|
ESL Forum:
Techniques and methods
in Language Teaching
Games, activities
and teaching ideas
Grammar and
Linguistics
Teaching material
Concerning
worksheets
Concerning
powerpoints
Concerning online
exercises
Make suggestions,
report errors
Ask for help
Message board
|
ESL forum >
Ask for help > Have a toothache or Have toothache
Have a toothache or Have toothache
|
kara305
|
Have a toothache or Have toothache
|
|
Hello, I am confused. Could you please tell me which one is correct? and when do we have to use "a" before a health problem? Thanks a lot. |
24 Aug 2016
|
|
|
|
jfaraujo
|
|
Hello! I think the correct way is "I have a toothache", just as we say, "I have a headache" or "I have a stomachache". As for your second question I am not sure I understand it, so I �ll leave it for one of our native speaker colleagues to help you. |
24 Aug 2016
|
|
|
RabbitWho
|
There isn �t a specific rule for health problems, it is the same old rule of usually using a before countable nouns and not uncountable ones. The thing is some people think of headache and toothache as being an uncountable mass and others think of it in terms of individual occurrences.
I can tell you that in Ireland we always think of it as countable - a headache, a toothache, and as far as I know everywhere else both things are accepted. I am sure that in British English both are accepted because that is the type of English I teach.
Does anyone know if these aches are always countable in American English? |
24 Aug 2016
|
|
|
cunliffe
|
|
Can anyone find the one before this? I always leave the article out, so �I �ve got earache/toothache etc. �
|
24 Aug 2016
|
|
|
yanogator
|
|
I think it might be different in British English, but in the US, we always use "a/an" with words that have "ache" in them. We use "the" with some other short-term medical conditions (the measles, the mumps, the flu), but not with others (influenze, diphtheria), On thinking about it, I think we use "the" when the name is not the "official" medical term: the measles = rubella, rubeola, the flu = influenza the mumps = parotitis However, we don �t say "the chicken pox" (= varicella), but I have no idea why. For long-term medical conditions (gout, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.), we usually don �t use an article. There, now you �re more confused than before.  Bruce |
24 Aug 2016
|
|
|
FrauSue
|
|
I �m British. I say: a headache But otherwise: toothache, stomachache, earache. I �m afraid I don �t know why. |
24 Aug 2016
|
|
|
Ann_85
|
|
I �ve read the following rule in one of the books: " To make it easier to remember the use of articles with the names of illnesses, draw pupils � attention to the number of the parts of the body we have: we have one head and one stomach, so we use the article A before the words (a) headache and (a) stomacache. But we have two ears and up to 32 teeth, so we don �t use A before the words earache and toothache."  |
24 Aug 2016
|
|
|
