כואבת לה הבטן, אבל היא רוצה ללכת למרפאה.

Her stomach hurts, but she wants to go to the clinic.

Breakdown of כואבת לה הבטן, אבל היא רוצה ללכת למרפאה.

• לרצות: to want
• היא: she
• אבל: but
• ללכת: to go
• ל: to
• לה: to her
• לכאוב: to hurt
• בטן: stomach
• מרפאה: clinic

Questions & Answers about כואבת לה הבטן, אבל היא רוצה ללכת למרפאה.

Why does כואבת לה הבטן look so different from English her stomach hurts?

Hebrew often expresses pain with a structure that is more like:

Hurting to her is the stomach

So in כואבת לה הבטן:

• כואבת = hurts / is hurting
• לה = to her
• הבטן = the stomach

A very natural English translation is Her stomach hurts, but the Hebrew grammar is built differently. This pain + ל־ pronoun pattern is extremely common:

• כואב לי הראש = My head hurts
• כואבת לו הרגל = His leg hurts

Why is it כואבת and not כואב?

Because כואבת agrees with הבטן, and בטן is a feminine singular noun.

In this kind of sentence, the verb/adjective-like form agrees with the thing that hurts, not with the person feeling the pain.

So:

• הבטן = feminine singular → כואבת
• הראש = masculine singular → כואב
• הרגליים = feminine plural → כואבות

Examples:

• כואב לי הראש = My head hurts
• כואבת לי הבטן = My stomach hurts
• כואבות לי הרגליים = My legs hurt

What exactly does לה mean here?

לה means to her.

In English, we usually say her stomach hurts, using a possessive idea. In Hebrew, with pain expressions, it is very common to use ל־ plus a pronoun:

• לי = to me
• לך = to you
• לו = to him
• לה = to her

So כואבת לה הבטן literally means the stomach hurts to her, which is just the Hebrew way of saying her stomach hurts.

Why is it הבטן with the, instead of just בטן?

In this pattern, Hebrew usually uses the body part as a definite noun:

• כואב לי הראש
• כואבת לה הבטן
• כואבת לו היד

Even though English says my head, her stomach, his hand, Hebrew often says the head, the stomach, the hand, while the ל־ pronoun tells you whose body it is.

So הבטן here does not mean some random stomach. In context, it clearly means her stomach.

Can the word order be changed?

Yes. Hebrew word order is somewhat flexible.

The given sentence uses a very natural spoken order:

• כואבת לה הבטן

But you could also hear:

• הבטן כואבת לה

Both mean the same thing. The version with כואבת first is especially common in everyday speech when talking about pain or physical sensations.

Why does the sentence say אבל היא רוצה? Why include היא at all?

Hebrew often includes the subject pronoun for clarity, especially after a conjunction like אבל.

Also, in unpointed Hebrew, רוצה can represent either:

• he wants
• she wants

The spelling is the same without vowel marks. So היא makes it completely clear that the subject is she:

• אבל היא רוצה = but she wants

This is very natural Hebrew.

What form is רוצה?

רוצה is the present tense form of רצה = to want.

In modern Hebrew, present tense forms often behave a bit like participles and agree in gender and number.

Here it is feminine singular, matching היא:

• הוא רוצה = he wants
• היא רוצה = she wants

In normal unpointed writing, both are spelled רוצה, so the pronoun helps identify the subject.

Why does רוצה come before ללכת?

Because ללכת is the infinitive: to go / to walk.

After verbs like want, Hebrew usually uses an infinitive, just like English:

• היא רוצה ללכת = she wants to go
• אני רוצה לאכול = I want to eat
• הם רוצים ללמוד = they want to study

So רוצה ללכת is exactly the normal pattern for wants to go.

Why is it ללכת with two ל letters?

Because the infinitive of many Hebrew verbs begins with ל־, which usually corresponds to English to.

The base verb is הלך = went / go, and the infinitive is ללכת = to go.

The double ל is just part of the standard spelling of this infinitive. It is not unusual.

Why is למרפאה written as one word?

Because Hebrew prepositions are usually attached directly to the following word.

So:

• ל־ = to
• מרפאה = clinic

Together: למרפאה = to the clinic

Also, because מרפאה here is definite, this is really ל + ה + מרפאה, but Hebrew merges that into one written form:

• ל + המרפאה → למרפאה

This kind of contraction is very common:

• לבית = to the house
• לשוק = to the market
• למרפאה = to the clinic

Does מרפאה mean the same thing as hospital?

No. מרפאה usually means clinic or medical office, not a hospital.

So:

• מרפאה = clinic
• בית חולים = hospital

A learner might be tempted to translate it as hospital, but clinic is the more accurate meaning here.

Is there another natural way to say her stomach hurts in Hebrew?

Yes. A few common alternatives are:

• הבטן שלה כואבת = Her stomach hurts
• יש לה כאב בטן = She has a stomachache / stomach pain

But כואבת לה הבטן is very natural and common in everyday Hebrew, especially in speech.

Is כואבת really a verb here, or is it more like an adjective?

In modern Hebrew grammar, forms like כואב / כואבת in the present tense come from participle-type forms and can behave in ways that feel partly verbal and partly adjectival.

For a learner, the most useful thing is this:

• in meaning, it works like hurts / is hurting
• in form, it agrees in gender and number with the thing that hurts

So you do not need to over-worry about the label at this stage. The important pattern is:

כואב/כואבת + ל־ person + body part

Example:

• כואב לי הגב = My back hurts
• כואבת לה הבטן = Her stomach hurts