Breakdown of J'ai mal au ventre après le repas.
avoir mal
to be in pain, to hurt
après
after
le repas
the meal
le ventre
the belly, the stomach
Questions & Answers about J'ai mal au ventre après le repas.
Why is it au ventre and not à mon ventre?
In French, you usually do not use possessive adjectives (like mon, ma, mes) with body parts when it is already clear whose body it is. Because you started with J'ai (I have), French just uses the definite article for the body part (in this case, le ventre).
Why does the sentence use J'ai mal instead of a verb like "hurts"?
French doesn't typically say "my body part hurts" as a direct translation. Instead, you use the fixed expression avoir mal à (literally "to have pain at") followed by the body part.
Where does the au come from in au ventre?
It is a mandatory contraction. The expression is avoir mal à, and the word for stomach or belly is masculine: le ventre. In French, the preposition à followed by the definite article le always combines to become au.