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M: Hello and welcome to German Survival Phrases brought to you by germanpod101.com, this course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Germany. You will be surprised at how far a little German will go. Now before we jump in, remember to stop by germanpod101.com and there you will find the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment.
F: German Survival Phrases. Lesson 51, Using German to Get Medical Help at the Pharmacy.
M: Nobody knows your body like you and when it comes to over-the-counter drugs, you may know what you need. So today, we will cover asking for some basic phrases in the pharmacy. Let’s start with cold medicine. In German, cold medicine is [Medizin gegen Erkältung] Let’s break it down by syllable and hear it one more time [Medizin gegen Erkältung] One note on articles. While Germans tend to use articles before nouns quite regularly, in this case, it’s different. The forms [gegen eine Erkältung] against a cold or [gegen die Erkältung] against the cold are not common because you can’t count the cold itself and therefore there is no need to specify your enquiry at the pharmacy’s counter. A cold medicine please in German is [Eine Medizin gegen Erkältung bitte] Let’s break it down by syllable [Eine Medizin gegen Erkältung bitte] Now let’s hear it one more time [Eine Medizin gegen Erkältung bitte] The first word [Eine] means a, the indefinite article for feminine nouns. Then you have [Medizin] which means medicine [Medizin] This is followed by [gegen] the preposition against. Let’s break it down by syllable and hear it once again [gegen] Then we have the noun [Erkältung] which means cold. Let’s break it down by syllable and hear it one more time [Erkältung] Lastly [bitte] please. Altogether we have [Eine Medizin gegen Erkältung bitte] which literally means, in medicine against cold please. You may want the strongest one they have which in German is [Die stärkste, die Sie haben bitte] The strongest one you have please. Let’s break it down by syllable [Die stärkste, die Sie haben bitte] Now let’s hear it once again [Die stärkste, die Sie haben bitte] The first word of this phrase is [Die] and it means the. Next is [stärkste] strongest, the highest graded form of the adjective [stark] strong. Let’s break down this word and hear it one more time [stärkste] Then we have die again but this time, it’s the relative pronoun which. Then we have [Sie] which means you in the formal level of speech. Next we have [haben] have. Let’s break down this word and hear it once again [haben] This phrase ends with [bitte] please [bitte] So altogether we have [Die stärkste, die Sie haben bitte] Literally this means the strongest which you have please. Now let’s look again at the phrase introduced today. [Eine Medizin gegen Erkältung bitte] A cold medicine please. Let’s enter some more words for medicines as the medicine you want is the only thing that changes while the rest of the phrase stays the same. So let’s go over some other symptoms again. A flu medicine please [Eine Medizin gegen Grippe bitte] [0:04:17] throat medicine please [Eine Medizin gegen Halsschmerzen bitte] a muscle pain medicine please [Eine Medizin gegen Muskelschmerzen bitte] The phrase can even be more simple if you leave out the word [Medizin] medicine, a laxative please [Ein Abführmittel bitte ] a cough syrup please [Einen Hustensaft bitte] maybe one more note on medicines. While most Germans take the pharmaceuticals, pills, solves [ph] and drops they got prescribed by the family doctor, others refuse to take them. A growing number of people opposes orthodox medicine especially after scandals in the pharmaceutical industry. Some of them favor homeopathic products to cure their illnesses but these products can be very expensive and it is yet to be seen if they have an effect on the recovery at all.
Okay to close our today’s lesson, we would like you to practice what you have just learned. I will provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out aloud. You have a few seconds before I give you the answer. So [Viel Glück] which means good luck in German.
A cold medicine please [Eine Medizin gegen Erkältung bitte] the strongest one you have please [Die stärkste, die Sie haben bitte] a laxative please [Ein Abführmittel bitte].
That’s going to do it for today.

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