Questions & Answers about Het kind heeft pijn in het oor.
Why does this sentence use het oor (the ear) instead of zijn oor (his ear)?
In Dutch, when it is obvious whose body part is being talked about, you often use the definite article (de or het) instead of a possessive pronoun like zijn (his) or haar (her). English usually requires the possessive pronoun, but Dutch prefers the article.
Could I use the single word oorpijn instead?
Yes, absolutely! Just like in English you can say "earache" or "pain in the ear", Dutch uses both oorpijn and pijn in het oor. Both are very common and mean the exact same thing.
How would I say "The ear hurts" instead of "The child has an earache"?
To say that a body part hurts, you use the expression pijn doen (literally: to do pain). You could say Het oor doet pijn (The ear hurts). In this sentence, we use the verb hebben (to have) because the child "has" the pain.
What if the child has pain in both ears? What is the plural of oor?
The plural of oor is oren. If both ears hurt, the sentence becomes Het kind heeft pijn in de oren. Notice that the article changes from het to de because all plural nouns take de.