〜が痛い — Expressing Pain
To say a body part hurts, mark it with が and use the い-adjective 痛い. You normally omit 'my' — context makes ownership clear.
Structure
[Body part] + が + 痛い (です)
Examples
頭が痛いです。
Atama ga itai desu.
My head hurts. (I have a headache.)
頭 (head) + が (subject) + 痛い (painful).
お腹が痛い。
Onaka ga itai.
My stomach hurts.
お腹 = stomach/belly; the お is a fixed part of the word here.
昨日から歯が痛いです。
Kinou kara ha ga itai desu.
My tooth has hurt since yesterday.
歯 (tooth) + が + 痛い (painful); 昨日から = since yesterday.
• Drop 'my': 私の頭が痛い sounds unnatural — since you obviously feel your own pain, just say 頭が痛い. • 痛い is an い-adjective (a state), not a verb, so it takes が on the body part. • Idiom: 頭が痛い can also mean 'it's a headache / a worry' figuratively.
Commonly confused with
The JLPT rarely asks whether you recognise a pattern — it asks which of several similar patterns fits. These are the ones 〜が痛い is tested against.
vs 〜が痛い vs 〜を痛める
〜が痛い describes the state of hurting (足が痛い = my leg hurts); 〜を痛める is the action of injuring a part (足を痛めた = I hurt my leg).
vs が vs は with body parts
が simply reports the painful part; using は (頭は痛い) contrasts it (my head hurts, but... something else).
More expressions
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