Medical Spanish for shadowing and interning in Peru starts with a small, reliable core: how Spanish sentences work, the words for people, symptoms and body parts, and a set of questions you can ask clearly and politely. You do not need fluency to be useful. You need the right 150 words and the habit of checking that you were understood.
There are many reasons to learn a second language, including travel, a move abroad or a real interest in other cultures. For pre-health students, it can also open better internship and job opportunities, because so many patients in the United States and abroad speak Spanish. If you are weighing a placement, our overview of pre-med internships abroad explains how clinical programs are set up.
Learning medical Spanish phrases and terminology is essential for interns completing pre-med programs in Peru and useful in any medical role. The basics below will help you communicate better with patients, your mentor and the Spanish-speaking community around you. The lists keep everything from our original guide, with a few corrections, and add the phrases interns use most during intake, vital signs and consent.
Spanish Grammatical Structure
Before moving on to Spanish medical terms, it helps to learn how a sentence is structured in Spanish. Word order matters in every language, and changing the structure can sometimes give a sentence a different meaning.
Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages on Earth. The Instituto Cervantes reported in its 2025 report on the Spanish language that more than 519 million people speak Spanish natively and about 635 million can use it, which makes it the third language in the world by native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Hindi.
Generally, English and Spanish both follow a subject-verb-object, or “SVO,” order. For instance:
- I am a doctor = Yo soy médico
You do not always need a subject in Spanish. The verb ending already tells the listener who is speaking, so the sentence above can be shortened to Soy médico. In the same way, you can say:
- We are doctors = Somos médicos
- They are doctors = Ellos son médicos, or simply Son médicos
Sometimes the verb comes before the subject, or a pronoun sits before the verb, so Spanish word order is flexible in certain cases. A good rule of thumb for a beginner is still to stick with the subject-verb-object arrangement.
Formal and Informal “You”
Spanish has two ways to say “you.” Tú is informal and used with friends. Usted is formal and is the default with patients, older adults and anyone you have just met in a clinic. Most of the questions in this guide use usted, so you will see verbs like tiene (you have) instead of tienes. When in doubt, use usted. Nobody is offended by too much courtesy.
Practice Before You Go
When practicing Spanish, spend time with friends or acquaintances who speak the language. This is not hard to do in the United States, where Spanish is by far the most common language other than English spoken at home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Volunteering at a clinic with Spanish-speaking patients, joining a conversation group or practicing with a classmate for 15 minutes a day will do more than a long weekend of cramming.
With that foundation, you can build your knowledge of basic Spanish phrases for medicine and clinicians.
Common Spanish Medical Terminology
Knowing basic Spanish medical terms helps you understand patients better and support the team you are working with. Peru had about 1.7 physicians for every 1,000 people in 2023, according to World Bank data, for a population of roughly 34 million, so clear and efficient communication matters to everyone in a busy hospital.
Medical People and Objects
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Doctor | el doctor / la doctora (also el médico / la médica) |
| Nurse | el enfermero / la enfermera |
| Hospital | el hospital |
| Infection | la infección |
| Injection needle | la aguja |
| Stethoscope | el estetoscopio |
| Thermometer | el termómetro |
| Syrup | el jarabe |
| Pill / pills | la pastilla / las pastillas |
| Prescription | la receta |
| Mask / face mask | la mascarilla |
| Syringe | la jeringa (jeringuilla is common in Spain) |
| Blood | la sangre |
| Medicine | la medicina, el medicamento |
Medical Procedures and Rooms
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Hospitalization | la hospitalización |
| Emergency room | la sala de emergencias, or simply emergencia |
| Surgery | la cirugía |
| X-ray | la radiografía |
| Laboratory test | el análisis, el examen de laboratorio |
| Waiting room | la sala de espera |
Medical Symptoms and Illnesses
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Allergy | la alergia |
| Asthma | el asma |
| Cough | la tos |
| Dizziness | el mareo |
| Fracture | la fractura |
| Fever | la fiebre |
| Flu | la gripe |
| Headache | el dolor de cabeza |
| High blood pressure | la presión alta (la tensión alta is also understood) |
| Injury | la herida, la lesión |
| Pain | el dolor |
| Nausea | las náuseas |
| Diarrhea | la diarrea |
When to Use “La” or “El”
Like French, Spanish gives every noun a gender, which decides whether you use el or la. El goes with masculine nouns and la with feminine nouns. The main exception is a feminine noun that starts with a stressed “a” or “ha” sound. Agua (water) is feminine, yet you say el agua, not la agua. The same rule explains el asma in the table above.
Body Parts in Spanish
Learning the Spanish words for body parts is important for locating pain and understanding a patient’s complaint. Here are common body parts with their Spanish translations:
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| The head | la cabeza |
| The eye / eyes | el ojo / los ojos |
| The stomach | el estómago |
| Arm / arms | el brazo / los brazos |
| Knee / knees | la rodilla / las rodillas |
| Leg / legs | la pierna / las piernas |
| Foot / feet | el pie / los pies |
| Chest | el pecho |
| The back | la espalda |
| Throat | la garganta |
Common Spanish Medical Phrases
There is little room for misunderstanding in medicine, because it can have dangerous consequences. A clinician who does not speak the patient’s language may miss how urgent a problem is when there are no visible signs, and that can delay care. Simple, clear questions reduce that risk.
When speaking with a patient, you might need to ask the following questions:
- ¿Cómo se llama? = What is your name? (¿Cuál es su nombre? also works)
- Me llamo… = My name is…
- ¿Tiene dolor? = Do you have pain?
- ¿Dónde le duele? = Where does it hurt?
- ¿Qué medicinas toma? = Which medicines do you take?
- ¿Qué síntomas tiene? = What symptoms do you have?
