Learn Hardcore German: Heute habe ich keine Kopfschmerzen mehr.

The “normal” neutral order would be: Ich habe heute keine Kopfschmerzen mehr.
- Subject (1st): Ich
- Verb (2nd): habe
In your sentence, “Heute” is moved to the first position for emphasis:
- Heute (1st position)
- habe (2nd position – must stay here)
- ich (3rd position)
- keine Kopfschmerzen mehr (rest of the sentence)

So: Heute habe ich … is just the “inverted” word order used when you put a time expression first. This is very common and completely normal in German.

Can I also say “Ich habe heute keine Kopfschmerzen mehr”? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say that, and it’s correct.

Heute habe ich keine Kopfschmerzen mehr.
Ich habe heute keine Kopfschmerzen mehr.

Both mean the same thing: “Today I don’t have a headache anymore.”

Nuance:

Heute habe ich … gives a little extra emphasis to “today” (contrast with other days: Today, unlike other days, I don’t have a headache anymore.)
Ich habe heute … is slightly more neutral in rhythm and focus.

In everyday conversation, both are used all the time. The difference is very small and mostly about what you want to emphasize.

Why is it “habe” and not “bin”? In English we say “I have a headache,” but sometimes German uses sein (to be).

For Kopfschmerzen (headache/headaches), German uses haben, just like English:

Ich habe Kopfschmerzen. – I have a headache / I have headaches.

You would not say Ich bin Kopfschmerzen or Ich bin krankheiten; that is wrong.

German does use sein with some health-related adjectives and states:

Ich bin krank. – I am sick.
Mir ist schlecht. – I feel sick / I feel unwell.
Es ist mir kalt. – I am cold.

But with Schmerzen (pains) as a noun, it’s regularly haben:

Ich habe Rückenschmerzen. – I have back pain.
Ich habe Zahnschmerzen. – I have toothache.

So Heute habe ich keine Kopfschmerzen mehr is exactly the natural way to say it.

Why is it “keine Kopfschmerzen” and not “nicht Kopfschmerzen”?

German has two main ways to negate:

kein(e) = “no / not any”
nicht = “not”

Use kein(e) to negate a noun that would otherwise have an indefinite article or no article:

Ich habe Kopfschmerzen. → Ich habe keine Kopfschmerzen.
Ich habe ein Auto. → Ich habe kein Auto.
Ich trinke Wasser. → Ich trinke kein Wasser.

Use nicht mainly to negate:

verbs,
adjectives,
adverbs,
or specific parts of the sentence.

Examples:

Ich komme nicht. – I am not coming.
Er ist nicht müde. – He is not tired.
Heute komme ich nicht. – I’m not coming today.

So here we have a noun phrase (Kopfschmerzen) as the direct object of haben, so we use keine:

✔ Ich habe keine Kopfschmerzen.
✘ Ich habe nicht Kopfschmerzen. (sounds wrong in normal use)

Why is “Kopfschmerzen” plural? In English we say “a headache” (singular).

German usually talks about pain in a particular area using the plural word Schmerzen (pains):

Kopfschmerzen – headache(s)
Rückenschmerzen – back pains / back pain
Zahnschmerzen – toothaches / toothache
Magenschmerzen – stomach pains / stomach ache

So Kopfschmerzen literally means “head pains”, but in normal English we translate it as “a headache” or just “headache”.

There is a singular der Kopfschmerz, but it’s:

uncommon in everyday speech,
used more in medical or very formal contexts.

You will almost always hear Kopfschmerzen in the plural when people talk about having a headache.

Why is there no article before “Kopfschmerzen”?

In English you say “a headache”, but German often does not use an article with plural or mass nouns in this kind of “I have X” structure.

Compare:

Ich habe Kopfschmerzen. – I have a headache / I have headaches.
Ich habe Rückenschmerzen. – I have back pain.
Ich habe Zahnschmerzen. – I have toothache.

And in the negative:

Ich habe keine Kopfschmerzen. – I don’t have a headache.
Ich habe keine Rückenschmerzen.
Ich habe keine Zahnschmerzen.

So in German, for these kinds of health complaints, no article is the normal pattern; the meaning “a headache / some pain” is understood from context.

