Tinc mal de cap avui.

to have

Breakdown of Tinc mal de cap avui.

• avui: today
• de: of
• el cap: the head

Questions & Answers about Tinc mal de cap avui.

Why does Catalan say tinc mal de cap instead of something like sóc malalt or el meu cap fa mal?

In Catalan, many physical discomforts are expressed with tenir (to have), not with to be. So tinc mal de cap literally means I have head pain, and that is the normal way to say I have a headache.

Compare:

• tinc mal de cap = I have a headache
• tinc mal d’esquena = I have back pain
• tinc mal de coll = I have a sore throat / neck pain

You can say things involving the head hurting in other ways, but tenir mal de... is the most standard everyday pattern.

What exactly does mal de cap mean word by word?

Word by word:

• tinc = I have
• mal = pain / ache / something hurting
• de = of
• cap = head
• avui = today

So mal de cap is literally pain of head, but in natural English that is headache.

This mal de + body part pattern is very common in Catalan.

Why is there no article before cap? Why not mal del cap?

Because in this expression Catalan normally uses mal de + noun, not .