Body Parts and Basic Health in Urdu

In Brief

Urdu often describes a symptom with مجھے ... ہے (mujhe ... hai, literally “to me … exists”) or ... میں درد ہے (... meṅ dard hai, “… has pain”). Learn body-part nouns together with میرا / میری / میرے (merā / merī / mere, “my”), because the possessive changes to match the body part: میرا سر “my head,” but میری آنکھ “my eye.”

Overview

Body-part words let you handle some of the most immediate situations in Urdu: saying that your head hurts, asking how someone feels, understanding a simple instruction, or explaining that you need a doctor. At A1, the most useful goal is not a complete medical vocabulary. It is a small set of nouns combined with reliable sentence patterns.

Urdu differs from English in two important ways here. First, it often presents a sensation as something that exists “to” a person: مجھے بخار ہے literally has the shape “to me fever is,” although natural English says “I have a fever.” Second, possessive words agree with the thing possessed rather than with its owner. A male speaker and a female speaker both say میری آنکھ (merī āṅkh, “my eye”), because آنکھ is grammatically feminine.

Urdu is normally written in the Perso-Arabic Nastaliq script from right to left. Romanization is included below as a pronunciation aid, but learn to recognize the Urdu spelling too. Long vowels are marked in forms such as hāth and bīmār; the final nasal sound in pāoṅ is also meaningful.

How It Works

Core body-part vocabulary

A noun is a word for a person, place, thing, or idea. Urdu nouns have grammatical gender: they are treated as masculine or feminine even when they name objects or body parts. This gender controls forms such as “my.”

Urdu	Romanization	Meaning	Gender / useful phrase
سر	sar	head	masculine: میرا سر
بال	bāl	hair	masculine plural in ordinary use: میرے بال
آنکھ	āṅkh	eye	feminine: میری آنکھ
کان	kān	ear	masculine: میرا کان
ناک	nāk	nose	feminine: میری ناک
منہ	muṅh	mouth; face	masculine: میرا منہ
دانت	dāṅt	tooth; teeth	masculine: میرا دانت / میرے دانت
گلا	galā	throat	masculine: میرا گلا
ہاتھ	hāth	hand	masculine: میرا ہاتھ
انگلی	uṅglī	finger	feminine: میری انگلی
پیٹ	peṭ	stomach; belly	masculine: میرا پیٹ
کمر	kamar	waist; lower back	feminine: میری کمر
ٹانگ	ṭāṅg	leg	feminine: میری ٹانگ
پاؤں	pāoṅ	foot; feet	masculine: میرا پاؤں
دل	dil	heart	masculine: میرا دل

Some Urdu forms do not visibly change between singular and plural in isolation. ہاتھ can mean “hand” or “hands,” and پاؤں can mean “foot” or “feet”; the surrounding words and context clarify the number.

Saying “my” with body parts

A possessive is a word such as “my” or “your” that connects something with its owner. The beginner pattern for “my” is:

Form	Use	Example	Meaning
میرا merā	masculine singular	میرا سر merā sar	my head
میری merī	feminine singular or plural	میری آنکھ merī āṅkh	my eye
میرے mere	masculine plural; also some later case patterns	میرے ہاتھ mere hāth	my hands

The ending follows the body part, not the speaker. English “my” never changes, so this is a habit English-speaking learners need to build deliberately.

Three basic ways to describe health

1. Person + health adjective + “to be”

An adjective describes someone or something. بیمار (bīmār, “sick”) and ٹھیک (ṭhīk, “fine, all right”) are especially useful:

• میں بیمار ہوں۔ Maiṅ bīmār hūṅ. — I am sick.
• وہ بیمار ہے۔ Voh bīmār hai. — He/She is sick.
• اب میں ٹھیک ہوں۔ Ab maiṅ ṭhīk hūṅ. — I am fine now.
• آپ ٹھیک ہیں؟ Āp ṭhīk haiṅ? — Are you all right?

The present forms of “to be” shown here are ہوں (hūṅ) with “I,” ہے (hai) with he/she/it, and respectful or plural ہیں (haiṅ). بیمار and ٹھیک do not change for a male or female person in these sentences.

2. مجھے + symptom + ہے

مجھے (mujhe) means “to me” in this construction. It marks the person experiencing the symptom:

• مجھے بخار ہے۔ Mujhe bukhār hai. — I have a fever.
• مجھے کھانسی ہے۔ Mujhe khāṅsī hai. — I have a cough.
• مجھے تکلیف ہے۔ Mujhe taklīf hai. — I am in pain / I have discomfort.

For another person, replace مجھے: اسے بخار ہے (use bukhār hai, “he/she has a fever”) or respectful آپ کو بخار ہے؟ (āp ko bukhār hai?, “Do you have a fever?”).

