Today’s podcast is a conversation you might have at a pharmacy. Click here to listen to the podcast!

Na farmácia

Olá. Aqui está a receita.

Preciso deste remédio.

Meu médico prescreveu um antibiótico.

O medicamento se chama Azitromicina, de uma marca genérica.

O médico também disse que eu deveria tomar Paracetamol para a febre.

Ah, também queria um colírio.

Posso pagar com cartão? Obrigado.

Today, we’re going to learn useful language for the pharmacy.

This means, “Hello, here is my prescription. “ As a reminder, “olá” is the formal way to say hello, as opposed to “oi” which means hi. “Receita” is prescription. Though you’re not saying “my” directly (which would be “minha” or “meu”), it is implied in context. You can use “aqui está” when presenting something to someone.

Here, the speaker says, “I need this medication.”  Note that we put “de” and “este” together to form “deste” (this). “Precisar” is to need, and ”remédio” is medication. When a noun follows “precisar,” we add a “de” as a preposition to the noun.

This means, “My doctor prescribed an antibiotic.” “Médico” is doctor, and “prescrever” is to prescribe. Antibiotic is simply “antibiótico.” Don’t forget the accent when you write it. Though doctors will indicate the best antibiotic to take, you can actually buy antibiotics without a prescription in Brazilian pharmacies.

The speaker says, “The medication is called Azitromicina, a generic brand.” “Medicamento” is just another way to say medication or prescription drug.  “Chamar-se” means to be called. For your information, Azitromicina is in fact a brand of antibiotics in Brazil, should you ever need it. “Marca” is brand, and “generic” is “genérico” which in this case is feminine because of the noun. Generic drugs are common in Brazil and are very cheap.

This means, “The doctor also said I should take Paracetamol for the fever.” “Dizer” (to say) in the past simple tense is irregular, and becomes “disse” in the third person. “Também” means also. “Dever” means to should, and we put it in the conditional tense to indicate a potential desire or order to do something.  “Tomar” is to take, as in medication and food/drinks. “Febre” is fever, and is a feminine noun. Paracetamol is in fact a fever medication, like Tylenol.

Here, the speaker says, “Oh! I would also like some eye drops.”  “Ah” is commonly used as an interjection in Portuguese, like we’d use “oh!” in English. “Querer” (to want) in the past imperfect tense indicates a desire, like putting to like in the conditional tense.  “Colírio” is eye drops.

This means, “Can I pay with a credit card? Thank you.” “Cartão” is understood to mean credit card, even though the full expression is “cartão de crédito.” You can use the present simple tense in the first person  (posso) for “poder” (to be able to), but you could also use it in the third person (pode), which would mean something like “Is it possible to.”