A patient might answer with statements like these:
- Me siento mal = I feel unwell.
- No me siento bien = I don’t feel well. Or: Estoy enfermo / enferma = I’m sick.
- Me siento débil = I feel weak.
- He tenido un accidente = I’ve had an accident.
When describing pain, patients often start with me duele followed by the body part, for example me duele el ojo (my eye hurts), me duele la espalda (my back hurts) or me duele el pecho (my chest hurts). For more than one body part, the verb changes: me duelen los pies (my feet hurt).
Phrases for Patient Intake
Under the supervision of licensed clinicians, IMA interns help with tasks such as patient intake, vital signs and basic patient interviews. These phrases cover the first minutes of that conversation:
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Good morning, I’m a student. | Buenos días, soy estudiante. |
| How old are you? | ¿Cuántos años tiene? |
| Are you allergic to any medicine? | ¿Es alérgico / alérgica a algún medicamento? |
| Since when have you felt this way? | ¿Desde cuándo se siente así? |
| Have you had this before? | ¿Ha tenido esto antes? |
| Are you pregnant? | ¿Está embarazada? |
Phrases for Vital Signs
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| I’m going to take your blood pressure. | Voy a tomarle la presión. |
| I’m going to take your temperature. | Voy a tomarle la temperatura. |
| Please sit down. | Siéntese, por favor. |
| Roll up your sleeve, please. | Súbase la manga, por favor. |
| Breathe deeply. | Respire profundo. |
| Relax your arm. | Relaje el brazo. |
Asking About Pain on a Scale
A numeric pain scale works across languages. Hold up your fingers as you ask: Del cero al diez, ¿cuánto le duele? (From zero to ten, how much does it hurt?) Cero means no pain and diez means the worst pain imaginable. Follow up with ¿Es un dolor fuerte o leve? (Is the pain strong or mild?) and ¿El dolor es constante o va y viene? (Is the pain constant, or does it come and go?).
Asking Permission and Checking Understanding
Always ask before you touch a patient, and always check that you were understood:
- ¿Me permite? = May I?
- ¿Está bien si le examino el brazo? = Is it all right if I look at your arm?
- ¿Me entiende? = Do you understand me?
- ¿Puede repetirlo, por favor? = Could you repeat that, please?
- Un momento, voy a llamar al doctor. = One moment, I’m going to call the doctor.
That last phrase may be the most important one on this page. If a patient asks something outside your role, or you are not sure what they said, bring in your supervisor. Interns do not diagnose or prescribe, and passing a question to a licensed clinician is always the right call. Our guide to learning across a language barrier covers how to work with interpreters and stay engaged when you cannot follow every word.
Spanish in Cusco: Regional Notes
Core medical vocabulary is shared across Spanish-speaking countries, so what you learn here will also help you in Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico and beyond. Each country does have its own everyday words and accents, though, and Peruvian Spanish is generally clear and unhurried, which helps learners.
In Cusco, many patients also speak Quechua, an Indigenous language with official status in Peru. IMA’s Peru program page notes that interns working in Cusco hospitals can pick up medical Spanish and some Indigenous languages such as Quechua. Learn a greeting from the staff on your first day, and watch how your mentors switch between languages with patients and families. For context on how hospitals there are organized, read our comparison of Peru and U.S. healthcare and our guide to public vs. private hospitals in Peru.
How to Study Medical Spanish Before You Travel
A focused plan over six to eight weeks will get most students to a useful level:
1. Weeks 1 and 2: Learn the grammar basics above, usted forms and the body parts table. 2. Weeks 3 and 4: Add the symptoms and illnesses tables, and practice the intake phrases out loud. 3. Weeks 5 and 6: Role-play intake, vital signs and the pain scale with a partner, switching roles. 4. Weeks 7 and 8: Listen to real medical Spanish. MedlinePlus en español, from the U.S. National Library of Medicine, has free health information in Spanish you can read alongside the English version.
Keep a pocket notebook with the phrases you use most, and add new words every shift. Your mentors and patients will notice the effort, and most will gladly help you learn.
Final Thoughts
Learning Spanish for healthcare in Peru is key to communicating clearly with your mentors, colleagues and the wider community. A basic command of Spanish medical terms helps an intern express themselves with confidence.
More importantly, it helps you speak and write in a language people understand, which makes tasks like patient intake, record-keeping and everyday teamwork smoother. If you want to put these phrases to use, explore IMA’s programs in Cusco and see which conditions interns see by region before you choose a destination.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Much Spanish Do I Need for a Medical Internship in Peru?
You do not need to be fluent. IMA’s Peru program lists Spanish as preferred, and students who know basic grammar, the usted form and the core vocabulary in this guide can follow far more of each shift. The more Spanish you bring, the more you can take part in conversations with patients and staff.
What Is the Most Important Medical Spanish Phrase for Interns?
Un momento, voy a llamar al doctor (One moment, I’m going to call the doctor). It keeps you within your role whenever a patient asks something you cannot answer or you are unsure what they said.
Should I Use Tú or Usted With Patients?
Use usted. It is the respectful default with patients, older adults and anyone you have just met, and most medical phrases are taught in the usted form.
Is Medical Spanish in Peru Different From Spanish in Mexico or Spain?
Core medical vocabulary is shared, so what you learn will work across countries. Some everyday words differ, for example jeringa in Peru and jeringuilla in Spain, and accents vary from place to place.
Do Patients in Cusco Speak Quechua?
Many do. Quechua has official status in Peru and is widely spoken in the Cusco region. Clinical teams often switch between Spanish and Quechua, and interns can learn a few greetings from staff.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Basic Medical Spanish?
Most students can learn the essentials in this guide in six to eight weeks of steady practice, about 15 to 30 minutes a day, especially if they role-play intake and vital signs with a partner.
