sāp + Dative

Saying What Hurts

Level 3

Latvian says "to me hurts the head": Man sāp galva (I have a headache). The person who feels the pain is in the dative (man, tev, viņam, viņai), and the body part is the subject.

How It Works

1. The pattern: dative person + sāp + body part.

  • Man sāp galva. (I have a headache.)
  • Tev sāp vēders? (Does your stomach hurt?)
  • Viņam sāp mugura. (His back hurts.)
  • Bērnam sāp auss. (The child has an earache.)

You do not need a word for my or his: the dative pronoun already shows whose body it is.

2. Asking. Kas tev sāp? (What hurts?) Kur jums sāp? (Where does it hurt?), as a doctor might ask.

3. Other tenses. Past: Vakar man sāpēja galva. (I had a headache yesterday.) Future: Pēc treniņa man sāpēs kājas. (My legs will hurt after training.) Negative: Man vairs nesāp. (It doesn't hurt anymore.)

4. Pain as a noun. Sāpes (pain) is a plural noun: Man ir stipras sāpes. (I am in a lot of pain.) A headache is also galvassāpes: Man ir galvassāpes.

5. Hurt feelings. Sāp can also describe emotional pain: Man sāp sirds (My heart aches), Tas sāp (That hurts).

Examples (6)

  1. Man sāp galva.

    I have a headache.

    Word by Word: To me hurts head.

  2. Viņai sāp kakls.

    She has a sore throat.

    Viņai is dative; kakls is the nominative subject.

  3. Kas tev sāp?

    What hurts?

    Word by Word: What to you hurts?

  4. Pēc skriešanas man sāp kājas.

    My legs hurt after running.

    Sāp stays the same with a plural body part.

  5. Vakar bērnam sāpēja zobs.

    Yesterday the child had a toothache.

    Past tense: sāpēja.

  6. Paldies, man vairs nesāp.

    Thank you, it doesn't hurt anymore.

    Negative: nesāp.

Common Mistakes

  • Making the person the subject, as in English "I have a headache."

    Es sāpu galvu.
    Man sāp galva.

    The body part is what hurts, so it is the subject in the nominative. The person goes in the dative: man.

  • Putting the body part in the accusative.

    Man sāp galvu.
    Man sāp galva.

    Galva is the subject of sāp, not an object, so it stays in the nominative.

  • Using the accusative pronoun for the person.

    Mani sāp mugura.
    Man sāp mugura.

    The person who feels pain is in the dative: man, tev, viņam, viņai. Mani is the accusative (me as an object).

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

sāp + DativeLevel 3Saying What Hurts

Learn This First

Saying what hurts uses the dative.

Words in This Pattern

sāpētviņai