A médica recomendou um antibiótico porque a infeção na garganta não melhorava.

In Portuguese, professions are often used with the definite article when referring to a specific person.

• a médica = the doctor / the female doctor
• médica on its own would sound incomplete in this sentence

Also, médica is the feminine form of médico. So this sentence tells us the doctor is a woman.

Portuguese nouns referring to people often change form depending on gender:

• o médico = the male doctor
• a médica = the female doctor

So if the doctor were a man, the sentence would begin:

• O médico recomendou...

The article and the noun both change:

• o
  • médico
• a
  • médica

Recomendou is the pretérito perfeito (simple past) of recomendar.

It means that the action happened as a completed event in the past:

• A médica recomendou... = The doctor recommended...

This tense is used because the recommendation is seen as a single completed action.

Melhorava is the pretérito imperfeito (imperfect past). It suggests an ongoing or repeated situation in the past.

So:

• não melhorava = was not getting better / wasn’t improving
• não melhorou = did not get better

The sentence uses não melhorava because the infection was continuing not to improve over a period of time. That ongoing situation is the reason the doctor recommended an antibiotic.

So the contrast is:

• recomendou = one completed action
• não melhorava = an ongoing background situation

This is a very common combination in Portuguese.

Um means a/an.

• um antibiótico = an antibiotic

Portuguese usually uses the indefinite article here, just as English does. Without um, the sentence would sound unnatural in this context.

Also note:

• antibiótico is masculine singular
• so it takes um, not uma

Na is a contraction:

• em
  • a = na

So:

• na garganta literally = in the throat

Portuguese very often contracts em with the definite article:

• em + o = no
• em + a = na
• em + os = nos
• em + as = nas

So a infeção na garganta means the infection in the throat.

Portuguese uses definite articles more often than English, especially when referring to something specific and already understood in context.

Here, a infeção na garganta means:

• the throat infection
• literally, the infection in the throat

The speaker is referring to a specific infection, not just infection in general.

In this sentence, porque means because, so it is written as one word:

• ...porque a infeção na garganta não melhorava.
• ...because the throat infection wasn’t improving.

This is the standard conjunction used to give a reason.

Compare:

• porque = because
• por que = why / for which reason, in certain question structures

For example:

• Porque faltaste? = Why were you absent?
• Não sei por que faltaste. = I don’t know why you were absent.

In Portuguese, the normal position of não is directly before the verb:

• não melhorava = was not improving

This is the standard way to make a sentence negative.

Other examples:

• não sei = I don’t know
• não gosto = I don’t like
• não veio = he/she didn’t come

Yes. Infeção is the European Portuguese spelling of infection.

In older spelling, you might see infecção, but modern Portuguese spelling in Portugal uses infeção.

A related point:

• Portugal: infeção
• Brazil may also use infecção in older texts, but spelling reforms have affected usage

For European Portuguese learners, infeção is the form to learn.

Both are useful ways to understand it.

Literally:

• a infeção na garganta = the infection in the throat

More naturally in English:

• the throat infection
• or the infection in her/their throat, depending on context

Portuguese often expresses this kind of idea with a noun + prepositional phrase, where English may prefer a compound noun.

The subject is a infeção na garganta.

So the structure is:

• A médica = subject of recomendou
• recomendou = main verb
• um antibiótico = direct object
• porque a infeção na garganta não melhorava = reason clause

Inside the reason clause:

• a infeção na garganta = subject
• não melhorava = verb

So it means the infection was not improving, not that the doctor was not improving.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• A médica recomendou um antibiótico porque a infeção na garganta não melhorava.
• roughly: uh MED-kah reh-koh-men-DOH oo-m an-tee-byoh-tee-koo pork uh een-fek-SAWN nuh gar-GAHN-tuh now myeh-lyoh-RAH-vuh

A few European Portuguese notes:

• Unstressed vowels are often reduced
• não sounds like a nasal diphthong
• ção in infeção sounds roughly like sawn with nasalization
• Final vowels are often weaker than in Brazilian Portuguese

This rough guide is only approximate, but it can help you start hearing the rhythm.

Yes, often you can, but there is a difference in feel.

• a médica = the doctor, emphasizing the profession
• a doutora = the doctor, a common way of addressing or referring to a doctor

In Portugal, both can be used, but médica is more explicitly the profession itself. In a textbook sentence like this, a médica is very straightforward and precise.