Learn Hardcore Danish: Jeg har ondt i halsen og hovedet i dag og drikker varm te. - My throat and head hurt today, and I drink hot tea.

✗ Jeg er ondt. – ondt isn’t used like an adjective about a person here.
✗ Jeg gør ondt. – gør ondt (hurts) is used about the thing that causes pain:
- Min hals gør ondt. = My throat hurts.

So the normal, idiomatic way about yourself is jeg har ondt i ….

What does ondt actually mean in this sentence?

Historically, ondt is related to the adjective ond (evil, bad), but in modern Danish, in the expression have ondt i, it functions like a noun meaning pain.

So:

Jeg har ondt i halsen. ≈ I have pain in my throat.
Jeg har ondt i hovedet. ≈ I have a pain in my head / I have a headache.

You normally don’t treat ondt as a regular, countable noun; you mostly see it in set phrases about pain:

at have ondt i ryggen – to have back pain
at have ondt i maven – to have a stomach ache

Why is it i halsen og hovedet and not i min hals og mit hoved?

Danish usually uses the definite form of the body part (with the -en / -et ending) instead of a possessive when it’s clear whose body we’re talking about (typically the subject’s).

So:

Jeg har ondt i halsen. – literally I have pain in the throat → means in my throat.
Jeg brækkede armen. – I broke the arm → means I broke my arm.

Using a possessive is possible, but it sounds more marked, sometimes more contrastive or emphatic:

Jeg har ondt i min hals, ikke i din. – My throat hurts, not yours.

In ordinary sentences about your own body, i halsen / i hovedet is the natural choice, not i min hals / i mit hoved.

Why is halsen and hovedet in the definite form (with -en and -et)?

Because of the pattern have ondt i + the definite form of the body part.

hals → halsen (the throat)
hoved → hovedet (the head)

So:

have ondt i halsen
have ondt i hovedet

This is simply how Danish normally talks about pain in body parts: preposition + definite noun when the body part belongs to the subject.

Why is the preposition i used in i halsen og hovedet, not på?

In Danish, different prepositions are used with different fixed expressions:

For pain in body parts, the standard pattern is:
- have ondt i + body part
  - ondt i halsen, ondt i hovedet, ondt i ryggen, etc.

You’ll see på with other expressions:

på halsen – on the neck
på hovedet – on the head
på hånden – on the hand

But when talking about pain, you almost always say ondt i + body part, not ondt på.

Can you say Jeg har ondt i halsen og i hovedet, or do you have to drop the second i?

Both are correct:

Jeg har ondt i halsen og hovedet.
Jeg har ondt i halsen og i hovedet.

Dropping the repeated i is very common and sounds natural. Repeating i puts a tiny bit more emphasis on each separate body part, but in normal speech most people would say it exactly as in your sentence.

Why does jeg only appear once even though there are two verbs (har and drikker)?

The subject jeg is shared by the two verbs in a coordinated structure:

Jeg har ondt i halsen og hovedet i dag og drikker varm te.
= I have a sore throat and head today and (I) drink / am drinking hot tea.

Danish doesn’t require you to repeat the subject when two verbs share the same subject. Adding it is possible but less natural here:

Jeg har ondt i halsen og hovedet i dag, og jeg drikker varm te.

That version is fine, but the shorter one is very typical in everyday Danish.

Should there be a comma before og drikker?

In modern Danish with the new comma rules, you normally do not put a comma before og when it simply connects two verbs with the same subject:

Jeg har ondt i halsen og hovedet i dag og drikker varm te. ✅

With the old comma rules, some people would add a comma before og when it starts a new clause:

Jeg har ondt i halsen og hovedet i dag, og drikker varm te.

This is still seen, but the recommended, modern style is without the comma here.

Where can i dag go in this sentence? Is its position fixed?

It’s not fixed; Danish adverbs like i dag can move around in the clause, with some limits. All of these are normal:

Jeg har i dag ondt i halsen og hovedet og drikker varm te.
Jeg har ondt i halsen og hovedet i dag og drikker varm te.
I dag har jeg ondt i halsen og hovedet og drikker varm te.

Putting i dag at the beginning (I dag har jeg …) is very common to emphasize the time. In the middle, it often comes after the verb and before or after other information, as in your sentence.

What you can’t do is break the verb-second rule in a main clause; for example:

✗ I dag jeg har ondt … – wrong; it must be I dag har jeg ondt …

Why is there no article in drikker varm te? Why not drikker en varm te?

In Danish, drinks like kaffe, te, vin, øl, vand are very often treated as mass nouns when you talk about drinking them in general. In that case, you don’t use an article:

Jeg drikker kaffe. – I drink coffee.
Jeg drikker varm te. – I drink / I’m drinking hot tea.

If you say en varm te, it sounds more like one (cup of) hot tea, i.e. a specific serving:

Jeg vil gerne have en varm te. – I’d like a (cup of) hot tea.

So your sentence uses varm te in the general/mass sense of “hot tea” as a beverage.

Why is it varm te and not varme te? How do adjectives agree with nouns here?

In Danish, adjectives change form depending on:

gender (common vs. neuter)
number (singular vs. plural)
definiteness

The basic pattern:

Indefinite, singular, common gender: base form
- en varm te – a hot tea
- Jeg drikker varm te. – I (am) drink(ing) hot tea.
Indefinite, singular, neuter: -t
- et varmt glas – a warm glass
Definite (any gender) or plural: -e
- den varme te – the hot tea
- varme drikke – hot drinks

Te is a common gender noun, and here it’s indefinite singular, so the adjective stays in its base form varm: varm te, not varme te.

Does drikker here mean “am drinking” or “drink”?

Danish has only one present tense form, so drikker can correspond to both English “drink” (simple present) and “am drinking” (present continuous). Context decides.

In your sentence:

… og drikker varm te.

In English you’d most naturally say:

… and I’m drinking hot tea (right now / today).

But structurally it’s the same Danish form you would also use for a habitual action:

Jeg drikker altid te om morgenen. – I always drink tea in the morning.