Le vent sec me fait mal aux lèvres, alors je bois plus d’eau.

Faire mal à is the normal everyday French way to say that something hurts someone or causes pain.

• Le vent sec me fait mal aux lèvres = The dry wind hurts my lips
• Literally, it is closer to The dry wind does pain to my lips / to me at the lips

You could say blesser in some contexts, but blesser usually sounds more like injure or wound, not just ordinary discomfort or soreness.

So for pain, discomfort, aching, soreness, or irritation, faire mal à is very common.

Because object pronouns in French usually come before the conjugated verb.

Here, me means to me.

• Le vent sec fait mal à moi would be wrong in normal French.
• French changes à moi into the object pronoun me, and that pronoun goes before the verb:
  • Le vent sec me fait mal

This is a very common pattern:

• Ça me plaît = I like that
• Il me parle = He talks to me
• Le bruit me dérange = The noise bothers me

This is a very important French pattern with body parts.

When the possessor is already clear from the pronoun (me, te, lui, etc.), French often uses:

• à + definite article for body parts

So:

• me fait mal aux lèvres
• literally: hurts me at the lips

Instead of:

• me fait mal à mes lèvres ❌

French prefers the body-part structure with the definite article:

• Je me lave les mains = I wash my hands
• Il a mal à la tête = He has a headache
• Ça lui fait mal aux yeux = That hurts his/her eyes

You can use a possessive like mes lèvres for emphasis or contrast, but it is not the normal choice here.

Aux is the contraction of à + les.

So:

• à les lèvres becomes aux lèvres

French requires this contraction:

• à + le = au
• à + les = aux
• de + le = du
• de + les = des

So aux lèvres literally means to the lips.

Because many French adjectives come after the noun.

• le vent sec = the dry wind

In English, adjectives usually come before the noun:

• dry wind

In French, adjective position varies. Many common descriptive adjectives go after the noun, and sec often does.

Compare:

• un climat sec = a dry climate
• une peau sèche = dry skin
• un vent sec = a dry wind

So this word order is normal.

French usually needs an article before a noun in places where English may omit one.

So French prefers:

• Le vent sec...

rather than:

• Vent sec... ❌

Here le vent sec can mean the dry wind in the situation being discussed, or a general kind of wind being referred to as a known thing.

French uses articles much more often than English, so learners often have to get used to that.

Because boire is an irregular verb.

Its present tense begins like this:

• je bois
• tu bois
• il / elle / on boit
• nous buvons
• vous buvez
• ils / elles boivent

So:

• je bois = I drink
• il boit = he drinks

This is one of those verb forms you simply need to memorize.

After expressions of quantity like plus, French usually uses de, not a full article like de l’.

So:

• plus d’eau = more water
• plus de pain = more bread
• plus de temps = more time

Because eau begins with a vowel, de becomes d’:

• de eau → d’eau

So plus d’eau is the normal form.

Here it means more.

That is because the sentence is:

• je bois plus d’eau

This is a positive statement, so plus means more.

To mean no more / no longer, French normally uses ne ... plus:

• je ne bois plus d’eau = I no longer drink water / I don’t drink water anymore

So the presence or absence of ne is very important.

Alors means something like so, therefore, or as a result.

It connects the two ideas:

• The dry wind hurts my lips
• so I drink more water

It shows consequence.

Similar connectors include:

• donc = so / therefore
• alors = so / then
• du coup = so / as a result (more informal)

In this sentence, alors is a very natural choice.

Because a person normally has two lips, and French usually refers to them in the plural:

• les lèvres = the lips

Even when English also uses the plural, it is still worth noticing because French keeps the ordinary anatomical plural here.

So:

• mal aux lèvres = pain in the lips / sore lips

If you wanted to talk about just one lip, you would say:

• la lèvre supérieure = the upper lip
• la lèvre inférieure = the lower lip

It is understandable, but it is not the most natural version.

French strongly prefers:

• Le vent sec me fait mal aux lèvres

Why?

Because with body parts, French usually marks the person with a pronoun (me) and uses the definite article for the body part (aux lèvres).

Using à mes lèvres sounds heavier and less idiomatic unless you are emphasizing contrast, for example:

• Pas à tes lèvres, mais à mes lèvres = Not your lips, but my lips

So in ordinary speech, the original sentence is better.

Very often, yes, when you say something hurts someone.

Pattern:

• X fait mal à quelqu’un / quelque chose

Examples:

• Cette lumière me fait mal aux yeux = This light hurts my eyes
• Le bruit lui fait mal à la tête = The noise gives him/her a headache
• Ça fait mal au dos = That hurts the back

There are other ways to talk about pain in French, such as:

• J’ai mal aux lèvres = My lips hurt / I have sore lips

But in this sentence, le vent sec is the thing causing the pain, so faire mal à fits very well.