Learn Hardcore Japanese: isya ha kanozyo ni, taiinsite kara mo muri wo sinai you ni iimasita. - The doctor told her not to overdo it even after being discharged from the hospital.

The sentence is about what the doctor did (what he said), not about introducing him as new information. In English, this is often left implicit, but Japanese likes to mark the overall topic.

If you used 医者が, it would sound more like you were emphasizing which person said it, e.g. “It was the doctor (not someone else) who told her…”. In a neutral narrative like this, 医者は is more natural.

Why is 彼女 followed by に (彼女に) and not by を or と?

Here, 彼女に marks the person to whom something is said:

〜に言う = to say/tell to someone
彼女に言いました = told her

Compare:

彼女を – would usually mark her as a direct object (e.g. 彼女を見た “saw her”), which doesn’t fit with 言う.
彼女と – often means “with her” (doing something together) or “to her” in the sense of “speaking with” (話すこと, 相談する), but with 言う, the natural pattern is 〜に言う.

So 医者は彼女に言いました = “The doctor told her …”.

What does 退院して mean, and why is it 退院して and not 退院した?

The base verb is 退院する, “to leave the hospital / be discharged”.

退院して is the て-form of 退院する.
退院してから is a set pattern: Vてから = “after doing V”.

So:

退院してから = “after (she) leaves the hospital / after being discharged”

You could say 退院したあと, but with から, the standard structure is Vてから, not Vたから. The て-form + から expresses a sequence: “do A, and after that, B”. Here, A = “be discharged from the hospital”; B = “not overdo it”.

What is the role of から in 退院してから?

から here means “after” in a temporal sense.

Pattern: Vてから、〜
→ “After doing V, (then) …”

So:

退院してから = “after being discharged (from hospital)”
退院してからも = “even after being discharged”

It’s not the “because” meaning of から; it’s the “from/after (a point in time)” meaning.

What does the も in 退院してからも add to the meaning?

も adds the nuance of “even” / “also then”, implying continuation of a situation or expectation.

退院してから = after being discharged (neutral)
退院してからも = even after being discharged / still even after that

This suggests something like:

“Don’t push yourself now, and even after you leave the hospital, still don’t push yourself.”

It emphasizes that the caution continues into the future, not only while she is in the hospital.

Why is it 無理をする and not just 無理する? What is 無理をしない literally?

無理 is originally a noun meaning “unreasonableness”, “excess”, “impossibility”.

In Japanese, many verbs are formed as:

Noun + を + する = “to do [the noun]”

Examples:

勉強をする → to study
運動をする → to exercise

Similarly:

無理をする → literally “to do excess / to do something unreasonable” → idiomatically: “to overdo it”, “to push oneself too hard”

So:

無理をしない = “to not overdo it”, “to not push oneself too hard”

In everyday speech people often drop を and say 無理しないで, but the full, textbook form is 無理をしないで. This sentence uses the more complete form with を.

What does 〜ないように mean in 無理をしないように?

V-ないように (negative plain form + ように) is often used to express:

a hope / purpose: “so that [something] does not happen”
an indirect request / instruction: “(tell/ask someone) not to do X”

In this sentence:

無理をしないように literally: “so that (she) does not overdo it”
Together with 言いました, it becomes:
無理をしないように言いました
→ “(He) told (her) not to overdo it.”

So V-ないように言う is a common pattern meaning “to tell someone not to V” in a relatively soft, indirect way.

Why is there no と before 言いました? I thought it should be 〜と言いました.

You’re right that the basic pattern is:

「〜」と言いました – “(He) said ‘〜’.”

But with ように, there is a special pattern:

V-るように言う – tell someone to do V
V-ないように言う – tell someone not to do V

Here, ように functions as part of a grammar pattern, not as a direct quoted phrase inside 「」. So:

無理をしないように言いました = (He) told (her) not to overdo it.

You can say:

無理をしないようにと言いました

where ようにと acts together, but it’s also completely natural (and very common) to omit と in this pattern and just say Vように言う.

Who is supposed to しない in this sentence? How do we know it’s 彼女 and not the doctor?

Japanese often omits the subject when it’s obvious from context.

We have:

医者は – topic: the doctor
彼女に – the person the doctor is speaking to
無理をしないように言いました – “told (someone) not to overdo it”

In this situation, it’s natural to interpret:

the speaker (doctor) as the one doing 言う
the listener (彼女) as the one supposed to しない

So the understood subject of 無理をしない is 彼女.

You could make it explicit (though it’s not necessary) as:

医者は彼女に、彼女が無理をしないように言いました。

But because that’s repetitive, Japanese just leaves 彼女が out and expects context to fill it in.

Can the word order be changed? Is 医者は彼女に退院してからも無理をしないように言いました (without the comma) okay?

Yes. Japanese word order is relatively flexible as long as:

the particles stay with the words they mark
the main verb (言いました) comes at the end

So:

医者は彼女に、退院してからも無理をしないように言いました。
医者は彼女に退院してからも無理をしないように言いました。 (no comma)
医者は、退院してからも彼女に無理をしないように言いました。 (less common, but grammatically possible)

All are grammatical, though the first, with the comma after 彼女に, is the most natural and easy to parse. The comma just indicates a slight pause; it doesn’t change the grammar.

What is the difference between 無理をしないように言いました and 無理をしないでくださいと言いました?

Both end up meaning “(He) told (her) not to overdo it,” but the nuance and focus differ:

無理をしないように言いました
- Uses the pattern V-ないように言う (“tell someone not to V”)
- Feels like an indirect instruction / advice
- The sentence focuses on the act of giving advice / instructions.
「無理をしないでください」と言いました
- Here you’re quoting the exact words the doctor said:
  無理をしないでください = “Please don’t overdo it.”
- Stronger feeling of a direct request (polite, but quite clear)
- The sentence focuses on what he actually said, inside 「」.

In narrative Japanese, Vないように言いました is very common when summarizing what someone told someone else, rather than quoting them word-for-word.

Could we say 退院したあとも instead of 退院してからも? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say:

退院したあとも無理をしないように言いました。

Both:

退院してからも
退院したあとも

mean roughly “even after (she) leaves the hospital”.

Nuance:

Vてから: often feels like “once V is done, from that point on …” (sequential, starting point)
Vたあと: more neutral “after V”

In this sentence, the difference is very small; both are natural. 退院してからも might slightly emphasize the idea of “from the moment of discharge onward, still don’t overdo it,” but in most contexts they are interchangeable.

Is the comma after 彼女に necessary?

No, it’s not grammatically necessary; it’s mainly for readability and indicating a natural pause.

With comma: 医者は彼女に、退院してからも無理をしないように言いました。
→ clear separation: “The doctor, to her, (said that) …”
Without comma: 医者は彼女に退院してからも無理をしないように言いました。
→ still correct; Japanese readers will understand it the same way.

Commas in Japanese are used more flexibly than in English and are often inserted to show natural pauses and make long sentences easier to read.