What does “mehr” add to the sentence?

Mehr here means “anymore / no longer / any more” in the sense of time.

Ich habe keine Kopfschmerzen. – I don’t have a headache.
Ich habe keine Kopfschmerzen mehr. – I don’t have a headache anymore / I no longer have a headache.

So mehr shows:

there used to be headaches earlier,
but now they are gone.

Your full sentence:

Heute habe ich keine Kopfschmerzen mehr.
- “Today I don’t have a headache anymore (but I did before / on previous days).”

Could I put “mehr” somewhere else, like “Heute habe ich mehr keine Kopfschmerzen”?

No. In this meaning (“anymore / no longer”), mehr must be placed at the end of the negated phrase, and your suggested order sounds wrong.

Correct options:

Heute habe ich keine Kopfschmerzen mehr.
Ich habe heute keine Kopfschmerzen mehr.

Incorrect / unnatural:

✘ Heute habe ich mehr keine Kopfschmerzen.
✘ Heute mehr habe ich keine Kopfschmerzen.

When mehr means “more” in the quantitative sense, its position changes, but then the meaning is different:

Ich habe heute mehr Kopfschmerzen (als gestern). – I have more of a headache today than yesterday.

Why is the verb in the present tense (habe) and not the perfect tense (habe gehabt)?

German uses the present tense much more than English, especially for current states and often also for the near future.

Heute habe ich keine Kopfschmerzen mehr.
- Literally: “Today I have no headaches anymore.”
- Meaning in English: “Today I don’t have a headache anymore.”

You would not usually say:

✘ Heute habe ich keine Kopfschmerzen mehr gehabt.

That sounds like you are talking about some completed period in the past (for example, reporting to a doctor about yesterday), and even then it’s clumsy. For a simple “I don’t have them now (anymore)”, the present tense is correct and natural.

Is “Heute habe ich keine Kopfschmerzen mehr.” formal or informal?

This sentence is neutral and can be used in both formal and informal situations.

Formality in German mainly depends on:

How you address other people (du vs Sie),
Your vocabulary choices,
Tone and context.

You might say this sentence:

to a friend: Heute habe ich keine Kopfschmerzen mehr.
to a doctor: Heute habe ich keine Kopfschmerzen mehr.

In both cases it’s appropriate. The sentence itself doesn’t contain any informal slang or overly formal words.

How is “Kopfschmerzen” pronounced, and where is the stress?

Pronunciation (in simple terms):

Heute: HOY-te
habe: HAH-be
ich: like English “ish” but with a soft German ch [ç] (like in “ich”).
keine: KYE-ne (KYE rhymes with “eye”)
Kopfschmerzen: KOPF-shmert-sen

Stress:

KOPF is stressed in Kopfschmerzen.
Overall rhythm: HÓY-te HÁ-be ich KÉI-ne KOPF-shmert-sen mehr.

The pf in Kopf is a consonant cluster: try to pronounce p and f very close together: Kopf [kɔpf].

Is there a positive version of this sentence?

Yes. Remove the negation keine and mehr, and it becomes positive:

Heute habe ich Kopfschmerzen.
- “Today I have a headache.”

Variations:

Ich habe heute Kopfschmerzen.
Heute habe ich wieder Kopfschmerzen. – Today I have a headache again.
Heute habe ich starke Kopfschmerzen. – Today I have a bad / strong headache.

So:

keine Kopfschmerzen mehr – no more headaches (they used to be there)
Kopfschmerzen – headaches (they are there now)

Are there other common ways to say “I have a headache” in German?

Yes, but “Ich habe Kopfschmerzen” is the most standard and widely understood.

Other options you might hear:

Ich habe Kopfweh.
- More common in Austria and parts of southern Germany/Switzerland.
- Kopfweh = headache (colloquial/regional).
Mein Kopf tut weh.
- Literally: “My head hurts.”
- Very common and natural in all regions.

Your sentence in similar forms would be:

Heute habe ich kein Kopfweh mehr. (regional style)
Heute tut mir der Kopf nicht mehr weh.
- Literally: “Today my head doesn’t hurt anymore.”
- Same overall meaning: today, no more headache.