Learn French: J'ai mal à la tête.

J'ai mal à la tête.

I have a headache.

Breakdown of J'ai mal à la tête.

at / to / in (general locations) / about (what one thinks about / reacts to)

avoir mal

to be in pain, to hurt

la tête

the head

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Questions & Answers about J'ai mal à la tête.

Why does it say la tête (the head) instead of ma tête (my head)?

In French, when talking about body parts, you usually use the definite article (le, la, les - meaning "the") instead of possessive words like mon or ma ("my"). Since you've already said J'ai (I have), it is obvious whose head is hurting!

How exactly does the phrase avoir mal à work?

The expression avoir mal à literally means "to have pain at". You conjugate the verb avoir (here, J'ai) and add mal à followed by the body part. Since tête is feminine, we use à la. If the body part were masculine, à and le would combine into au (like J'ai mal au dos for "I have a backache").

Is mal a noun or an adjective in this sentence?

In this expression, mal acts like a noun meaning "pain" or "ache". You might recognize it as meaning "bad" or "poorly" in other sentences, but in health contexts with the verb avoir, it specifically refers to physical pain.

How would I use this sentence with parce que (because)?