Learn Spanish (Spain): El paciente todavía tiene fiebre.

El paciente todavía tiene fiebre.

The patient still has a fever.

Breakdown of El paciente todavía tiene fiebre.

Questions & Answers about El paciente todavía tiene fiebre.

Why is there no "una" before "fiebre" like in English ("a fever")?

In Spanish, we usually don't use the article una (a/an) with common medical symptoms like fiebre (fever) or tos (cough). You just say tiene fiebre (literally: "has fever"). You only add una if you describe the fever with an adjective, like tiene una fiebre muy alta (has a very high fever).

"El paciente" ends in "-e". How would I say "the female patient"? Would it be "la pacienta"?

You would just say la paciente. Many nouns that end in -ente are the exact same for masculine and feminine. You simply change the article (el or la) to show if the person is male or female.

I learned that "todavía" can mean "still" or "yet". How do I know which one it means here?

It depends on whether the sentence is positive or negative. In a positive sentence like this one, todavía means "still" because the action is continuing. If it were a negative sentence, like el paciente no tiene fiebre todavía, it would translate to "the patient doesn't have a fever yet".

Can I put "todavía" somewhere else in the sentence?

Yes, adverbs like todavía are quite flexible in Spanish. You could say El paciente tiene fiebre todavía or even Todavía el paciente tiene fiebre. Putting it right before the verb is just a very common and natural-sounding choice.