French Lesson | Nirécol

Health and pharmacy basics

Explain a simple health problem, ask for help, and understand basic advice.

Manage a short health and advice exchange with a clear opening, a useful detail, and a calm closing line.
Use health phrases and practical advice without overbuilding the sentence.
Turn the reading and dialogue on health and advice into one guided spoken answer and one short personal written response.

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J'ai mal à la tête, depuis hier, toutes les six heures: describing symptoms and understanding dosage instructions at the pharmacy.

Grammar focus: Health: describing symptoms and understanding advice. Work through the explanations and tables below, hear the structures in the dialogue, then lock them in with the interactive drills, the writing task, and the speaking task.

Grammar focus

Health: describing symptoms and understanding advice

At the doctor's or pharmacy, two frames do most of the work: avoir mal à + body part (J'ai mal à la tête) and se sentir + adverb/adjective (Je me sens fatigué). The à contracts as usual: au ventre, aux jambes.

Symptoms and remedies

J'ai de la fièvre (I have a fever), je tousse (I cough), j'ai pris froid (I caught a cold), je suis allergique à… The pharmacist will answer with advice frames you now know: Vous devriez vous reposer. Prenez ce médicament deux fois par jour.

Avoir mal à + body

French	English
J'ai mal à la tête.	I have a headache.
J'ai mal au ventre.	My stomach hurts.
J'ai mal à la gorge.	I have a sore throat.
J'ai mal au dos.	My back hurts.
J'ai mal aux dents.	I have a toothache.
Elle a de la fièvre.	She has a fever.

Examples

J'ai mal à la gorge depuis deux jours.I have had a sore throat for two days.
Il a mal au dos.His back hurts.
Je me sens très fatigué cette semaine.I feel very tired this week.
Elle a de la fièvre, elle reste au lit.She has a fever; she is staying in bed.
Prenez ce médicament trois fois par jour.Take this medicine three times a day.
Vous êtes allergique à quelque chose ?Are you allergic to anything?

Watch out

Using avoir + adjective for states: « J'ai malade ».

Je suis malade (state) but j'ai mal à… (pain).

Malade is an adjective with être; mal is a noun with avoir.

Forgetting the contraction: « mal à le ventre ».

mal au ventre, mal aux jambes.

à + le/les always contracts, in every context.

Saying « depuis » with the passé composé for ongoing pain: « J'ai eu mal depuis lundi ».

Ongoing state → present: J'ai mal depuis lundi.

If the pain continues now, French keeps the present tense.

Grammar and usage

Treat health phrases and practical advice as a reusable frame for health and advice, not as a rule to memorize in isolation.
Keep the first health and advice sentence short enough that the main message is still obvious before you add a second detail.
If the health and pharmacy basics line becomes unstable, return to the shortest useful version and rebuild it with one controlled change.

Pronunciation

Read one short model line for health and advice slowly enough that the key chunk stays connected from start to finish.
Repeat the strongest health and pharmacy basics sentence twice: first for clarity, then for a smoother rhythm.
Keep the mouth rhythm calm while you practise health and advice; speed is much less important than reuse at this stage.

Vocabulary

j'ai mal à la tete
I have a headache
la pharmacie
the pharmacy
prendre ce médicament
take this medicine
se reposer
to rest
la douleur
pain
le médicament
medicine
le médecin
doctor
le formulaire
form
le rendez vous
appointment
le service
service / office
l'aide
help
avec
with
sans
without
d'abord
first
ensuite
then
souvent
often
ensemble
together
parce que
because
tout de suite
right away

Dialogue

La pharmacienne

Bonjour ! Qu'est-ce qu'il vous faut ?

Hello! What do you need?

Nirmal

Bonjour. J'ai mal à la tête et un peu de fièvre.

Hello. I have a headache and a slight fever.

La pharmacienne

Depuis quand avez-vous ces symptômes ?

Since when have you had these symptoms?

Nirmal

Depuis hier soir.

Since yesterday evening.

La pharmacienne

Prenez ce médicament, un comprimé toutes les six heures.

Take this medicine, one tablet every six hours.

Nirmal

D'accord. Pendant combien de jours ?

Okay. For how many days?

La pharmacienne

Trois jours. Si ça ne va pas mieux, consultez un médecin.

Three days. If it does not improve, see a doctor.

Nirmal

Merci pour vos conseils. Au revoir !

Thank you for your advice. Goodbye!

Reading

Advice card

La cliente decrit un problème simple et demande conseil.

La pharmacienne répond avec des instructions courtes et claires.

Le langage de la sante en A2 reste pratique et limite. Il permet de décrire un problème simple, de dire depuis quand il dure, de comprendre une recommandation et de suivre une petite demarche à la pharmacie ou chez le médecin.

