Describing a symptom is the one thing you cannot paraphrase your way around, and it is built on a construction English does not have. In Hebrew the aching part of you is the subject of the sentence and you yourself are a dative — כואב לי הראש, literally "aches to-me the head". Everything else in a clinic visit follows from getting that shape right.
This page is an original dialogue written for this guide, between a patient (a woman) and her family doctor (a man). Nothing in it is copied from a real form, leaflet or consultation; medical paperwork is both protected text and, in a real case, somebody's private record.
The dialogue
שלום, תיכנסי. מה קרה?
shalóm, tikansí. ma kará?
Doctor: Hello, come in. What's the matter? (to a woman)
כואב לי הראש כבר שלושה ימים, ויש לי חום.
ko'év li harósh kvar shloshá yamím, veyésh li khom
Patient: My head has been hurting for three days, and I've got a temperature.
כמה מעלות היו?
káma ma'alót hayú?
Doctor: How many degrees was it?
אתמול היו לי שלושים ושמונה וחצי.
etmól hayú li shloshím ushmóne vakhétsi
Patient: Yesterday I had thirty-eight and a half.
וכואב לך הגרון?
vekho'év lakh hagarón?
Doctor: And is your throat sore? (to a woman)
קצת. וגם כואבות לי הרגליים, אבל זה בגלל הריצה.
ktsat. vegám ko'avót li haragláyim, avál ze biglál harítsa
Patient: A bit. And my legs are aching too, but that's from running.
תפשטי את החולצה ותנשמי עמוק. יופי, הכול נשמע תקין.
tifshetí et hakhultsá vetinshemí amók. yófi, hakól nishmá takín
Doctor: Take your shirt off and breathe deeply. Good, it all sounds normal. (to a woman)
אז מה יש לי? זה כבר לא עובר.
az ma yesh li? ze kvar lo ovér
Patient: So what have I got? It just isn't going away.
נראה לי וירוס, אבל נעשה בדיקות דם כדי להיות בטוחים.
nir'é li vírus, avál na'asé bdikót dam kdei lihyót btukhím
Doctor: It looks viral to me, but we'll do blood tests to be sure.
צריך תור לבדיקות דם?
tsaríkh tor livdikót dam?
Patient: Do I need an appointment for blood tests?
לא, אפשר להגיע בבוקר בלי תור. אני נותן לך הפניה.
lo, efshár lehagía babóker bli tor. aní notén lakh hafnayá
Doctor: No, you can just come in the morning without one. I'm giving you a referral.
ומה עם התרופה? יש לך מרשם בשבילי?
umá im hatrufá? yesh lekhá mirshám bishvilí?
Patient: And what about medicine? Have you got a prescription for me? (to a man)
אני שולח לך מרשם לנייד. קחי כדור פעמיים ביום, אחרי האוכל.
aní sholéakh lakh mirshám lanayád. kekhí kadúr pa'amáyim bayóm, akharéi ha'ókhel
Doctor: I'm sending the prescription to your phone. Take one tablet twice a day, after food. (to a woman)
ואם החום לא יורד?
ve'ím hakhóm lo yoréd?
Patient: And if the temperature doesn't come down?
אם בעוד יומיים עדיין יהיה חום, תחזרי אליי.
im be'ód yomáyim adáyin yihyé khom, takhzerí eláy
Doctor: If there's still a temperature in two days' time, come back to me. (to a woman)
כואב לי — the body part does the work
כואב לי הראש has three pieces and none of them is where an English speaker expects it:
- כואב is the verb, in the present tense, meaning "hurts, aches".
- הראש is its subject — the thing doing the aching.
- לי is a dative: the preposition ל with a pronoun on it, marking the person the ache belongs to.
Because the body part is the subject, the verb agrees with it and not with you. That is the whole rule, and it produces the pattern that trips people up:
| Body part | Gender / number | Sentence | Reads |
|---|---|---|---|
| רֹאשׁ head | m. sg. | כּוֹאֵב לִי הָרֹאשׁ | ko'év li harósh |
| גָּרוֹן throat | m. sg. | כּוֹאֵב לִי הַגָּרוֹן | ko'év li hagarón |
| בֶּטֶן stomach | f. sg. | כּוֹאֶבֶת לִי הַבֶּטֶן | ko'évet li habéten |
| רַגְלַיִים legs | f. pl. | כּוֹאֲבוֹת לִי הָרַגְלַיִים | ko'avót li haragláyim |
| שִׁינַּיִים teeth | f. pl. | כּוֹאֲבוֹת לִי הַשִּׁינַּיִים | ko'avót li hashináyim |
The last two rows are where the trouble is. Hebrew's paired body parts — רגליים, ידיים, עיניים, אוזניים, שיניים — are feminine plural, and they drag the verb into the feminine plural with them, whatever the gender of the person they belong to. A man saying his legs hurt says כואבות לי הרגליים exactly as a woman does. The dual forms are on the dual and their gender on the gender of body parts.
