Learn French: Le jongleur a mal à la hanche et au poignet. - The juggler has pain in his hip and his wrist.

In French, when talking about body parts, we typically use the definite article (le, la, les) instead of a possessive adjective (mon, ton, son) if it is obvious whose body part it is. Since the juggler is the subject experiencing the pain, it is clear he is hurting his own hip and wrist.

Why does the sentence say à la hanche but au poignet?

The French expression for having an ache or pain in a specific place is avoir mal à. Because hanche is feminine, it stays à la hanche. However, poignet is masculine, and the preposition à followed by the masculine article le must contract into au.

Since hanche starts with a vowel sound, why isn't the article contracted to l'hanche?

While the 'h' is silent in pronunciation, hanche starts with an aspirated 'h' (h aspiré). This means it acts grammatically like a consonant, so you cannot make contractions or liaisons with the word before it. That is why it remains la hanche.

How do you pronounce the gn in poignet?