La vie pratique demande des phrases courtes mais fiables. On explique un besoin, on suit une petite procédure, on vérifie une heure ou un document, puis on confirme ce qu'il faut faire ensuite. Cette clarté rend l'A2 très concret.

Dans cette scène, l'apprenant avance pas à pas autour de health et advice. Il relit les expressions j'ai mal à la tete, la pharmacie, prendre ce médicament, se reposer et il les replace dans une situation très simple pour comprendre comment les mots servent dans un vrai échange.

What problem does the client describe?
What advice does she receive?
What can A2 health language help a learner do?
Why does health language stay practical and limited at this level?

Practice studio

Turn this lesson into active recall: drill the vocabulary with spaced repetition, then test yourself on meaning and comprehension.

Writing task

Write a short pharmacy exchange with one problem and one piece of advice. Keep the response short but complete: start clearly, add one detail, and end with one useful closing or follow-up line.

0 words0 / 19 target words used

j'ai mal à la tete
la pharmacie
prendre ce médicament
se reposer
la douleur
le médicament
le médecin
le formulaire
le rendez vous
le service
l'aide
avec
sans
d'abord
ensuite
souvent
ensemble
parce que
tout de suite

Speaking task

Explain one simple health issue and react to basic advice. Keep the response short but complete: start clearly, add one detail, and end with one useful closing or follow-up line.

Practice and drills

Pattern transfer

Take the model « Il a mal au dos. » (His back hurts.) and change one detail — person, place, time, or object — so the sentence is true for you. Keep the structure intact.
Take the model « Prenez ce médicament trois fois par jour. » (Take this medicine three times a day.) and change one detail — person, place, time, or object — so the sentence is true for you. Keep the structure intact.
Take the model « Je me sens très fatigué cette semaine. » (I feel very tired this week.) and change one detail — person, place, time, or object — so the sentence is true for you. Keep the structure intact.
Write your adapted sentences down, then read each one aloud twice: once slowly for accuracy, once at natural speed.

Dialogue work

Read the dialogue « À la pharmacie » aloud, taking one role; switch roles on the second pass.
Hide the French side and rebuild each line from the English translation, then compare with the original.
Pick the two most useful lines of the dialogue and memorize them as ready-made blocks.

Production

Do the writing task below in one sitting, without a dictionary on the first draft; allow yourself one revision pass afterwards.
Record yourself doing the speaking task, listen once, and redo only the sentence that broke down.
Compare your output against the answer key, then read the corrected versions aloud once so the repair becomes active.

Answer key

Exercise 1: par — Prenez ce médicament trois fois par jour.
Exercise 2: de la — Elle a de la fièvre, elle reste au lit.
Exercise 3: à la — J'ai mal à la gorge depuis deux jours.
Exercise 4: sens — Je me sens très fatigué cette semaine.
Exercise 5: au — Il a mal au dos.
Exercise 6: allergique — Vous êtes allergique à quelque chose ?
Quiz — How often should Nirmal take the medicine? → One tablet every six hours. Un comprimé toutes les six heures = one tablet every six hours.
Quiz — What should he do if he does not feel better? → See a doctor. Consultez un médecin = see/consult a doctor.
Quiz — Which French expression means “service / office”? → le service. « le service » means “service / office”.
Quiz — Which French expression means “doctor”? → le médecin. « le médecin » means “doctor”.

Common mistakes and repair

Using avoir + adjective for states: « J'ai malade ».

Je suis malade (state) but j'ai mal à… (pain).

Malade is an adjective with être; mal is a noun with avoir.

Forgetting the contraction: « mal à le ventre ».

mal au ventre, mal aux jambes.

à + le/les always contracts, in every context.

Saying « depuis » with the passé composé for ongoing pain: « J'ai eu mal depuis lundi ».

Ongoing state → present: J'ai mal depuis lundi.

If the pain continues now, French keeps the present tense.

Review and next steps

Health: describing symptoms and understanding advice — watch for: Using avoir + adjective for states: « J'ai malade ». Fix: Je suis malade (state) but j'ai mal à… (pain).
Before the next lesson, rebuild « J'ai mal à la gorge depuis deux jours. » from its English (I have had a sore throat for two days.) without looking, then check every ending and accent.
Second check — Forgetting the contraction: « mal à le ventre ». Fix: mal au ventre, mal aux jambes.

Coaching notes

Finish one full beginner attempt on health and advice before checking support notes or the answer key.
Keep one corrected health and pharmacy basics model sentence and reuse it aloud at the end of the lesson.
If the health and advice task feels hard, shorten the answer rather than abandoning the frame entirely.

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