כואבות לי העיניים מהמסך, אני צריכה הפסקה.
ko'avót li ha'eináyim mehamasákh, aní tsrikhá hafsaká
My eyes are hurting from the screen, I need a break. (f. speaker)
כאב לה הגב אתמול, אז היא לא הגיעה לעבודה.
ka'áv la hagáv etmól, az hi lo higía la'avodá
Her back was hurting yesterday, so she didn't get in to work.
The dative is a preposition, so it inflects like every other: לי, לך, לך, לו, לה, לנו, לכם, להם. Two of those are the same three letters: לך is lekhá to a man and lakh to a woman, and unpointed there is nothing to tell them apart — the doctor's כואב לך הגרון is lakh only because he is talking to a woman. That paradigm is on לי, לך, לו.
The second way of saying it
Hebrew has an alternative that looks much more like English, and it is entirely correct: put the body part first as an ordinary subject, with שלי on it.
הראש שלי כואב כבר מהבוקר.
harósh shelí ko'év kvar mehabóker
My head has been hurting since this morning. (also correct — the body part as an ordinary subject)
Both are current. כואב לי הראש is the more idiomatic and by far the commoner in speech; הראש שלי כואב is unremarkable and slightly more deliberate, and it is what you reach for when you want to contrast one part with another. Neither is an error, and neither is more formal than the other.
כבר plus the present tense
English marks "started in the past and still going" with the present perfect: I *have had a fever for three days. Hebrew has no perfect at all. It uses the *present tense together with כבר kvar, and the past tense is reserved for what is genuinely over.
יש לי חום כבר שלושה ימים.
yesh li khom kvar shloshá yamím
I've had a fever for three days. (present + כבר — the fever is still there now)
היה לי חום שלושה ימים, ועכשיו אני בסדר.
hayá li khom shloshá yamím, ve'akhsháv aní beséder
I had a fever for three days, and now I'm fine. (past — the episode has ended)
That pair is the single most consequential minimal pair in the whole visit. Reporting an ongoing fever in the past tense tells the doctor it has gone; reporting a finished one in the present tells them it has not. The distinction is a difference of meaning, not of style, and both sentences are perfectly grammatical.
אני מחכה לתוצאות כבר שבוע.
aní mekhaká latotsa'ót kvar shavúa
I've been waiting a week for the results. (f. speaker — the waiting is still going on)
Note that Hebrew does not need a word for for in front of the duration: כבר שלושה ימים, כבר שבוע, כבר שעתיים. The bare time phrase does the whole job.
The doctor's instructions, in three registers
The doctor gives two instructions in this dialogue and reaches for a different form each time; a third form belongs to the leaflet in the box rather than to anyone's mouth. What separates all three is register, not politeness.
תפשטי את החולצה, אני רוצה לבדוק את הגב.
tifshetí et hakhultsá, aní rotsé livdók et hagáv
Take your shirt off, I want to check your back. (to a woman — the ordinary spoken instruction, a second-person future)
קחי כדור אחד בבוקר ואחד בערב.
kekhí kadúr ekhád babóker ve'ekhád ba'érev
Take one tablet in the morning and one in the evening. (to a woman — a true imperative, which survives strongly in fixed instructions like this)
יש לקחת את התרופה אחרי האוכל ולשתות הרבה מים.
yesh lakákhat et hatrufá akharéi ha'ókhel velishtót harbé máyim
The medicine is to be taken after food, with plenty of water. (formal impersonal — the register of a package insert or a printed instruction)
יש ל־ plus an infinitive is the impersonal obligation form: it names nobody, and it belongs to writing — leaflets, notices, forms. A doctor speaking to you uses the future (תפשטי) or the imperative (קחי); the leaflet in the box uses יש לקחת.
Notice את in two of those three. החולצה and התרופה are definite, so the object marker is obligatory; a bare כדור in "קחי כדור" is indefinite and takes nothing at all. The rule is the same one the café page turns on — see ordering at a café and את, the object marker.
תור, הפניה, מרשם
Four terms carry the administrative half of a clinic visit, and none of them translates neatly.
| Word | Reads | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| תּוֹר | tor | an appointment slot — and also a queue. קובעים תור, "you set an appointment" |
| הַפְנָיָה | hafnayá | a referral, from the doctor to a test or a specialist |
| מִרְשָׁם | mirshám | a prescription |
| בְּדִיקוֹת דָּם | bdikót dam | blood tests — a construct chain, and normally plural |
קבעתי תור לרופאת המשפחה ליום שלישי.
kaváti tor lerof'át hamishpakhá leyóm shlishí
I made an appointment with the family doctor for Tuesday.
