# 头痛 / 头疼



## chanveil

Hey guys, 

I've seen both of those ways of saying a headache, but I'm not sure how  to use each. I've tried searching on the net but I've only been able to  verify that you can say "我头疼死了" 

Are they use differently? Is 头疼 a verb and 头痛 a noun? Can you say 
我头痛 
我头很痛 
我头痛死了 
我有一个头痛 

我头疼 
我头很疼 
我有一个头疼 

writing all this, 我头疼死了 haha


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## Razzle Storm

You can say all of those except the "我有一个头痛/疼". That's a purely English structure. Medically there is no difference in meaning, and the two can be used interchangeably. I personally have heard southerners use 头痛 more, and northerners use 头疼 more, but that's just me. 

Also, you might want to understand the difference between 我头痛 and 我头很痛. 我头痛 could mean "I have a headache" or "my head hurts", but 我头很痛 is more likely to mean "my head hurts". This would not be from a headache, but the result of something else, like walking into a pole.


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## viajero_canjeado

I've only ever come across 頭痛 in daily conversation, and upon consulting a classmate I was informed that using 疼 is permissible but is more likely to sound 矯情 and 大陸腔 to the Taiwanese ear.. it seems, here at least, that 疼 more applies to an emotional context, like 心疼 or 疼愛.


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## stace

I am a northen chinese,I can tell you that there is no difference between 痛 and 疼 in meaning，but 痛 is aways used in literature and 疼 is more used in general condition.
Both *头痛 and 头疼* can be used in medical condition like "headache" in english and both of them can be used to describe some nuisance which makes someone annoyed.For example: 这是一件让我头疼/痛的事，It's such a nuisance that makes me annoyed。
And as what Razzel Storm said,you can not say *我有一个头痛/疼 *in chinese.


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## wfxincheng588

all of these are right, but chinese one word always have different meaning, so it is even very hard for chinese to learn!


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## Zhengke

头疼和头痛对我来没有差别，既可以指头不舒服，也可以指某些难解决的事让人心烦。
例如，
这工作真棘手，让我头疼死了。
在这种情况下，还可以用“头大”来代替：
这工作真棘手，很让我头大。


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## Daffodil100

First of all, 头痛 and 头疼 are interchangable in the mainland no matter north China or south. 

Second, I'd like to pinpoint the nuance between 疼 and 痛 as the following:


疼：
generally is applied to physically uncomfortable, and more colloquial. The ache is lasting for a long while and blunt, specially for unknow reason.

e.g.  我的手臂好疼好，肯定是昨天打球了

Beside that, 疼 means love, take care of, etc. 

e.g.  父母疼爱孩子。(It's wrong to say 父母痛爱孩子）

e.g.  父母心疼孩子。(It's wrong to say 父母心痛孩子）


 痛：
1. can refer to physically ache. It is mostly interchangeable to 疼。

e.g. 我很头痛=我很头疼

2. 痛 is more common when it refers to the ache is sharp and all of a sudden.

e.g.  大火烧痛了我的皮肤。

3. 痛 is more literal. e.g. 痛觉

4. 痛 can refer to the emotional distress, e.g. 心痛，悲痛，痛不欲生，痛苦

Beside that, 痛can refer to completely. e.g. 痛恨，痛饮，痛快 etc.


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## BODYholic

We have the same observation in Singapore as viajero_canjeado. Using 疼 to describe physical pain is almost unheard of here. Because 疼, unlike 痛, can be 儿化 which makes it sounds rather feminine to us.

For us, it would be  "我的手臂好疼痛 ...".


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## lijingfeng

See you these messages (头疼 / 头痛), 我头膨胀了。


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## flenci

两个没区别，就是疼更加口语化一点


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## bamboobanga

for me，痛 sounds more like ache，and 疼 sounds more like hurt。 

so 疼 makes you feel like “oh shit it fucking hurts ！i need to yell or something！“

and 痛 is like ”shit。everyone shuts up；i don’t want to talk。“


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## Green6

As a pure Wu Chinese, it seems to me that the word 疼 is not used at all in Wu dialect/language, people around me always say 痛。

If I am to say 妈妈很疼爱她的小孩 (Mandarin Chinese)

It would be : 妈妈迈值钿依额小宁。

So I would say 值钿（值钱） roughly equals to 疼爱 in Wu Chinese.


