Breakdown of Du hast Fieber. Du sollst die Medizin einnehmen.
du
you (informal singular)
haben
to have
die Medizin
the medicine
einnehmen
to take (medicine)
sollen
should / ought to
das Fieber
the fever
Questions & Answers about Du hast Fieber. Du sollst die Medizin einnehmen.
Why is there no word for "a" before Fieber?
In German, medical conditions and physical states like Fieber (fever), Hunger (hunger), or Durst (thirst) are usually treated as uncountable nouns. You just say Du hast Fieber (literally: You have fever), without the indefinite article ein.
The English translation says "should", but isn't sollst the present tense meaning "supposed to"?
Exactly! The present tense of sollen means someone is "supposed to" do something, often because an authority figure (like a doctor) ordered it. English usually translates this as "should". If this were just gentle advice rather than an instruction, a German speaker might use the conditional form solltest instead.
Why use einnehmen instead of just nehmen for taking medicine?
While nehmen means "to take" generally (like taking a book or a bus), einnehmen is the specific verb used for taking medication or ingesting a prescribed dose.
einnehmen is a separable verb. Why isn't the ein split off and put at the end of the sentence?
Because of the modal verb sollst. When you use a modal verb, it takes the conjugated spot near the beginning of the sentence and pushes the main verb to the very end. When a separable verb is pushed to the end by a modal verb, it must stay in its full, unseparated dictionary form (the infinitive). Therefore, it stays together as einnehmen.
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