Breakdown of В нашей поликлинике врач редко сразу даёт таблетку.
Questions & Answers about В нашей поликлинике врач редко сразу даёт таблетку.
In Russian, prepositions usually require specific cases.
- В meaning “in / at” with a static location takes the prepositional case.
- Поликлиника (clinic) is feminine, so its prepositional singular form is поликлинике.
The adjective/pronoun must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun:
- Nominative: наша поликлиника (our clinic)
- Prepositional: в нашей поликлинике (in our clinic)
So both нашей and поликлинике are in the prepositional feminine singular, required by в here.
No, they’re not the same:
- Поликлиника is a polyclinic / outpatient clinic:
a place where you go for consultations, tests, and basic treatment but you don’t stay overnight. - Больница is a hospital:
a medical facility where patients can be hospitalized (stay in beds).
So в нашей поликлинике is “in our (outpatient) clinic,” not “in our hospital.”
Both can mean “doctor,” but they’re used a bit differently:
- Врач is the standard, neutral word for a medical doctor, used in official and general contexts.
- Доктор is more conversational, and can also be used as a polite form of address (like “Doctor!”), or as an academic title (Doctor of Science).
In a neutral descriptive sentence about medical practice, врач is the default word.
Врач is a grammatically masculine noun that can refer to a person of any gender.
Russian often uses masculine nouns for professions regardless of the actual gender of the person. So:
- наш врач can refer to a male or female doctor.
- If it’s important to emphasize that it’s a woman, you might say женщина‑врач (female doctor), but in normal speech context usually makes it clear.
Yes, Врач в нашей поликлинике редко сразу даёт таблетку is also correct.
Word order in Russian is relatively flexible and is often used for emphasis and flow:
- В нашей поликлинике врач…
Puts focus first on the place (“In our clinic, the doctor…”). - Врач в нашей поликлинике…
Starts with врач, focusing more on “the doctor” and then specifying which one.
Both sound natural. The original version slightly emphasizes the setting (our clinic) first.
- Даёт is the imperfective present tense of давать.
- Даст is the perfective future form of дать.
Imperfective is used for:
- habitual actions
- general statements about how things usually happen
The sentence describes a habit / typical practice in this clinic:
- врач редко сразу даёт таблетку = “the doctor rarely (typically) gives a pill right away.”
If you used даст, it would sound more like a single future event:
Врач даст таблетку – “The doctor will give a pill (once, at some moment).”
- Редко = rarely, seldom.
- Without редко, врач сразу даёт таблетку means: “the doctor gives a pill right away” (as a usual practice).
By adding редко, we say the opposite: this doesn’t usually happen.
So:
- Врач сразу даёт таблетку. – The doctor usually gives a pill right away.
- Врач редко сразу даёт таблетку. – The doctor rarely gives a pill right away.
The natural order is:
- редко сразу даёт таблетку
- or редко даёт таблетку сразу
Редко usually comes closer to the verb or before another adverb that it logically limits. Here, редко limits the whole idea of “gives a pill right away,” so редко сразу sounds natural.
Врач сразу редко даёт таблетку is grammatically possible but sounds awkward and unclear to a native speaker. It’s much better to keep редко early:
- врач редко сразу даёт таблетку
- or врач редко даёт таблетку сразу
Сразу means “immediately / right away / straight away.”
Without сразу, the sentence just says that giving a pill is rare in general. With сразу, it says:
- the doctor usually doesn’t give the pill at the very first moment of the visit
- perhaps they first examine, ask questions, run tests, etc.
So the focus is not that the doctor rarely prescribes pills at all, but that they rarely do it immediately.
Different verbs describe different actions:
- даёт таблетку – literally “gives a pill” (hands it to you, administers it)
- выписывает лекарство – “prescribes medicine” (writes a prescription)
- назначает лекарства – “orders / prescribes medicines” as part of a treatment plan
In this sentence, the picture is of a doctor who does not just hand out pills immediately. It’s about physically giving a pill (or deciding to use a pill as the first, immediate response), not about writing a prescription.
Таблетка is a feminine noun. Here it is the direct object of the verb даёт (gives).
- Feminine singular nominative: таблетка
- Feminine singular accusative (direct object): таблетку
Since the doctor gives what? – таблетку, Russian uses the accusative case.
Yes, that’s possible:
- врач редко сразу даёт таблетки – “the doctor rarely gives pills right away.”
Nuance:
- таблетку – suggests one pill (e.g., a single painkiller immediately).
- таблетки – more general, could be several pills or pills as a type of medicine.
The singular here emphasizes a single tablet being handed over immediately.
Russian has no articles (a / an / the).
Definiteness or indefiniteness is understood from:
- context
- word order
- what is typical or expected
Here, врач is naturally understood as “the doctor” of that clinic (the one you see there).
Таблетку is some unspecified tablet, so we translate it as “a pill” in English.
You have to choose a / the in English based on what sounds natural in context, because Russian doesn’t mark that grammatically.