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## betalove

In fact, "头疼" is the same as "头痛". But chinese often use "头疼" in spoken language.
   "头疼" and "头痛" are both verbs."我有一个头疼" and "我有一个头痛" are both wrong.
   For exmaple, "我头痛" , "我头疼" , "我头很痛" , "我头很疼" , "我头快痛死了" , "我头快疼死了".
  And you can express that something bothers you by "某件事让我头疼".


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## samanthalee

betalove said:


> But chinese often use "头疼" in spoken language.


Which is definitely not the universal truth, as can be seen from the various previous replies.

viajero_canjeado had observed that it is not used by his Taiwanese friends in daily conversation;  he had only heard 頭痛 used. The Taiwanese would find "头疼" rather pretentious or "Mainland China" sounding.

BODYholic tells us that in Singapore, it is the same as what viajero_canjeado had observed with his Taiwanese friends. And I can vouch for that too. When I hear someone say "头疼", I'll identify the speaker as a foreigner (foreign to Singapore).

Green6 had also observed that people of the Wu dialect region around him always say 痛
(Note: For everyone doesn't know where Wu dialect region is, I'll say it is approximately Shanghai and its surrounding.)

On the other hand,
flenci from Beijing felt that "头疼" is more natural in speech.


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## alvis0514

Just chiming in as a Taiwanese, I definitely wouldn't say or write "頭疼" unless I'm putting on a Chinese accent (as opposed to a Taiwanese accent) to elicit a laugh (because I'm obviously not Chinese; my accent would give it away right off the bat). Not saying which Chinese variant is better than the other, but we Taiwanese simply just use "頭痛" in both writing and speech. We'd still understand "頭疼," though.

Hope this helps! BTW I am digging a pretty old thread in here...


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## Skatinginbc

bamboobanga said:


> for me，痛 sounds more like ache，and 疼 sounds more like hurt。


For me, it is the opposite.
痛心: literally "_hurt_ one's heart" or "so much that one's heart _hurts_" (e.g., 痛心疾首; cf.《玉篇.痛》傷也 "hurt, injure")
心疼: literally "one's heart _aches_ _for_ something or someone" (e.g., I ache for those homeless children 我心疼那些無家可歸的孩子; My heart aches for the loss of that golden opportunity 我心疼失去大好機會).

When we 痛罵 somebody, it is done so angrily and sternly that it usually _hurts_ the person's feelings.  If someone says *疼罵 (unidiomatic), I hear "love" (打是疼，罵是愛).  To me, "打在兒身，痛(= 傷)在娘心" and "打在兒身，疼(= 憐惜, 心疼的疼 or 疼愛的疼)在娘心" do not mean the same.

Ache: a continuous or prolonged dull pain, which is not sharp as a stabbing pain.  Rather, it is "sultry" (《釋名.疼》旱氣疼疼然, 煩也; e.g., Her heart sweltered in _sultry pain_).  I guess Daffodil would agree with me:


Daffodil100 said:


> 疼：The ache is lasting for a long while and blunt...痛 is more common when it refers to the ache is sharp and all of a sudden.


《西遊記.十四回》三藏見他戴上帽子，就不吃乾糧，卻默默的念那緊箍咒一遍。行者叫道：「頭痛! 頭痛！」==> Although 頭疼 is also acceptable, I'm more inclined to say 頭痛 when it describes an acute sharp pain in the head.
《初刻拍案驚奇.卷一三》殷氏便接口道：「那個還價？」趙聰道：「便是我們捨個頭疼，替他胡亂還些罷。」==> Although 頭痛 is also acceptable, I'm more inclined to say 頭疼 when it describes a migraine-like, prolonged headache, 令人感到煩厭 (煩 bothersome; e.g., 這事很令我頭疼).


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## retrogradedwithwind

我一直以为疼痛可能是南北之别的又一个例子。北方似多说疼，南方多说痛。当然也只是大概而言了。


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## yuechu

Daffodil100 said:


> 我的手臂*好疼好*，肯定是昨天打球了


你好！

Thank you all for your helpful explanations! (even if this is an old thread now)
Is there supposed to be a verb or adjective after the second "好" above, or is it ok for it to stand alone like that?

Thanks!


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## Lamb67

我的手臂*好疼好 teng*，肯定是昨天打球了
A duplicate of *疼 should be added. *


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