yīshēng gěi tā kāi le chǔfāng, ràng tā qù yàodiàn ná yào.

Here, 给 does not mainly mean a literal give. It introduces the person who receives the action.

The pattern is:

A 给 B + verb + object

= A does something for/to B

So:

医生给她开了处方 = The doctor wrote/issued a prescription for her

If you used 给 as the main verb to give, the structure would be different, such as:

医生给了她一张处方 = The doctor gave her a prescription

That sentence focuses more on handing it to her.
The original sentence focuses on the act of prescribing.

开 has several meanings in Chinese, and one of them is to write out / issue / prescribe, especially in certain common expressions.

In medical language:

• 开处方 = to write a prescription
• 开药 = to prescribe medicine

So in this sentence, 开 is part of the fixed expression 开处方.

This is very common in Chinese: a verb may have a broad core meaning and then develop special meanings in common collocations. So you should learn 开处方 as a chunk, not by translating 开 word-for-word as open.

The 了 here is the perfective aspect marker. It shows that the action of writing the prescription is completed.

So:

• 开处方 = write a prescription / prescribe
• 开了处方 = wrote a prescription / has written a prescription

It does not simply mean past tense in the same way English does. It marks the action as a completed event.

In this sentence, the doctor’s prescribing is presented as something that has already happened, and then the next action follows from it.

Good question. In Chinese, an object can sometimes appear without a number or measure word when it is being mentioned in a general, non-specific way.

So:

• 开了处方 = prescribed / wrote a prescription
• 开了一张处方 = wrote one prescription

Both are possible.

The version without 一张 is natural when the exact number is not important. The sentence is just telling you that the doctor prescribed something, not emphasizing the physical prescription slip itself.

If you want to be more explicit, 一张处方 is also fine, because 张 is the usual measure word for flat paper-like things.

In this sentence, 让 means something like tell, have, or instruct.

The pattern is:

让 + person + verb phrase

So:

让她去药店拿药 = told/instructed her to go to the pharmacy to get the medicine

Depending on context, 让 can mean:

• let someone do something
• make someone do something
• tell/ask someone to do something

Here, because it is a doctor speaking to a patient, tell/instruct is the best interpretation.

Because the second 她 has a different grammatical role.

In:

医生给她开了处方 the first 她 is the person receiving the prescription.

In:

让她去药店拿药 the second 她 is the person being told to do the next action.

Chinese normally uses the structure:

让 + someone + do something

So the person after 让 usually needs to be stated clearly.

In English, we sometimes compress this idea, but Chinese often keeps it explicit.

Here, 拿药 means get / pick up / collect medicine, not take medicine in the sense of swallowing it.

So:

• 拿药 = pick up medicine
• 吃药 = take medicine orally
• 服药 = take medicine (more formal)

Because the sentence says 去药店拿药, the meaning is clearly go to the pharmacy to collect the medicine.

This is a very common learner confusion, because English take medicine can mean ingest medicine, but Chinese usually uses 吃药 or 服药 for that meaning.

This is a very common Chinese pattern:

去 + place + verb

It means go to a place to do something.

So:

• 去药店 = go to the pharmacy
• 拿药 = pick up medicine

Put together:

去药店拿药 = go to the pharmacy to get the medicine

Chinese often places actions in a natural sequence without adding extra words like in order to.

So the structure is very compact and natural: go + place + do action

Chinese often links related actions with just a comma, especially when the relationship is already clear from context.

Here:

医生给她开了处方， 让她去药店拿药。

The second part explains what happened next or what the doctor instructed her to do.

Because 让 already signals the relationship, no extra connector is necessary.

In English, you might say:

• The doctor wrote her a prescription and told her to go...
• The doctor prescribed medicine for her, then told her to go...

Chinese often leaves that connection more implicit.

Yes, 药店 usually means pharmacy, drugstore, or medicine shop.

A small nuance:

• 药店 usually refers to a pharmacy shop, often outside a hospital
• 药房 often refers to the dispensary/pharmacy inside a hospital or clinic

In everyday speech, 药店 is very common and easy to understand. In this sentence, it simply means the place where she goes to get the prescribed medicine.

Yes, but the nuance is a little different.

• 开处方 focuses on the prescription
• 开药 focuses on the medicine being prescribed

So:

• 医生给她开了处方 = the doctor wrote her a prescription
• 医生给她开了药 = the doctor prescribed medicine for her

Both are natural, but the original sentence is especially logical because the next action is 去药店拿药. First the doctor writes the prescription, then she goes to get the medicine.

The sentence has two linked parts:

1. 医生给她开了处方

   • subject: 医生
   • recipient: 她
   • verb phrase: 开了处方

2. 让她去药店拿药

   • verb: 让
   • person affected: 她
   • action she is told to do: 去药店拿药

So the overall flow is:

[The doctor prescribed for her], [and instructed her to go pick up the medicine].

This kind of chaining of actions is very typical in Mandarin and is worth getting used to.