У меня иногда болит голова вечером.

I sometimes have a headache in the evening.

Breakdown of У меня иногда болит голова вечером.

• я: I
• вечером: in the evening
• иногда: sometimes
• болеть: to hurt
• голова: the head

Questions & Answers about У меня иногда болит голова вечером.

Why do we say У меня болит голова instead of something like Я болею голова or я имею головную боль?

Russian uses a special construction with у + [person in genitive] + болит + [body part in nominative] to talk about pain:

• У меня болит голова – literally: At me hurts head → I have a headache / My head hurts.

Using я имею for possession is usually too formal or unnatural in such everyday sentences.
Я болею means I am ill / I am sick (with some disease), not something hurts. So Я болею голова is simply wrong.

You can say Моя голова болит, but that has a bit more emphasis on my head (for contrast or emotion). The neutral, most common way is У меня болит голова.

What case is меня in У меня and why is it used?

Меня here is in the genitive case (of я).

The pattern у + genitive means “at/with someone” and is a very common way to express:

• possession: У меня есть книга – I have a book.
• states/conditions: У меня болит голова – I have a headache.

So У меня literally means “at me / with me”, and Russian uses this instead of “I have …” in many situations.

Why is голова in the nominative case and not голову (accusative)?

In У меня болит голова, the grammatical subject of the verb болит is голова:

• голова – nominative singular, 3rd person → verb form болит.

The structure is:

• У меня – “at me” (owner/experiencer, genitive)
• болит – “hurts”
• голова – “head” (subject that hurts)

So we don’t say голову (accusative) because we are not doing anything to the head; the head itself is the thing that hurts, so it’s nominative.

Why is the verb болит used and not something like больно or болен?

These three forms have different functions:

• болит – a verb, “hurts / aches”:
  
  • У меня болит голова. – My head hurts.
• больно – an adverb, “it is painful / it hurts (in general)”:
  
  • Мне больно. – It hurts me / It’s painful to me.
• болен / больна / больны – short-form adjectives, “ill, sick”:
  
  • Я болен. – I am ill. (male speaker)
  • Она больна. – She is ill.

In the sentence about a body part that hurts, the most natural pattern is the verb болит / болят with that body part as the subject.

Can I change the word order? For example, can I say Иногда вечером у меня болит голова or У меня болит голова иногда вечером?

Yes, Russian word order is quite flexible. All of these are grammatically correct; the differences are mostly in rhythm and emphasis:

• У меня иногда болит голова вечером. – neutral; “sometimes … in the evening” is in the middle.
• Иногда вечером у меня болит голова. – slightly more emphasis on “Sometimes in the evening…” as a time frame.
• Вечером у меня иногда болит голова. – emphasis on “In the evening …”.
• У меня болит голова иногда вечером. – possible, but sounds a bit clumsy; the final иногда вечером feels tagged on.

For learners, the safest neutral choices are:

• У меня иногда болит голова вечером.
• Иногда вечером у меня болит голова.

What exactly is the role of иногда here, and where can it be placed?

Иногда means “sometimes” and is an adverb of frequency. In this sentence, it modifies the whole situation: the headache happens from time to time.

Common, natural positions are:

• Иногда у меня вечером болит голова.
• У меня иногда болит голова вечером.

It can also go at the very end:

• У меня болит голова вечером иногда. – grammatical, but feels a bit unusual and emphatic, like “in the evening, and that’s only sometimes”.

So: keep иногда near the beginning or near the verb for the most natural feel.

Why is вечером in the form with -ом? What case is it, and why does it mean “in the evening”?

Вечером is the instrumental case of вечер (evening).

Russian often uses the instrumental case without a preposition to express time, especially parts of the day:

• утром – in the morning
• днём – in/at daytime
• вечером – in the evening
• ночью – at night (this is an old instrumental form)

So вечером here functions like an adverb meaning “in the evening / during the evening”. There is no preposition в in this sentence; the ending -ом itself carries the time meaning.

Is there any difference between вечером and по вечерам? Could I say У меня иногда по вечерам болит голова?

Both are possible, but they feel slightly different:

• вечером – “in the evening (on a particular day or generally)”
  
  • У меня иногда болит голова вечером.
• по вечерам – “in the evenings (as a repeated pattern, on many evenings)”
  
  • У меня иногда по вечерам болит голова.

По вечерам emphasizes repetition/habit across multiple evenings more strongly.
In everyday speech, both versions can be used for something that happens from time to time.

What tense/aspect is болит, and how would I say “my head started to hurt” or “my head was hurting”?

Болит is present tense, imperfective aspect of the verb болеть (to hurt, to ache in this sense). It means a state that is happening now or occurs repeatedly.

To talk about different time nuances:

• “My head started to hurt” → У меня заболела голова.
  
  • заболела – past tense, perfective aspect (onset of pain).
• “My head was hurting (for some time)” →
  
  • У меня болела голова. – past imperfective, state over a period.

So:

• болит – hurts (now / regularly)
• заболела – started to hurt (single event)
• болела – was hurting (ongoing in the past)

How would the sentence change if more than one thing hurts, like head and throat, or teeth?

When the subject is plural, the verb changes to болят:

• У меня болит голова. – My head hurts.
• У меня болят голова и горло. – My head and throat hurt.
• У меня болят зубы. – My teeth hurt.

Pattern:

• Singular subject → болит
• Plural subject → болят

Can У меня or some other parts be left out? For example, can I just say Иногда болит голова вечером?

Yes, you can omit У меня if the context already makes it clear who you are talking about:

• Иногда вечером болит голова. – “Sometimes in the evening (my) head hurts.”

Russian often drops elements that are obvious from context. But:

• If you are talking about yourself in a neutral context (e.g. to a doctor, or describing your own symptoms), it is more natural and clear to include у меня:
  • У меня иногда вечером болит голова.

So: Иногда вечером болит голова is correct, but У меня… is safer and clearer, especially for learners.

Are there other common ways to say “I have a headache” in Russian, and how do they compare to У меня болит голова?

Yes, several:

• У меня болит голова. – most neutral and common.
• Голова болит. – shorter, more informal; often said when you already know who is speaking.
• У меня головная боль. – literally “I have a head pain”; more medical/formal.
• У меня мигрень. – “I have a migraine.” (specific diagnosis)

In everyday conversation, У меня болит голова is the default natural choice.

Where is the stress in the words иногда, болит, голова, and вечером?

The stresses are:

• иногда́ – stress on the last syllable: и‑но‑гда́
• боли́т – stress on -лит: бо‑ли́т
• голова́ – stress on the last syllable: го‑ло‑ва́
• ве́чером – stress on the first syllable: ве́‑че‑ром

Pronouncing the stresses correctly will help the sentence sound much more natural.