Farmacia
Describe your symptoms and ask for the right medicine at a Spanish pharmacy — out loud.
Start with necesito algo para… (I need something for…) and add your symptom: necesito algo para el dolor de cabeza. To say what's wrong, use tener + the symptom (tengo fiebre, tengo tos) or doler for pain (me duele el estómago). And ask the one question every traveler needs: ¿lo venden sin receta? — is it available over the counter?
Below: the words for symptoms, medicine and the pharmacy itself, how they change country to country, and a way to run the whole visit out loud — no flashcards.
Say this
Regional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
| English | Mexico | Argentina | Colombia | Spain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| flu / bad cold | la gripa | estoy engripado/a | estoy con gripa | la gripe |
| medicine (casual word) | el medicamento | el remedio | el remedio | el medicamento |
| ointment / cream | la pomada | la crema | la crema | la crema |
| doctor | el doctor / la doctora | el médico | el médico | el médico |
| appointment | la cita | el turno | la cita médica | la cita |
Watch out
The part no drill site can do
Olivia
Your vocabulary teacher for this pack
There are no flashcards and nothing to memorize in isolation. In the last lesson Olivia plays the pharmacist and you walk in sick: you open with necesito algo para…, describe how you feel (tengo fiebre y me duele la garganta), and understand what she tells you about the pastillas and the jarabe — how many, how often. She asks about allergies, you answer soy alérgico a…, and the whole visit happens out loud, in real time.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 5 lessons and Farmacia is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
Start with necesito algo para… (I need something for…) and add the symptom: necesito algo para la tos. You can also ask ¿tiene algo para el dolor de cabeza?.
Use tener for conditions (tengo fiebre, tengo gripe) and doler for pain (me duele la cabeza). For a general 'I feel off,' say me siento mal or estoy mareado.
Sin receta — literally 'without a prescription.' The everyday question is ¿lo venden sin receta? (do you sell it over the counter?). A prescription itself is la receta.
Doler works like gustar: me duele for one thing (me duele la cabeza) and me duelen for several (me duelen los ojos). It matches the body part, not you.
Both mean the flu. La gripe is standard; in Mexico and much of Latin America people say la gripa (tengo gripa). Either is understood everywhere.
