Breakdown of La farmacéutica me explicó cómo usar el hilo dental sin lastimarme.
Questions & Answers about La farmacéutica me explicó cómo usar el hilo dental sin lastimarme.
In everyday Latin American Spanish, la farmacéutica most commonly means the (female) pharmacist (or sometimes a female pharmacy professional).
- El farmacéutico / la farmacéutica = pharmacist (male/female)
- La farmacéutica can also mean the pharmaceutical company/industry in some contexts, but in a sentence like this (someone explained something to me), it clearly refers to a person.
La is the definite article (the), used when the speaker assumes the listener can identify which person it is (e.g., the pharmacist who helped them).
Una farmacéutica would be a pharmacist, introducing her as someone not already identified or not important which one.
Me is an indirect object pronoun meaning to me.
Explicar typically takes:
- who receives the explanation (indirect object): me/te/le/nos/les
- plus what is explained: a noun or a clause
So: (Ella) me explicó (algo) = She explained (something) to me.
Explicó is preterite (simple past): she explained / he explained / you (formal) explained.
The accent shows the stress and also helps distinguish it from explico (present tense: I explain).
Conjugation contrast:
- yo explico = I explain
- ella/él/usted explicó = she/he/you explained
No—explicó cannot mean I explained. It’s third person singular (or usted). The subject is la farmacéutica.
If it were I explained, it would be expliqué.
Cómo with an accent is an interrogative/exclamatory word meaning how (direct or indirect questions).
Here it introduces an indirect question: she explained how to use...
Without the accent, como usually means as/like or I eat (from comer, depending on context).
They’re very similar, but slightly different in feel:
- me explicó cómo usar el hilo dental = she explained how to use floss (more direct, instructing you)
- me explicó cómo se usa el hilo dental = she explained how floss is used (more general/impersonal)
Both are natural in Latin America.
After cómo, Spanish often uses an infinitive to express how to do something:
- cómo usar = how to use
Using uso would change the meaning and structure (it would sound like how I use and would need a different construction).
El hilo dental is the standard term for dental floss.
Hilo alone just means thread (general). Adding dental specifies it’s for teeth.
Lastimar = to hurt/injure (someone).
Lastimarme includes me attached to the infinitive, meaning hurt myself.
So:
- sin lastimar = without hurting (someone/anything) — incomplete unless context supplies the object
- sin lastimarme = without hurting myself (clear and specific)
Both are correct:
- sin lastimarme = without hurting myself (focus on avoiding injury as a condition)
- para no lastimarme = so as not to hurt myself (focus on purpose/goal)
In practical use, they’re often interchangeable here.
With an infinitive, Spanish allows pronouns to be:
- attached to the end: lastimarme
- or placed before a conjugated verb (if there is one): e.g., no quiero lastimarme / no me quiero lastimar
Here there’s only an infinitive after sin, so attaching is the normal choice: sin lastimarme.