امي عندها وجع راس اليوم.

That’s a very common question.

In Levantine Arabic, عند plus a pronoun is often used to express possession, especially for things like illnesses, objects, and abstract things.

• عندي = I have
• عندك = you have
• عنده = he has
• عندها = she has

So أمي عندها وجع راس literally feels something like My mother, at her, [there is] head pain, but in natural English it means My mother has a headache.

This is one of the main ways Levantine says to have, because Arabic does not use a general everyday verb exactly like English have in this kind of sentence.

Yes, in a way.

Arabic often makes present-tense sentences without an explicit verb to be. This is normal. So a sentence can simply be:

• أمي عندها وجع راس اليوم

There is no separate present-tense word for is here.

Also, as mentioned above, has is being expressed through عندها, not through a separate verb.

So for an English speaker, the sentence may look incomplete at first, but in Arabic it is perfectly normal and complete.

أمي means my mother.

It comes from:

• أم = mother
• ـي = my

So:

• أمي = my mother

In informal Arabic writing, people often leave out some hamzas, especially in texting or casual writing. So امي is very commonly written instead of أمي.

Also, in Levantine pronunciation, this is usually said more like immi rather than the more formal ummī of Standard Arabic. Because short vowels usually are not written, learners have to learn the spoken pronunciation separately.

A common Levantine-style pronunciation would be something like:

immi ʿinda wajaʿ rās il-yōm

Depending on region, you may also hear slight variations, especially in the vowels:

• immi or emmi
• ʿinda or ʿenda
• il-yōm or lyōm

A very important point: the written form does not show all short vowels, so the spoken form has to be learned by listening as well as reading.

Because the sentence is talking about my mother, which is feminine singular.

The ending ـها means her.

So:

• عنده = he has
• عندها = she has

Since أمي refers to a woman, the correct form is عندها.

A few useful comparisons:

• أنا عندي وجع راس = I have a headache
• إنتَ عندك وجع راس = you have a headache
• هو عنده وجع راس = he has a headache
• هي عندها وجع راس = she has a headache

وجع راس is a very normal colloquial way to say headache in Levantine.

Literally:

• وجع = pain / ache
• راس = head

So it is literally head pain, but idiomatically it means a headache.

This is very natural in everyday speech. Another word you may learn is صداع, which also means headache, but it sounds more formal or more like Standard Arabic in many contexts.

So:

• عندها وجع راس = very everyday Levantine
• عندها صداع = also understandable, but less colloquial in tone

Because Arabic often links two nouns directly, without using a separate word like English of.

So:

• وجع راس = literally pain head
• natural English: head pain or a headache

This noun-plus-noun structure is extremely common in Arabic. English sometimes does something similar too:

• headache
• tooth pain
• back pain

So while it may look strange at first, it is a normal Arabic pattern.

In more formal spelling, yes, you often see رأس.

In colloquial writing, especially online or in informal texts, the hamza is very often omitted, so راس is extremely common.

So:

• رأس = more formal / standard spelling
• راس = very common informal Levantine spelling

Both point to the same word here.

اليوم means today.

Putting it at the end is very natural:

• أمي عندها وجع راس اليوم

Arabic often places time expressions at the beginning or the end, depending on what the speaker wants to emphasize.

You could also hear:

• اليوم أمي عندها وجع راس

Both are fine. The version with اليوم at the end is completely natural and common.

That is just how Arabic expresses this time word.

اليوم literally comes from the day, but as a fixed expression it means today.

This is normal and does not sound strange to Arabic speakers. Many common time expressions work a bit differently from English, so it’s best to learn اليوم as one chunk meaning today.

It is strongly colloquial in feel, especially because of وجع راس and the casual spelling.

A Standard Arabic version would more likely be something like:

• أمي عندها صداع اليوم
• or more formally structured in other ways

What makes your sentence feel Levantine/everyday is mainly:

• informal spelling like امي and راس
• the colloquial phrase وجع راس
• the overall spoken style

So this is the kind of sentence you are very likely to hear in everyday conversation.

Here, وجع is a noun meaning pain or ache.

But Arabic also has related verb forms from the same root, and in colloquial speech you may hear other ways to express the same idea. For example, another very common Levantine pattern is:

• راسها بوجعها

This means her head hurts.

So Arabic can express this idea in more than one way:

• عندها وجع راس = she has a headache
• راسها بوجعها = her head hurts

Both are natural, but your sentence uses the noun pattern.

The letter ع is the consonant ʿayn, which does not exist in English.

You hear it in:

• عندها
• وجع

You do not need to produce it perfectly right away, but it is important to notice it and not completely ignore it. It is made deeper in the throat than English sounds.

For beginners, the best approach is:

• listen carefully to native audio
• try to imitate the throat quality
• do not replace it with a strong English vowel if you can avoid it

Even an approximate ʿ is better than skipping it entirely.

Usually, for having a headache, عندها is the more natural choice.

فيها means something like in her or there is in her, and it would not normally be the standard way to say she has a headache.

So the natural Levantine choice here is:

• أمي عندها وجع راس

That is the form learners should focus on first.

Yes, you could say:

• هي عندها وجع راس اليوم

That means She has a headache today.

Using أمي is more specific: my mother.

Arabic also often allows both a noun and a matching pronoun in different contexts, but in this sentence you usually just choose one subject:

• أمي عندها...
• هي عندها...

Both are fine, depending on whether you want to say my mother or just she.