3. Body part + میں درد ہے

میں (meṅ) means “in” here, while درد (dard) means “pain” or “ache”:

• میرے سر میں درد ہے۔ Mere sar meṅ dard hai. — I have a headache.
• میری کمر میں درد ہے۔ Merī kamar meṅ dard hai. — My back hurts.
• میرے گلے میں درد ہے۔ Mere gale meṅ dard hai. — I have a sore throat.

Notice میرے سر rather than basic میرا سر before میں. The noun phrase has entered the oblique form (the form used before many postpositions, words such as میں that come after a noun). For masculine nouns ending in ـا, the change is easy to hear: میرا گلا becomes میرے گلے میں. Other nouns may not visibly change, but میرا still becomes میرے in this pattern.

A second everyday pattern makes the body part the grammatical subject (the person or thing the sentence is about):

• میرا سر درد کر رہا ہے۔ Merā sar dard kar rahā hai. — My head is hurting.
• میری ٹانگ درد کر رہی ہے۔ Merī ṭāṅg dard kar rahī hai. — My leg is hurting.

Here رہا / رہی agrees with the body part: masculine سر takes رہا, while feminine ٹانگ takes رہی. Beginners can safely rely first on the simpler ... میں درد ہے pattern.

Giving basic instructions

Urdu commands change with social distance and respect. دھونا (dhonā) means “to wash.”

Address	Urdu	Meaning	Typical use
very familiar singular	ہاتھ دھو۔	Wash your hands.	intimate; can sound abrupt
familiar singular	ہاتھ دھوؤ۔	Wash your hands.	friend, child, close equal
respectful	ہاتھ دھوئیں۔	Wash your hands.	adult stranger, patient, polite instruction

Urdu normally omits an explicit word for “your” when the meaning is obvious. ہاتھ دھوئیں is therefore more natural than mechanically inserting آپ کے in every instruction.

Examples in Context

Urdu	Romanization	English	Note
میرا سر درد کر رہا ہے۔	Merā sar dard kar rahā hai.	My head is hurting.	The head is the subject; masculine رہا.
میرے سر میں درد ہے۔	Mere sar meṅ dard hai.	I have a headache.	Literally, “There is pain in my head.”
میری آنکھ میں تکلیف ہے۔	Merī āṅkh meṅ taklīf hai.	My eye is painful / irritated.	آنکھ is feminine.
میرے گلے میں درد ہے۔	Mere gale meṅ dard hai.	I have a sore throat.	گلا changes to oblique گلے.
میرے پاؤں میں درد ہے۔	Mere pāoṅ meṅ dard hai.	My foot hurts.	A common pain pattern.
مجھے بخار ہے۔	Mujhe bukhār hai.	I have a fever.	Urdu uses “to me,” not a verb meaning “have.”
اسے کھانسی ہے۔	Use khāṅsī hai.	He/She has a cough.	اسے can refer to either gender.
وہ بیمار ہے۔	Voh bīmār hai.	He/She is sick.	وہ does not mark gender.
اب میں ٹھیک ہوں۔	Ab maiṅ ṭhīk hūṅ.	I’m fine now.	Useful when describing recovery.
آپ کی طبیعت کیسی ہے؟	Āp kī tabīyat kaisī hai?	How are you feeling?	Polite; literally asks about one’s condition.
میری طبیعت ٹھیک نہیں ہے۔	Merī tabīyat ṭhīk nahīṅ hai.	I’m not feeling well.	A natural general health statement.
ہاتھ دھوؤ۔	Hāth dhoo.	Wash your hands.	Familiar command.
براہِ کرم یہاں بیٹھیں۔	Barāh-e karam yahāṅ baiṭheṅ.	Please sit here.	Polite instruction, useful in a clinic.
مجھے ڈاکٹر کی ضرورت ہے۔	Mujhe ḍākṭar kī zarūrat hai.	I need a doctor.	Literally, “To me there is need of a doctor.”
کیا اب درد کم ہے؟	Kyā ab dard kam hai?	Is the pain less now?	کیا introduces a yes/no question.

Common Mistakes

Copying the English “have” structure

• Wrong: میں بخار رکھتا ہوں۔ — a literal attempt at “I have a fever”
• Right: مجھے بخار ہے۔
• Why: Temporary physical states commonly use مجھے ... ہے, not رکھنا (“to keep/possess”).

Using میرا with every body part

• Wrong: میرا آنکھ میں درد ہے۔
• Right: میری آنکھ میں درد ہے۔
• Why: آنکھ is feminine, so “my” must be میری. The speaker’s gender does not matter.

Missing the oblique form before میں

• Wrong: میرا گلا میں درد ہے۔
• Right: میرے گلے میں درد ہے۔
• Why: Before the postposition میں, masculine میرا گلا changes to میرے گلے.