Four health funds operate in Israel under the National Health Insurance Law — כללית, מכבי, מאוחדת and לאומית — and קופת חולים is the everyday word for the one you belong to. Everybody is in one of the four, which is why באיזו קופת חולים את? is an ordinary question with only four possible answers.
באיזו קופת חולים את? אני במכבי.
be'éizo kupát kholím at? aní bemakabí
Which health fund are you with? I'm with Maccabi. (to a woman)
Common Mistakes
1. Putting the participle where the noun belongs. יש לי takes a noun: יש לי כאב ראש. כואב is a verb form and cannot sit inside it. The two constructions are both available and they do not mix.
❌ יש לי כואב ראש
Incorrect — יש לי needs a noun, and the noun is כאב: יש לי כאב ראש. With the verb, the shape is different: כואב לי הראש.
יש לי כאב ראש נורא מאתמול בערב.
yesh li ke'év rosh norá me'etmól ba'érev
I've had a terrible headache since yesterday evening.
2. Making a paired body part masculine. רגליים, ידיים, עיניים, אוזניים and שיניים all end in the ־יים dual, which looks masculine because ־ים does. They are feminine, and everything that agrees with them has to be.
❌ הרגליים שלי כואבים אחרי הריצה
Incorrect — רגליים is feminine plural, so the verb is כואבות: הרגליים שלי כואבות אחרי הריצה.
הידיים שלי קפואות, אין פה חימום?
hayadáyim shelí kfu'ót, ein po khimúm?
My hands are frozen — is there no heating in here?
3. Making yourself the subject of the ache. English puts the person first (I have a sore throat, my throat hurts me), and the pull to translate that word for word is very strong. In Hebrew the ache belongs to the body part; you are only the dative.
כואב לי הגרון כבר יומיים.
ko'év li hagarón kvar yomáyim
My throat has been sore for two days. (the body part is the subject; לי is where you appear)
4. Using the past tense for something still going on. This one changes the meaning rather than breaking the grammar, which is exactly what makes it dangerous in a clinic — the sentence sounds fine and reports the wrong thing.
אני משתעל כבר שבועיים, זה לא עובר.
aní mishta'él kvar shvu'áyim, ze lo ovér
I've been coughing for two weeks and it isn't clearing up. (m. speaker — present tense, because it is still happening)
Key Takeaways
- כואב ל־ makes the body part the subject and you a dative: כואב לי הראש. The verb agrees with the body part, never with the person.
- Paired body parts are feminine plural — רגליים, ידיים, עיניים, אוזניים, שיניים — so they take כואבות regardless of whose they are.
- הראש שלי כואב is the second, equally correct shape. It is a little more deliberate; כואב לי הראש is the everyday one.
- יש לי takes a noun: יש לי כאב ראש. Mixing the two constructions is the commonest single error here.
- English's present perfect is Hebrew's present tense plus כבר — יש לי חום כבר שלושה ימים. The past tense says the episode is over: היה לי חום שלושה ימים. This is a difference of meaning, and both are grammatical.
- A duration after כבר needs no preposition: כבר שבוע, כבר שעתיים.
- The doctor's instructions come in three registers — spoken future (תפשטי), true imperative (קחי), and the written impersonal יש ל־ plus infinitive (יש לקחת). None of them is the polite one.
- את appears on the definite objects only: את התרופה, את החולצה — but plain כדור with nothing.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- Double-Subject Constructions: הראש שלי כואב ליC1 — In affected-person clauses, the aching, broken or missing thing controls verb agreement while a ל־ phrase identifies whose personal sphere was affected.
- The Dual (־ַיִם): ידיים, שבועיים, פעמייםA2 — Hebrew has a third number between singular and plural, and it is fully alive in everyday speech. It covers paired body parts, a closed set of paired objects, and the time units — where for exactly two the ordinary word is שעתיים or יומיים, and the numeral phrase שתי שעות is not wrong but roughly a hundred times rarer, and used for something else. The ending is not a general plural, cannot be coined, and says nothing about gender.
- Paired Body Parts, Cities and Countries Are FeminineB1 — Two classes where gender is genuinely predictable instead of memorised — and the exact limits of each. The core paired body parts (יד, רגל, עין, אוזן, שן, ברך, כתף) are feminine and take a dual; the later anatomical vocabulary does not follow them, so מרפק and קרסול are masculine even though elbows and ankles come in twos. City and country names take feminine agreement whatever the name looks like.
- בא לי, מתחשק לי: Feeling Like Doing SomethingB1 — Use the colloquial dative frames בא לי and מתחשק לי for a passing urge, with a frozen masculine-singular predicate, an experiencer in ל־, and either an infinitive or a desired thing.
- Dialogue: Renting an ApartmentB1 — A fifteen-turn apartment viewing, annotated line by line: the resumptive pronoun that every prepositional relative clause in Hebrew is obliged to carry, room counts inside a construct chain, ordinals that agree with קומה, and the יש/אין existential that does the work of English have.