Annotated Dialogue: At the Doctor

Few conversations matter as much as being able to tell a doctor what is wrong with you, and few expose so cleanly a habit that trips up English speakers: Swedish names the aching body part in the definite form, not with a possessive. Where you would say "my stomach hurts," a Swede says Jag har ont i magen — literally "I have pain in the stomach." The body part is treated as a known, shared thing (you both know whose stomach it is), so it takes the definite ending, and the "ownership" is carried by the construction, not by a min ("my"). This dialogue runs you through the three core ways to describe symptoms, the perfect tense for "how long," and how a doctor gives advice with bör and borde. Below is the full exchange; then we go line by line.

The dialogue

A doctor (läkaren) sees a patient (patienten).

Line by line

Läkaren: Hej, varsågod och sitt. Vad kan jag hjälpa dig med?

Varsågod och sitt ("please sit down," literally "be-so-good and sit") is the standard, warm way to invite someone to sit — varsågod is the all-purpose "here you are / go ahead" word, sitt an imperative.

Vad kan jag hjälpa dig med? ("What can I help you with?") ends on a stranded preposition — med ("with") sits at the very end of the clause, exactly as English allows ("help you with"). Note the verb takes hjälpa dig with the object dig ("you," object form) and the preposition med. The doctor uses du / dig throughout, the normal Swedish address even in this professional setting.

Patienten: Jag mår inte så bra. Jag har ont i magen och jag känner mig trött.

Three things to harvest here. First, Jag mår inte så bra — the verb må ("to feel, fare", of health) is the dedicated verb for how you are doing health-wise. Hur mår du? is "How are you (feeling)?"; Jag mår bra/dåligt is "I'm well / unwell." Note it is må, not känna sig, for this general "how are you."

Second, the headline construction: Jag har ont i magen — "I have pain in the stomach." The frame is ha ont i + [body part in the definite]. Ont is "pain, ache" (a neuter noun used adverbially), i is "in," and magen is mage ("stomach") + definite ending. There is no min ("my") — Swedish uses the definite because it is obvious whose stomach hurts. (More on this in the callouts below.)

Third, jag känner mig trött — the reflexive känna sig + adjective ("feel + adjective"), used for a state you sense in yourself: känna sig trött / sjuk / yr ("feel tired / sick / dizzy"). The sig (here mig, "myself") is obligatory — you feel yourself tired. Contrast it with må: jag mår dåligt is your overall health; jag känner mig trött is a specific sensation. (Both verbs of state are on Feelings and States.)

Läkaren: Hur länge har du haft ont i magen?

This is the duration line. Hur länge har du haft...? ("How long have you had...?") uses the perfect tense — har + the supine haft (from ha, "to have"). Swedish, like English, uses the perfect for a state that began in the past and continues up to now: the stomach ache started three days ago and is still here, so the perfect is exactly right. Hur länge ("how long," of duration) pairs naturally with it.

Note the body-part phrase is unchanged inside the question — ont i magen, still definite, still no possessive.

Patienten: I ungefär tre dagar. Och i går fick jag feber.

I ungefär tre dagar ("for about three days") — note the duration "for" is i here, i tre dagar. Ungefär ("approximately, about") is a high-frequency hedge.

I går fick jag feber — "yesterday I got a fever." This is the past tense (fick, from få, "to get"), because it names a finished event at a specific past time (i går, "yesterday"). Contrast it with the perfect in the doctor's question: ongoing state = perfect (har haft), a pinned past event = past (fick). Note also the V2 inversion: time word i går first, so verb fick second, subject jag third.

Läkaren: Har du ont någon annanstans? Halsen, huvudet?

Har du ont någon annanstans? ("Do you have pain anywhere else?") — a yes/no question by inversion (har du...?), with någon annanstans ("somewhere else, anywhere else"). The doctor then lists possible sites — Halsen, huvudet? ("The throat, the head?") — and notice both are bare definite forms: halsen (hals + -en, "the throat"), huvudet (huvud + -et, "the head," an ett-word). Even listed in isolation, body parts default to the definite in this medical context.

Patienten: Ja, jag har lite ont i halsen också. Jag tror att jag är förkyld.

Jag har lite ont i halsen — same frame again: ha ont i + halsen (definite). Lite ("a little, a bit") softens the pain to a minor sore throat.

