[Grammar] The doctor had given her some medicine.

[Venus.jam]

Hi,

"The doctor had given her some medicine".

What is the natural way? Is the above-mentioned sentence natural? Shouldn't we say "the doctor had prescribed her?

 

[Matthew Wai]

The doctor gave her some medicine.
The doctor administered some medicine to her.

'Prescribe' has a different meaning according to http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/prescribe

 

[Venus.jam]

The doctor gave her some medicine.
The doctor administered some medicine to her.

'Prescribe' has a different meaning according to http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/prescribe

Do you mean "had given" is incorrect here?

 

[emsr2d2]

As always, context is important. The surrounding words or sentences would dictate whether the past perfect was necessary there.

 

[Venus.jam]

As ems said, we need context before we can tell if the tense is OK, but the verb is fine. It's vague enough to cover prescribing it, handing it over, and pouring it down her throat. It's very common indeed.

People outside the medical and legal professions don't normally use 'administer'.

Yes, you are right regarding the need for context. My question was about whether the verb "give" is used in such context. Do you mean that all of the verbs below can be used when we are talking about a dr?

The dr gave her a medicine,
The dr prescribed a medicine, (does it have different meaning?)

The dr handed medicine over (what's the difference between gave and handed it over?!)
The dr poured the medicine down her throat.


I'd appreciate if you let me know the difference between these verbs.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Do you mean "had given" is incorrect here?

See below.

You need some other act in the past to use the past perfect.

For example, 'The doctor had given her some medicine when she had an attack of asthma'.

 

[Matthew Wai]

The doctor had already given her some medicine when she had an attack of asthma.

Is it OK now?

 

[Raymott]

The doctor had already given her some medicine when she had an attack of asthma.

Is it OK now?

Not necessarily.
"I haven't given her any more medicine because the doctor had already given her some medicine when she had the asthma attack." What's the order of events here?

 

[Matthew Wai]

I haven't given her any more medicine because the doctor had already given her some medicine before she had the asthma attack.

Is it OK now?

 

[Raymott]

Yes, that's OK. The real problem was the "when".