Dialogue: At the Doctor's (B1)

A medical visit in Italian is one of the highest-stakes everyday-language situations. You need to convey symptoms accurately, understand instructions about medication and rest, and switch confidently between the formal Lei of the consultation and the technical vocabulary of body parts and ailments. This dialogue runs a typical first-visit scenario — a patient who has been feeling unwell for several days — and uses it to anchor several B1 grammar points: the reflexive sentirsi, the impersonal fare male construction (mi fa male la testa), and the absolutely critical present-tense + da time duration pattern (mi sento male da tre giorni) that English speakers consistently get wrong. The page also adds a pharmacy dialogue, an emergency-room dialogue, and a working vocabulary of common symptoms and ailments.

Read the dialogue first, then read it again with the line-by-line commentary.

The full dialogue: at the doctor's office

Dottoressa: Buongiorno. Si accomodi. Allora, come sta?

Paziente: Buongiorno, dottoressa. Mi sento male da tre giorni.

Dottoressa: Cosa Le fa male?

Paziente: Mi fa male la testa, ho la febbre alta, e mi sento debole. Ieri ho avuto anche dei brividi.

Dottoressa: Da quanto tempo ha la febbre?

Paziente: Ho la febbre da due giorni. Ieri sera è arrivata a 39.

Dottoressa: Tossisce?

Paziente: Sì, soprattutto la notte. E mi fa male la gola quando deglutisco.

Dottoressa: Vediamo. Apra la bocca, dica "ah". Respiri profondamente. — Ha la gola molto arrossata. Probabilmente è un'infezione batterica.

Paziente: È grave?

Dottoressa: No, niente di grave. Le prescrivo un antibiotico, da prendere due volte al giorno per sette giorni. Le consiglio anche di riposare e di bere molta acqua. Ha allergie a qualche farmaco?

Paziente: No, nessuna allergia.

Dottoressa: Bene. Se la febbre non scende entro 48 ore, mi richiami. Ecco la ricetta.

Paziente: La ringrazio, dottoressa. Buona giornata.

Dottoressa: A Lei. Si rimetta presto.

Line-by-line commentary

Si accomodi. Come sta? — clinical opening

The doctor opens with two formal Lei forms in quick succession. Si accomodi (please sit/come in) is the same formal imperative covered in the shopping and restaurant dialogues. Come sta? — formal "how are You?" — uses stare, not essere, which is the verb of choice for asking after someone's health and current state.

The bare come stai? (informal) and come sta? (formal) ask about wellbeing more directly than come va? (how's it going?). In a doctor's office, come sta? is medically meaningful: it's an invitation to describe symptoms.

Mi sento male da tre giorni — the critical da + present tense

This is one of the most important sentences on this page. The pattern is present indicative + da + time period, and it expresses a state or action that started in the past and continues into the present.

English uses present perfect ("I have been feeling unwell"); Italian uses the bare present (mi sento male). This is a structural mismatch, and English speakers consistently get it wrong by translating word-by-word.

The wrong forms are not ungrammatical — they exist in Italian — but they mean something different. Mi sono sentito male per tre giorni means "I felt unwell for three days" (and now I no longer do — completed past). Ho avuto la febbre per due giorni means "I had the fever for two days" (and it's now gone). For an ongoing condition, you must use the present.

Cosa Le fa male? — the impersonal fare male construction

Fare male is the standard Italian way to express "to hurt" or "to be in pain." It is impersonal: the body part is the grammatical subject, and the person is in the indirect object slot.

Pattern: [Indirect object pronoun] + fa/fanno male + [body part with article].

Two things to track:

Verb agreement. Fa (singular) for one body part, fanno (plural) for multiple body parts. Mi fa male il braccio (one arm), mi fanno male le braccia (both arms).

Article on the body part. Italian uses the definite article with body parts (la testa, lo stomaco, le gambe) where English would use a possessive ("my head"). This is general Italian behavior — body parts almost always take articles, and possessive adjectives feel redundant or even off when the possessor is clear from context.

Ho la febbre alta — avere + symptom

For symptoms expressed as states, Italian uses avere + definite article + symptom:

The temperature scale: avere la febbre (have a fever); la febbre alta (high fever, generally 38.5°C+); la febbre molto alta (39°C+); 38 di febbre (38°C of fever — Italians give the number directly).

Tossisce? — -isco verbs in clinical Italian

Tossire (to cough) is one of the -isco class verbs — third-conjugation verbs that insert -isc- between the stem and the ending in singular forms and the third-person plural of the present. The full present indicative:

Other clinically useful -isco verbs: capire (understand — capisco, capisce), sentire (here as sentirsi, but sentire itself isn't -isco; sentirsi is reflexive), guarire (heal — guarisco, guarisce), finire (finish — finisco, finisce), preferire (prefer — preferisco).

