A lot of these are either Brazilian Portuguese or contain mistakes. Here is the list with explanations for those learning European Portuguese:
To catch an illness - Pegar uma doença Ficar doente
pharmacist - farmacêutico
Technically the word is correct, but drugstores don’t exist in Portugal. You can only buy medicines (including over the counter medicines) in pharmacies. Drugstores like Boots (UK) or Walgreens / CVS (US) don’t exist in Portugal.
asprin - aspirinas aspirina (not plural)
doctor’s office - consultório medico consultório
Technically, it is correct to say “consultório medico”, but no one says it because Portugal has a public health care system. You normally go to health centres (centro de saúde) or hospitals (hospital) if your illness is serious enough. You don’t really visit a private doctor’s office (consultório), unless you have a specific need to visit them. Even then, you would usually use the word for the specialist (e.g., dermatologista).
emergency room - pronto-socorro urgências | serviço de urgência
This term is used for both emergency room / A&E or urgent care clinic. There are serviços de urgência in hospitals, which are equivalent to an emergency room or A&E. There are also serviços de urgência in medical centres, which are equivalent to urgent care clinics.
The term “pronto-socorro” is used for emergency services like EMTs. Normally though, this would be called INEM (Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica).
toothache - dor de dente dor de dentes
stomachache - dor de barriga
Not necessarily a stomachache though. It is just a general bellyache. If you want to specifically say stomachache, then you would say dor de estômago.
sore throat - dor de garganta
This is correct in this instance, but be aware that dor de garganta literally means throat ache or throat pain and does not mean sore throat. The word for sore is dorido(a). In this case, you do actually say “I have throat pain” in Portuguese.
backache - dor nas costas dor de costas
Dor nas costas is how you would say backache in Brazil.
The verb doer doesn’t actually mean “to hurt”. It means “to be in pain”. Doer can be used as a verb, but it always refers to pain and not to the act of getting hurt. You will often see doer used as a noun and use other verbs to convey that you have pain. For example, I have a backache = Eu tenho dor de costas.
You wouldn’t use doer if you got hurt. If you want to say that you got hurt, you would use the verb aleijar. For example: I got hurt = aleijei-me. If you want to say that someone was seriously wounded (e.g., in the case of a natural disaster), you would use ficar ferido or estar ferido (depending on the context).
my arm hurts - meu braço dói
This is Brazilian. My arm hurts. = Dói-me o braço.
to have a fever - estar com febre
This is the correct translation, but this isn’t the only way to say this. Often, you would say ter febre. For example, I have a fever = Eu tenho febre. However, ter febre and estar com febre are not used interchangeably. Whether you use estar com or ter depends on the context and on how you are constructing the sentence.
to be dizzy - estar com tontura
Depending on the context, you can use ter tontura or estar com tontura. You would use ter tonturas if you get recurring dizzy spells. You can also say “I feel dizzy”, which would be Sento-me tonto.
to have a cough - estar com tosse
Again, depending on the context, you can use ter or estar com.
to be sick, ill - estar doente
Again, depending on the context, you can use ter or estar or even ser. Isn’t Portuguese fun? :)
You can think of there being three levels of illness:
Always sick / continuous (not momentary or short-lived) illness = ser
Recurring sickness / ambiguous occurrence of illness = ter
Only sick right now / sick in a particular moment = estar
to feel bad - estar mal sentir mal-disposto
This is not correct. No, estar mal literally means “it’s wrong”. You could say “I feel bad” = Sinto-me mal, but this would imply that you feel bad emotionally / feel a negative emotion. If you are talking about feeling unwell or feeling sick, you would use sentir mal-disposto. For example, “I feel sick / I feel unwell” = Sinto-me mal-disposto.
to have a cold - estar resfriado(a)
This is Brazilian. In Portugal, you would typically say estar constipado(a).
to have the flu - estar gripado(a)
If you say Está gripado without any context, a Portuguese will assume you are talking about a seized engine. If you want to say that you have the flu, you would say Estou com gripe.
to be inflamed - estar inflamado(a)
It seems odd to use estar in this context. You also need to be clear that something is inflamed – something is red, scratchy, possibly swollen, etc. For example, “My throat is inflamed” = Tenho a garganta inflamada.
If you want to say that something is swollen, then you would use inchado. You can say ter inchado or estar inchado depending on the context.
to sneeze - espirar espirrar
Espirar = an uncommon spelling of expirar = to exhale
to take medicine - tomar remédio tomar medicamento(s)
to take liquids - tomar líquidos beber líquidos
to get an injection - tomar injeção tomar injecção
medical prescription - a receita médica
side effects - contraindicação efeitos secundários
Contraindicaçao is not correct. Contraindications (contraindicações) are specific condition or factor that a person has that would make a specific treatment harmful to them.
Side effects (efeitos secundários are unintended harmful effects.
take the temperature - tirar/medir a temperatura
doctor’s appointment - a consulta médica
If you just say “a consulta”, people will probably assume it is a doctor’s appointment.
take vitamin C - tome tomar vitamina C
don’t drink alcohol in excess - Não beba bebidas alcoólicas em demasia Não beba álcool em excesso
sleep eight hours per night - durma oito horas por noite
do physical excersice - faça exercícios físicos
eat lots of fruit and vegetables - coma bastante frutas e verduras coma muita frutas e vegetais