Then the second symptom frame: Jag är förkyld ("I have a cold," literally "I am cold-stricken"). This is a fixed expression — vara förkyld, an adjective describing your state, agreeing if needed (förkyld / förkylt / förkylda). It does not mean "I am cold" in temperature (that is jag fryser or jag är kall). Vara förkyld = to have a head cold. Note also jag tror att... ("I think that..."), the hedge a patient uses — tro ("believe, think") softens the self-diagnosis into an opinion. (Symptom vocabulary lives on The Body and Health.)

Läkaren: Det låter så. Har du tagit någon medicin?

Det låter så ("it sounds like it," literally "it sounds so") — låta ("to sound") used to agree that a description fits.

Har du tagit någon medicin? — perfect tense again, har + supine tagit (from ta, "to take"). The perfect because the doctor wants to know about any past taking relevant now — has it happened, at all, up to this point? Någon medicin ("any medicine") uses någon for an open, unspecified amount in a question.

Patienten: Bara lite febernedsättande. Det hjälpte inte så mycket.

Febernedsättande ("fever-reducing (medicine)") is a transparent compound — feber ("fever") + nedsättande ("lowering") — the kind of long, logical word Swedish builds freely. Det hjälpte inte så mycket ("it didn't help much") is past tense (hjälpte, from hjälpa), a finished past judgement about the medicine already taken.

Läkaren: Du borde stanna hemma och vila. Du bör dricka mycket vatten.

This is the advice line, and it shows both forms. Du borde stanna hemma — borde ("should, ought to") is the softer, more advisory modal, the gentle recommendation: "you should stay home." Then Du bör dricka mycket vatten — bör ("ought to, should") is a touch more formal and definite, the kind of measured "ought" a professional uses. Both are followed by a bare infinitive (stanna, dricka) with no att. Stanna hemma ("stay home"), vila ("rest"), dricka mycket vatten ("drink lots of water") — classic doctor's advice. (The obligation modals böra, borde, ska are compared on böra / ska: Obligation and Advice.)

Patienten: Måste jag ta något mer? Antibiotika kanske?

Måste jag ta något mer? ("Do I have to take anything else?") — måste ("must, have to") is the strong-obligation modal, also with a bare infinitive (ta). The patient is asking whether anything is required. Antibiotika kanske? ("Antibiotics maybe?") — kanske ("maybe, perhaps") tacked on as a tentative suggestion.

Läkaren: Nej, det behövs inte. Det här går över av sig självt om några dagar.

Det behövs inte ("that's not needed") — the s-passive behövs (from behöva, "to need"), an impersonal "it is (not) needed." A very common, tidy way to say something isn't necessary.

Det här går över av sig självt — the particle verb gå över ("to pass, go away," of an illness) plus av sig självt ("by itself, on its own"). Om några dagar ("in a few days") — note om for future "in (a span of time)": om en vecka ("in a week"). This om differs from English "in" — it means "after the passage of."

Patienten: Okej, tack så mycket. Då gör jag så.

Tack så mycket ("thank you very much") — the standard fuller thanks. Då gör jag så ("then I'll do that," literally "then do I so") closes the loop — då fronts the clause, so V2 inverts (då gör jag), and så ("so, that way") refers back to the advice. A natural, idiomatic sign-off.

Common Mistakes

The errors here cluster around the body-part construction and the symptom frames.

The single most common error is using a possessive instead of the definite. English "my stomach hurts" tempts you into min mage gör ont, but the natural Swedish is Jag har ont i magen ("I have pain in the stomach") or, if you do use göra ont, Magen gör ont / Huvudet gör ont — definite body part, no min. (And note huvud is an ett-word, so it would be mitt huvud, never min huvud — another reason to avoid the possessive route entirely.)

A related slip is using the indefinite body part — i en mage ("in a stomach"). You have exactly one stomach and the doctor knows which, so it is magen, definite.

To say you have a cold, use the fixed vara förkyld. Jag är kall means your body temperature is low, and jag fryser means "I'm freezing" — neither describes the illness.

Finally, mind the tense for duration. If the ache is still present, use the perfect (har haft) — the past tense (hade) would suggest it is over and done with. Reserve the past for pinned, finished events: i går fick jag feber ("yesterday I got a fever").