeps the exchange respectful.

💬 seguir plus an -ndo word means 'still' or 'keep doing': sigo cansado "I'm still tired", sigue lloviendo "it's still raining". me shows it's hurting you, like me duele "it hurts me".

💬 en plus a time means 'in that much time from now': en una semana "in a week".

💬 regresar is the everyday Mexican verb for coming or going back. You'll hear it far more than volver.

🇲🇽 Tacking ¿sí? onto an instruction softens it into a friendly check-in. Just reply sí or sí, doctor.

🇲🇽 Mexicans address doctors directly as doctor or doctora, often without a last name. It's polite and expected.

🇲🇽 Doctors, pharmacists and neighbours all say this as a warm goodbye. A simple gracias is the natural reply.