痛い

There are various ways to talk about pain.

Nouns:

• pain
• ache

Examples:

• I have a pain in my foot so I can't play football today.
• I drank too much wine last night and now I have a headache.

Verbs:

• hurt
• ache

Examples:

• My feet hurt from too much walking.
• My head aches; I'll never drink alcohol again!

Adjectives:

• painful
• sore

Examples:

• My feet are painful so I'm going to stay at home today.
• I have a sore throat and a fever; maybe I've caught a cold.

Another adjective is hurtful. We use hurtful to describe emotional pain.

• His comments about her appearance were hurtful.

Some body parts commonly form compound nouns with ache:

• headache
• toothache
• backache
• stomachache