‘Buying medicine at a pharmacy in Russian’ dialogue was made to teach you some survival basics.  Learn the keyphrases so that you could use them ordering some pills. When you have a prescription, you should go to the local pharmacy and ask about it. It’s not that easy to express yourself correctly. The pharmacist might specify the dose, clarify your treatment and other. It’s essential to learn the words or questions to talk with a salesman.

Buying medicine at chemist’s in Russian.

What words are important to know? Let’s practice some vocabulary which you can learn to feel more confident in the pharmacy.

лека́рство – [ likarstva ] – medicine,

реце́пт – [ ritsept ] – prescription,

врач – [ vrach ] – a doctor,

до́за – [ doza ] – a dose,

соста́в – [ sostaf ] –

приём лека́рства – [ priyom likarstva ] – taking drugs, exposure to the medicine,

лече́ние – [ licheniye ] – treatment

What if you DON’T HAVE a prescription? How to buy pills then?

This is not a problem if you don’t have any prescription. In the Russian-speaking countries, people are used to treating themselves. They would get medicine without a prescription unless it’s a severe disease. You shouldn’t be worried to get antibiotics or other pills in a pharmacy. Nevertheless, you might feel worse, so it’s worth to see your GP before buying some antibiotics.

Каки́е у вас симпто́мы?

What symptoms have you got?

У вас есть температу́ра?

Have you got a fever?

Как до́лго у вас высо́кая температу́ра?

How long have you had a fever?

Что у вас боли́т?

Have you got any pains?

Вы уже́ принима́ли что-нибу́дь?

Have you taken anything yet?

Don’t forget TO ASK THE PRICE when you buy meds in the Russian language

У меня́ боли́т голова́ – [ u minya balyt galava ] – I have a headache
Коне́чно – [ kanyeshna ] – sure
Ка́шель – [ kashel ] – cough
Температу́ра – [ timpyeratura ] – fever
Оплати́ть ка́ртой – [ alpatyt kartay ] – to pay by card

Follow the facebook page ‘Russian for beginners’ for updates. ‘Buying medicine at a pharmacy in Russian.’, ‘How to go shopping’ and more useful phrases about shopping in the Russian language here.

You’re going to listen to small talk. Line A is a speaker 1 and line B is a speaker 2. Read the dialogue and the glossary.

IMPORTANT! Click the ‘Hide/Show’ button for line A to hide them and listen to the dialogues again. After you can practice spelling. Type into each box of the lines A exactly what you hear in the audio file. Then click it back to check. You can compare your lines with the ones which are written above. Correct the mistakes and write down the necessary phrases for you.

Do the same thing with lines B. You can also check the translation of the small talk by pressing the green button ‘check’ under the dialogue. You can download the audio and practice it later again.