Лікар сказав приймати ліки після обіду.

Сказав is the past tense masculine form of сказати (to say / to tell).

In Ukrainian past tense, the verb agrees with the subject in gender and number:

• він сказав = he said
• вона сказала = she said
• воно сказало = it said
• вони сказали = they said

So Лікар сказав means The doctor said, with лікар understood here as masculine. If the doctor were female, you would normally say:

• Лікар сказала приймати ліки після обіду.

Приймати is an infinitive, meaning to take.

In this sentence, it depends on сказав:

• Лікар сказав приймати ліки = The doctor said to take the medicine

This is a very common pattern in Ukrainian:

• сказав зробити = said to do
• попросив прийти = asked to come
• наказав чекати = ordered to wait

English often uses to + verb after said/told/asked, and Ukrainian often does the same with the infinitive.

Because Ukrainian can leave it unstated if it is clear from context.

English often says:

• The doctor told me to take the medicine after lunch.

But Ukrainian can simply say:

• Лікар сказав приймати ліки після обіду.

This sounds natural if it is obvious who received the instruction.

If you want to include me, you could say:

• Лікар сказав мені приймати ліки після обіду.

So the original sentence is not incomplete; it just omits information that Ukrainian often leaves understood.

In Ukrainian, приймати ліки is the standard expression for to take medicine / medication.

Even though English uses the very general verb take, Ukrainian often uses more specific verbs in fixed combinations. For medicine, приймати is the normal one.

Examples:

• приймати ліки = to take medicine
• приймати таблетки = to take pills
• приймати вітаміни = to take vitamins

So this is something to learn as a natural collocation, not word-by-word.

Приймати is the imperfective form. It usually suggests a process, habit, or repeated action.

That fits very well with medical instructions, because doctors often mean:

• take this medicine regularly
• take it as part of a treatment course
• take it after meals / after lunch each day

If the focus were on one completed act, a perfective verb could be used instead, for example прийняти. But in medical advice, приймати ліки is extremely common because the action is often ongoing or repeated.

So:

• приймати ліки = take medicine, be taking medicine, take it regularly
• прийняти ліки = take the medicine once / complete the act

Ліки is normally a plural noun in Ukrainian, even when English might say medicine as an uncountable noun.

So:

• ліки = medicine / medication / medicines

Grammatically, it behaves like a plural word:

• ці ліки = this medicine / these medicines
• добрі ліки = good medicine

This is one of those places where Ukrainian and English organize vocabulary differently:

• English: often uncountable (medicine)
• Ukrainian: typically plural (ліки)

Here ліки is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of приймати.

You are taking what?
→ ліки

For inanimate plural nouns, the accusative often looks the same as the nominative. So:

• nominative: ліки
• accusative: ліки

That is why the form does not change here.

Because після (after) requires the genitive case.

The base form is:

• обід = lunch

But after після, it becomes genitive singular:

• після обіду = after lunch

This is a very important pattern to remember:

• після уроку = after the lesson
• після роботи = after work
• після вечері = after dinner

So the case change is caused by the preposition після.

Usually обід means lunch or the main midday meal.

So після обіду most often means after lunch.

However, meal words can vary a bit by region, family habits, and context. In standard learning contexts, the safest meaning is:

• обід = lunch
• після обіду = after lunch

Yes. Ukrainian word order is fairly flexible, and changing it usually changes emphasis rather than basic meaning.

The neutral order here is:

• Лікар сказав приймати ліки після обіду.

Other possible orders include:

• Після обіду лікар сказав приймати ліки.
• Ліки лікар сказав приймати після обіду.

These can sound more marked or emphasize different parts of the sentence.

For a learner, the original version is a good neutral model:

• subject: Лікар
• verb: сказав
• infinitive phrase: приймати ліки
• time phrase: після обіду

In this sentence, English would often naturally use told:

• The doctor told me to take the medicine after lunch.

But Ukrainian uses сказав very naturally in this kind of context, even where English prefers told.

So depending on context, сказав can correspond to:

• said
• told

If the person addressed is stated explicitly, Ukrainian can still use сказав:

• Лікар сказав мені приймати ліки після обіду.

So do not expect a perfect one-to-one match with English say versus tell.

Yes, a literal breakdown is helpful:

• Лікар = doctor
• сказав = said
• приймати = to take
• ліки = medicine / medication
• після обіду = after lunch

So literally:

• Doctor said to take medicine after lunch.

Natural English usually adds what is understood:

• The doctor said to take the medicine after lunch.
• The doctor told me to take the medicine after lunch.

That is a good example of how Ukrainian can sound slightly more compact than English.