Barnet börjar gråta när det har ont i huvudet.

The child starts to cry when it has a headache.

Breakdown of Barnet börjar gråta när det har ont i huvudet.

• ha: to have
• i: in
• när: when
• det: it
• barnet: the child
• börja: to start
• ont: sore
• huvudet: the head
• gråta: to cry

Questions & Answers about Barnet börjar gråta när det har ont i huvudet.

Why is it barnet and not barn at the start of the sentence?

Barn means a child / child (indefinite form), while barnet means the child (definite form).

In Swedish, the definite form is normally made by adding an ending:

• ett barn → barnet (the child)
• en bil → bilen (the car)

So Barnet börjar gråta… = The child starts to cry…

You could also say:

• Ett barn börjar gråta när det har ont i huvudet. = A child starts to cry when it has a headache.

The choice between barn and barnet is just whether you mean “a child (in general)” or “the child (a specific one).”

Why does the sentence use det for the child instead of han or hon?

In Swedish, pronouns often follow grammatical gender, not natural gender.

• barn is an ett-word (neuter): ett barn
• The definite form is barnet
• The matching pronoun for an ett-word is usually det

So:

• Barnet börjar gråta. Det har ont i huvudet.

This does not sound cold or dehumanizing in Swedish; it’s just normal grammar.

If you are talking about a specific known child and want to emphasize natural gender, you can use han (he) or hon (she), but then you usually also name or identify the child first:

• Lisa börjar gråta när hon har ont i huvudet.
• Pojken börjar gråta när han har ont i huvudet.

With the neutral word barnet, det is the default.

Why is it har ont and not a single verb meaning “hurts”?

Swedish usually expresses pain with the construction ha ont (i …), literally “have pain (in …)”:

• Jag har ont i huvudet. = I have pain in my head / I have a headache.
• Hon har ont i magen. = She has a stomachache.
• Vi har ont i ryggen. = We have back pain.

There is a verb göra ont (“to hurt / to be painful”), but it is used differently:

• Mitt huvud gör ont. = My head hurts.
• Det gör ont. = It hurts.

So in this sentence, det har ont i huvudet = “it has pain in the head,” which corresponds to English “it has a headache / its head hurts.”

Is ont an adjective or a noun in har ont i huvudet?

Grammatically, ont is an adjective, but in the fixed expression ha ont (i …) it behaves almost like a noun (“pain”).

Key patterns:

• ha ont i huvudet – to have a headache
• ha ont i ryggen – to have back pain
• ha ont i halsen – to have a sore throat
• ha ont överallt – to hurt everywhere

So you can think of ont as “painful / sore,” but in practice you just memorize ha ont + preposition i + body part as the natural way to talk about pain.

What is the difference between ont i huvudet and huvudvärk?

Both refer to pain in the head, but there’s a nuance:

• ont i huvudet

  • Very common, everyday way to say “my head hurts / I have a headache.”
  • Often used about children or in casual speech.
  • Sounds a bit more immediate and concrete.

• huvudvärk

  • A noun meaning headache as a condition.
  • Slightly more “medical” or neutral.
  • Common in writing, medicine, or more formal speech.

In your sentence, for a child, ont i huvudet feels more natural:

• Barnet börjar gråta när det har ont i huvudet.
  You could also say:
• Barnet börjar gråta när det har huvudvärk.
  but that sounds a bit more like a description of a diagnosed condition.

Why is it present tense börjar and har, even though it feels like a repeated, habitual action?

Swedish uses the present tense for general truths, habits, and repeated actions, just like English does:

• Barnet börjar gråta när det har ont i huvudet.
  = Whenever the child has a headache, it starts crying.

The sentence does not mean “right now this moment”; it describes what typically happens. Context and the word när (“when(ever)”) give the habitual meaning.

You don’t need a special tense to show repetition; present tense is normal here.

Could you just say Barnet gråter när det har ont i huvudet? What’s the difference from börjar gråta?

Yes, you can say both, but the meaning is slightly different:

• Barnet gråter när det har ont i huvudet.
  = The child cries when it has a headache.
  (Focus on the state of crying.)

• Barnet börjar gråta när det har ont i huvudet.
  = The child starts to cry when it gets a headache.
  (Focus on the start of the crying, the moment it begins.)

börjar + infinitive highlights the beginning of an action. Without börjar, it describes the action itself as ongoing.

Why is gråta in the infinitive after börjar, and why is there no att?

The pattern is:

• börja + infinitive (no att)

So:

• börjar gråta – starts crying
• börjar läsa – starts reading
• börjar jobba – starts working

For a lot of common “helper” verbs (modal or aspect verbs), att is normally omitted:

• kan prata – can talk
• vill äta – wants to eat
• ska sova – will/shall sleep
• måste gå – must go
• börjar gråta – starts to cry

You can sometimes see börjar att gråta, but in modern Swedish börjar gråta without att is more natural and more common in speech.

What exactly does när mean here? Is it “when” or “if”?

när mainly means when, but in the present tense it often has a habitual “whenever” sense, similar to English:

• Barnet börjar gråta när det har ont i huvudet.
  = The child starts crying whenever it has a headache.

If you wanted more of a conditional “if,” you would more often use om:

• Barnet börjar gråta om det har ont i huvudet.

Here:

• när suggests: every time the situation happens, this is what occurs.
• om suggests a bit more uncertainty / condition: if that situation happens, then…

Both can be possible, but när is very natural for describing a habitual pattern.

Why do we say i huvudet and not på huvudet?

The preposition depends on the type of relationship:

• i huvudet = in the head, used for internal things (pain, thoughts, inside the head)

  • ont i huvudet – a headache
  • en röst i huvudet – a voice in the head

• på huvudet = on the head, used for things located on the surface

  • en hatt på huvudet – a hat on the head
  • ett sår på huvudet – a wound on the head

Since pain is felt inside the head, Swedish uses i huvudet.

Why is there no comma before när in this sentence?

Swedish comma rules are different from English.

• In Swedish, when the main clause comes first and a subordinate clause follows, you usually do not put a comma:

  • Barnet börjar gråta när det har ont i huvudet. ✅
    (no comma)

• If you start with the subordinate clause, you do normally use a comma:

  • När det har ont i huvudet, börjar barnet gråta. ✅
    (comma after the subordinate clause)

So the sentence as given is correctly punctuated in Swedish.

How would the sentence change if we talked about several children instead of one?

You would make barnet plural and adjust the pronoun:

• Barnen börjar gråta när de har ont i huvudet.

Changes:

• barnet (the child) → barnen (the children)
• det (it) → de (they)

Everything else stays the same:

• börjar gråta – start crying (same form for singular and plural)
• har ont i huvudet – have a headache / have pain in the head.