Quando deglutisco — clinical-precise verbs

Deglutire (to swallow) is the medical word — distinct from the everyday inghiottire. In a clinical context, doctors use precise terminology and expect patients to follow:

Apra la bocca, dica "ah", respiri — formal imperatives in examination

The doctor uses three formal Lei imperatives in a row:

• apra — Lei imperative of aprire (regular -ire verb, third conjugation)
• dica — Lei imperative of dire (irregular)
• respiri — Lei imperative of respirare (regular -are verb, first conjugation)

A reference table of clinical Lei imperatives:

Le prescrivo un antibiotico — clitic + clinical verbs

Le is the formal indirect-object clitic (to You). Prescrivere (to prescribe), consigliare (to advise), raccomandare (to recommend) all take indirect objects in Italian and pair beautifully with Le for formal medical advice:

The dosage construction due volte al giorno per sette giorni uses al giorno (per day, with article) and per + duration. Variants: tre volte al giorno (three times a day), ogni otto ore (every eight hours), prima dei pasti (before meals), a stomaco pieno (on a full stomach), a digiuno (on an empty stomach).

Le consiglio di riposare — consigliare di + infinitive

Consigliare takes the structure indirect object + di + infinitive when giving advice to someone to do something:

This contrasts with consigliare + noun (recommend a thing): Le consiglio questo vino (I recommend this wine to You).

Se la febbre non scende, mi richiami — conditional follow-up

Type-1 hypothetical: se + present indicative in the protasis (the if-clause), Lei imperative in the apodosis (the then-clause). This is the realistic-condition pattern: a likely future event triggering a recommended action.

The clitic in the imperative — mi richiami — is pre-verbal, because the Lei imperative behaves like a subjunctive (clitics precede). With informal tu, the clitic would attach: richiamami. The contrast:

Si rimetta presto — closing well-wishes

Rimettersi (to recover, get well again) is a reflexive verb. The Lei imperative si rimetta uses the reflexive clitic si in pre-verbal position. Presto — soon, quickly. Variations:

Pharmacy dialogue

Cliente: Buongiorno, vorrei un antinfiammatorio.

Farmacista: Ha la ricetta?

Cliente: No, è da banco — un antidolorifico semplice, tipo ibuprofene.

Farmacista: Allora le do questo. Una compressa ogni otto ore, dopo i pasti. Ha problemi di stomaco?

Cliente: No, nessuno.

Farmacista: Bene. Se i sintomi persistono per più di tre giorni, vada dal medico. Sono otto euro e cinquanta.

Key vocabulary:

Italian pharmacies (farmacie) are professional dispensaries — pharmacists (farmacisti) hold a five-year university degree and routinely give medical advice for minor issues. For headaches, sore throats, mild fevers, or skin issues, going straight to the pharmacy is faster than seeing a doctor. The phrase ha qualcosa per...? (do you have something for...?) is the standard pharmacy opener.

Emergency room (pronto soccorso) phrases

Italy's emergency number for medical issues is 112 (the European general emergency line; previously 118 for medical specifically, still functional). At triage you'll be classified by color: codice rosso (red — life-threatening), giallo (yellow — urgent), verde (green — minor), bianco (white — non-urgent).

Common symptoms vocabulary

A working glossary, organized by body region:

Head and neurological:

• mal di testa — headache
• emicrania — migraine
• vertigini / capogiri — dizziness
• svenimento — fainting

Throat and respiratory:

• mal di gola — sore throat
• raffreddore — cold
• tosse (secca / grassa) — cough (dry / productive)
• naso chiuso / naso che cola — congested / runny nose
• affanno / fiato corto — shortness of breath

Digestive:

• mal di pancia / mal di stomaco — stomach pain
• nausea — nausea
• vomito — vomiting
• diarrea — diarrhea
• stitichezza — constipation

Musculoskeletal:

• mal di schiena — back pain
• dolori articolari — joint pain
• dolori muscolari — muscle pain
• crampi — cramps

Allergic and skin:

• prurito — itch
• sfogo / eruzione cutanea — rash
• gonfiore — swelling
• orticaria — hives
• reazione allergica — allergic reaction

Common Mistakes

Key takeaways

• Da
  • present tense for ongoing conditions.
  Mi sento male da tre giorni (I have been unwell for three days, still). Use the passato prossimo
  • per only for completed periods.
• Mi fa male
  • body part with article.
  Body part is the subject; the person is in indirect-object position. Use fanno for plural body parts.
• Italian uses articles, not possessives, with body parts. La testa (the head, mine), not la mia testa.
• Le prescrivo, Le consiglio, Le raccomando — formal medical advice always uses indirect-object Le
  • verb of recommendation.
• Cosa Le fa male? is the doctor's universal opening question for symptoms. Be ready to point at the body part as you say it.
• Pharmacies handle minor issues directly. Farmacisti are trained to give over-the-counter recommendations; you don't need to see a doctor for a basic cold or headache.
• Emergency calls go to 112. Pronto soccorso is the ER; the color-code triage system is universal across Italian hospitals.