Breakdown of L'acrobate est tombée hier, et elle a mal à la hanche.
elle
she
et
and
à
at / to / in (general locations) / about (what one thinks about / reacts to)
hier
yesterday
tomber
to fall
avoir mal
to be in pain, to hurt
l'acrobate
the acrobat (m)
la hanche
the hip
Questions & Answers about L'acrobate est tombée hier, et elle a mal à la hanche.
Why does the sentence use à la hanche instead of à sa hanche for 'in her hip'?
In French, when referring to body parts, you generally use the definite article (le, la, les) rather than a possessive adjective (mon, ton, son) if it is already obvious whose body part it is. Because the sentence says elle a mal, it is clear she is feeling pain in her own hip.
Why is it la hanche and not l'hanche? Doesn't the article drop its vowel before an H?
The word hanche starts with an 'aspirated H' (h aspiré). Even though you don't pronounce the H, it acts like a consonant block in French grammar. This means you cannot drop the vowel of the article (elision) and you cannot link the previous word's consonant to it (liaison). Therefore, it must be la hanche.
How do we know the acrobat is a woman if the word acrobate ends in an E anyway?
Acrobate is an epicene noun, meaning it has the exact same spelling for men and women. We know this specific acrobat is female because of the grammar in the rest of the sentence: the extra -e on the past participle tombée and the pronoun elle. If it were a man, it would be l'acrobate est tombé hier, et il a mal...
Why is there an extra -e on tombée?
The verb tomber (to fall) is one of the verbs that uses être as its helping verb in the passé composé instead of avoir. When a verb uses être, its past participle must agree with the subject in gender and number. Since the subject is a woman, we add the feminine -e.
Does avoir mal à always translate to 'to have pain in'?
It can mean 'to have pain in', 'to have an ache', or simply 'to hurt'. While in English you might say 'my hip hurts', in French you almost always use this structure: avoir mal à followed by the definite article and the body part.
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