Spot the mistake
French mal or malade: correct a simple symptom message
Fix one verb in eight French health messages. Separate avoir mal plus a body location from être malade while leaving correct au, à la and aux phrases intact.
- A1
- 8 sentences
- Tap the wrong word
- Learn this in the A1 notebook →
In short
Use avoir mal for pain at a named location and être malade for being ill: tu as mal au dos, tu es malade. In this activity, only the conjugated verb is wrong. The body-part phrases and the adjective endings are already correct.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn
Each line is intended to use one of those two standard beginner patterns. Change es to as, est to a, or the corresponding plural verb when the line contains mal plus a body location. With malade or malades, choose the correct form of être. Do not change the already correct article after mal.
Tap the word that's wrong in each sentence.
Your back hurts.
The target construction is avoir mal: tu as mal au dos. Au dos is already correct.
Her head hurts.
Use avoir mal for the body location: elle a mal à la tête. Keep à la tête unchanged.
Our teeth hurt.
Nous takes avons in avoir mal. Aux dents is already the correct plural body-part phrase.
Your shoulder hurts.
The pain-location pattern is vous avez mal à l’épaule, with the body phrase unchanged.
Their feet hurt.
Use ils ont mal for the target construction. Aux pieds is already correct.
You are ill.
Malade is an adjective with être: tu es malade, not avoir malade.
She is ill.
Use elle est malade. Malade does not form the avoir mal location pattern.
We are ill.
Nous sommes malades uses être. The plural adjective malades is already correct.
Mal and malade do different grammatical jobs
| Pattern | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Avoir mal + body location | Elle a mal à la tête. | Her head hurts. |
| Être malade | Elle est malade. | She is ill. |
| Avoir mal + plural body location | Ils ont mal aux pieds. | Their feet hurt. |
| Être malades | Ils sont malades. | They are ill. |
Mal in avoir mal is part of the fixed expression and does not gain a plural s. Malade is an adjective. It takes s with a plural subject: nous sommes malades. That adjective ending is already supplied correctly in the final error line, so the only repair there is avons to sommes.
Preserve the body-part phrase when it is already correct
Au dos combines à and le dos. Aux dents combines à and les dents. À la tête and à l’épaule keep their stated article forms. A wrong main verb does not make those body-part expressions wrong. This exercise deliberately lets you repair the verb without changing a second word.
Tu as mal au dos, mais ton frère est malade.
Your back hurts, but your brother is ill.
For a short message, choose the frame that matches what you want to say, then keep its verb and following words together: J’ai mal à la tête names the painful place; je suis malade describes being ill.