Making رہا agree with the person experiencing pain

• Wrong: میری ٹانگ درد کر رہا ہے۔
• Right: میری ٹانگ درد کر رہی ہے۔
• Why: In this structure, ٹانگ is the subject. Because it is feminine, use رہی.

Using a familiar command with everyone

• Potentially impolite: ہاتھ دھوؤ۔ to an unfamiliar adult
• Polite: ہاتھ دھوئیں۔
• Why: Urdu marks respect in commands. The concept example is correct for familiar address, but دھوئیں is safer with strangers and in professional settings.

Confusing درد and بیمار

• Wrong: میرا سر بیمار ہے۔ when you mean “My head hurts.”
• Right: میرے سر میں درد ہے۔
• Why: بیمار describes a sick person or living being; درد names pain in a body part.

Usage Notes

طبیعت (tabīyat) means a person’s physical condition, mood, or general feeling, depending on context. آپ کی طبیعت کیسی ہے؟ is a polite, natural way to ask “How are you feeling?” میری طبیعت ٹھیک نہیں ہے avoids naming a specific symptom and is useful when you simply feel unwell.

تکلیف (taklīf) is broader than درد. درد is specifically pain or an ache; تکلیف can mean pain, discomfort, trouble, or difficulty. A clinician may ask کہاں تکلیف ہے؟ (kahāṅ taklīf hai?, “Where does it hurt?”), while a sharp or localized ache is readily described with درد.

Respect matters in health settings. Use آپ and plural-respectful verb forms with an unfamiliar adult, medical professional, or older person. With a close friend or child, تم and familiar commands may be appropriate. Urdu also often leaves out pronouns and possessives when context supplies them, just as ہاتھ دھوئیں naturally means “Wash your hands.”

Romanization varies between books: you may see paon/pāõ for پاؤں and munh for منہ. These are different transcription choices, not necessarily different Urdu words. Treat the Urdu script and audio from native speakers as primary.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master the following points at A1, but they explain forms you will meet later.

Agreement in progressive pain expressions

The expression درد کر رہا ہے contains a progressive construction, meaning an action is in progress. Its participle (a verb form used as part of a larger verb phrase) agrees with the grammatical subject:

• سر درد کر رہا ہے — the head is hurting; masculine singular
• آنکھ درد کر رہی ہے — the eye is hurting; feminine singular
• آنکھیں درد کر رہی ہیں — the eyes are hurting; feminine plural

This is why simply memorizing کر رہا ہے as an unchanging ending eventually causes errors.

Possessives before postpositions

The میرے in میرے سر میں is not necessarily plural. Masculine singular possessives also take this form before a postposition. Compare:

• میرا سر — my head
• میرے سر میں — in my head
• میرا گلا — my throat
• میرے گلے میں — in my throat

This distinction belongs to Urdu’s case system: “case” means that a noun phrase changes form according to its role in the sentence. Recognizing the pattern is more important at first than memorizing the label.

درد ہونا and درد کرنا

Both ... میں درد ہونا (“there is pain in…”) and ... درد کرنا (“… hurts”) occur in everyday Urdu. The first gives learners a stable, widely useful frame and avoids progressive agreement. The second can feel more direct and active. Choice also varies by speaker and context, so do not assume that English has one fixed Urdu translation.

For serious symptoms, precise medical language quickly goes beyond this vocabulary lesson. These patterns help you begin an explanation, but they are not a substitute for professional medical advice or emergency assistance.

Practice Tips

1. Learn each noun as a pair. Say میرا سر, میری آنکھ, میری کمر, and میرے ہاتھ rather than memorizing isolated nouns. This builds gender and agreement into the vocabulary.
2. Use one symptom frame at a time. Point to a body part and make five sentences with ... میں درد ہے. Then separately practise مجھے بخار ہے, مجھے کھانسی ہے, and مجھے تکلیف ہے.
3. Role-play two registers. Ask a friend تم ٹھیک ہو؟ but an unfamiliar adult آپ ٹھیک ہیں؟; give the matching commands ہاتھ دھوؤ and ہاتھ دھوئیں. Hearing the contrast makes politeness forms easier to remember.

Related Concepts

No prerequisite or downstream concepts are specified for this standalone A1 topic. Useful next areas to study in the Urdu grammar course are:

• Personal pronouns and forms of “to be” — to expand patterns such as میں ... ہوں, وہ ... ہے, and آپ ... ہیں.
• Possessives and noun gender — to use میرا, میری, and میرے accurately with more vocabulary.
• Postpositions and the oblique form — to understand changes such as میرا گلا → میرے گلے میں.
• Commands and respectful address — to choose naturally between forms such as دھوؤ and دھوئیں.