Aches

BBC Learning English Ask about English 23rd March 2010 pain / ache / ill / sick / hurt
A question from Sophal in Cambodia: What is the difference between the words pain, ill, ache, sick and hurt?Amy Lightfoot answers: Hello Sophal. I can see how you would easily confuse these words as they have quite similar meanings and uses, and to make it even more interesting, one of the words can beused differently in British English and American English. Let’s have a look at them.

PAIN and ACHE

Both of these words are most commonly used as nouns. They refer to unpleasant sensations that youfeel in your body, although they are slightly different feelings. A pain is usually used to refer to a kind of sharp discomfort that is difficult to ignore. For example:

Yesterday I suddenly felt alot of pain in my stomach. I was taken to hospital where they discovered I had appendicitis.

Ache is similar to pain, but it usually is used to refer to a duller kind of discomfort that maycontinue for longer than a pain might. Common examples are:

Headache, stomach ache, backache, heart ache.

Note that heartache is used to refer to a kind of emotional pain, for example if you are inlove with someone and they are not treating you well you can say He is causing me a lot of heartache.

Ask about English bbclearningenglish.com

© British Broadcasting Corporation 2010 Page 1 of 4Less commonly, both pain and ache can be used as verbs. Pain in this form means to cause someone unhappiness. Note that you cannot use pain in the progressive or continuous form in standard UK orUS English.

It pains me to think of you being so unhappy with your life – meaning it makes me feel unhappy that you are so sad.

You can also use ache as a verb. Unlike pain, ache can be used inthe progressive form. For example:

My back is really aching. I wish my leg would stop hurting, it really aches.

Interestingly, you can also use the expression ‘aches and pains’ to refer to a...