ItalianA2Lesson 4.1
🇮🇹 Italian A2 · Lesson 4.1

Mi fa male… — The body & symptoms

Name parts of the body and say what hurts.

Listen first

A man phones a friend because he feels unwell.

🔊 Real audio — spoken by your browser in Italian. Tap any word below to hear it.
New vocabulary — tap to hear
la testathe head 🔊
lo stomacothe stomach 🔊
la golathe throat 🔊
mi fa maleit hurts (me) 🔊
la febbrethe fever 🔊
il raffreddorethe cold 🔊

Now say it

Tap the phrase to hear it, then press the mic and repeat — we score your pronunciation for real (Chrome/Edge).

« Oggi non sto bene: mi fa male la testa e ho un po' di febbre. » 🔊
I'm not well today: my head hurts and I have a slight fever.
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Pronunciation

Live conversation lab

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Read the dialogue

Tap any line to hear it. Grammar appears in context, never as a dry rule.

Ciao Luca, come stai? Hai una brutta voce. 🔊Hi Luca, how are you? You sound terrible.
Non sto bene. Mi fa male la gola e ho un po' di febbre. 🔊I'm not well. My throat hurts and I have a slight fever.
Mi dispiace. Ti fanno male anche la testa e le ossa? 🔊I'm sorry. Do your head and bones hurt too?
Sì, mi fa male tutto. Credo di avere il raffreddore. 🔊Yes, everything hurts. I think I have a cold.
Grammar in focus · fare male (to hurt)

To say what hurts, use an indirect pronoun + fare male, and the verb agrees with the body part, not with you: mi fa male la testa (singular → fa), mi fanno male i piedi (plural → fanno). Change the pronoun for the person: ti fa male (you), gli/le fa male (him/her), Le fa male (formal). For illness use avere: ho la febbre, ho il raffreddore, ho mal di gola.

Write it yourself

Write 3 sentences describing how you feel when you have a cold.

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Tip for this task
Bene! Use « mi fa male » for one part and « mi fanno male » for several, e.g. « Mi fanno male le orecchie. »

Quick check

An adaptive quiz confirms you've got it and schedules the right words for review.

1. “My feet hurt” (i piedi) is…
2. Which means “I have a fever”?
3. “La gola” is the…
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