Breakdown of Quand je ris trop, mon nez et ma bouche me font un peu mal.
Questions & Answers about Quand je ris trop, mon nez et ma bouche me font un peu mal.
The verb rire (to laugh) is irregular in the present tense.
For je, the correct form is:
- je ris – I laugh
- not je rie
Present tense of rire (singular forms):
- je ris
- tu ris
- il/elle/on rit
The stem is ri-, and the endings here are -s, -s, -t, not the usual -e, -es, -e you might expect for regular -re or -er verbs. So you simply have to memorize je ris as the correct form.
In French, after quand (when) you normally use the present tense to talk about both:
- general habits:
- Quand je ris trop, j’ai mal à la tête. – When I laugh too much, I get a headache.
- and future situations:
- Quand je ris trop, j’aurai mal à la tête. – When I laugh too much, I will have a headache.
You don’t usually say quand je vais rire trop for a future meaning. The simple present after quand already covers it. If you do need a clearly future action (especially a single, specific event), you would use the future tense of rire:
- Quand je rirai trop, j’aurai mal. – When I laugh too much, I’ll be in pain.
But you still don’t add vais there; aller + infinitive (near future) is not normally used right after quand.
In French, adverbs like trop (too / too much) usually come right after the verb they modify:
- je ris trop – I laugh too much
- Elle travaille trop. – She works too much.
Je trop ris is incorrect word order in standard French.
Compare with beaucoup:
- je ris beaucoup – I laugh a lot.
- je ris trop – I laugh too much (more than I should).
So:
- beaucoup = a lot (quantity, but neutral)
- trop = too much (excessive)
Literally, the structure is:
- mon nez et ma bouche – my nose and my mouth (subject)
- me – to me (indirect object pronoun)
- font – make / are causing (3rd person plural of faire)
- un peu mal – a bit of pain / hurt a bit
So it’s built on the expression faire mal à quelqu’un:
- Quelque chose fait mal à quelqu’un.
Something hurts / causes pain to someone.
In your sentence:
- Mon nez et ma bouche = the things causing the discomfort
- me font un peu mal = cause me a bit of pain / hurt me a bit
Natural English equivalent:
- When I laugh too much, my nose and mouth hurt a little.
French often uses faire mal à for “X hurts”:
- La tête me fait mal. – My head hurts.
- Les yeux me font mal. – My eyes hurt.
Me is the indirect object pronoun meaning “to me”, and it usually goes before the verb:
- Mon nez me fait mal. – My nose hurts (me).
- Il me parle. – He speaks to me.
You could say:
- Mon nez et ma bouche font un peu mal à moi.
But that sounds heavy and unusual in everyday French. Native speakers almost always use the pronoun:
- Mon nez et ma bouche me font un peu mal. ✅ (natural)
- Mon nez et ma bouche font un peu mal à moi. ❌ (grammatically possible but sounds wrong in normal speech)
So: use me (or te, lui, nous, vous, leur) rather than à moi, à toi, à lui, etc., unless you need to emphasize or contrast.
The verb is faire (to do, to make).
The subject is mon nez et ma bouche = two things, so the subject is plural:
- Mon nez et ma bouche me font un peu mal.
My nose and my mouth hurt a little.
Faire in the present tense:
- il/elle fait – he/she/it does / makes
- ils/elles font – they do / make
Since we have a plural subject (nose + mouth), we must use the plural:
- font (3rd person plural), not fait (3rd person singular).
In French, possessive adjectives agree with the noun they modify, not with the number of body parts overall.
You have:
- mon nez – my nose (singular, masculine)
- ma bouche – my mouth (singular, feminine)
You join them with et:
- mon nez et ma bouche
You would use mes only for a single plural noun:
- mes yeux – my eyes
- mes mains – my hands
Mes nez et bouches would suggest you have several noses and several mouths, which is not what you mean.
Yes, that’s perfectly correct and very natural:
- J’ai un peu mal au nez et à la bouche.
This uses a different but very common pattern:
- avoir mal à + body part
Examples:
- J’ai mal à la tête. – I have a headache / My head hurts.
- J’ai mal au dos. – My back hurts.
- J’ai un peu mal au nez. – My nose hurts a bit.
So you have two common ways to say “My X hurts”:
Mon/ma/mes X me fait/font (un peu) mal.
- Mon bras me fait mal.
J’ai (un peu) mal à + definite article + X.
- J’ai mal au bras.
Both options are correct; the avoir mal à form is especially frequent in spoken French.
You’re right that French often uses the definite article (le, la, les) with body parts, especially when the owner is clear from context:
- Je me brosse les dents. – I brush my teeth.
- Il se lave les mains. – He washes his hands.
In your sentence, the speaker chose the possessive:
- mon nez et ma bouche – my nose and my mouth.
That’s also correct. Here, there’s no reflexive pronoun like me, te, se before the verb to show whose body parts they are, so mon/ma makes the ownership clear.
You could say:
- Le nez et la bouche me font un peu mal.
Grammatically, that’s possible and understandable, but it sounds less natural than using mon/ma in this particular sentence. When in doubt, for “my nose, my mouth, my leg” outside of reflexive contexts, mon/ma/mes is safe and clear.
Un peu means “a little / a bit”. In this sentence:
- me font un peu mal = they hurt me a little, they cause a bit of pain.
The usual word order is:
- me font un peu mal
(pronoun + verb + adverb + mal)
Me font mal un peu is grammatically possible but sounds clumsy and much less natural. French strongly prefers un peu before mal in this structure.
Other nuances:
- me font très mal – they hurt me a lot / very much
- me font mal – they hurt me (no particular degree specified)
- me font vraiment mal – they really hurt me
- me font un peu mal – they hurt me a bit (mild pain).