Hello,
I would like to know the difference between having an ache, a sore, and pain in your body. Should we say headache or head-sore, leg-ache, leg-sore, or even leg-pain?
Many thanks in advance.
-Salivan
logical quesition
I am looking forward to the answar too!!!
Having:
a headache.
a pain in the leg.
However, a sore head and a sore leg seem possible too:
Thanks, but my question is this that how should I have to recognize the usage of them?
I can say my feet sore, but why maybe not I have a feet-ache? What is the connotation behind them?
Good questions! What I can share with you is, generally, disease names and usage are a difficult subject in English study, and the best way to get hold of them may be, unfortunately, getting familiar with them one by one, IMO.
Hello All,
I am neither an English teacher nor a native. Although, I am familiar and have experienced with these words in my daily practice as a physician for more than decades, this is just my interpretation; still, I could be wrong. Please have a second opinion.
Ache – a continuous suffering or a dull pain.
Pain – a sharp, sporadic, or sudden suffering or stabbing.
Sore – a pain to the touch, swallow, or movement and usually mild.
Some Examples:
Headache is one of the common symptoms of hypertension. Headache means cephalgia in medical terminology.
I feel pain in my head right after that collision.
A sore throat can make you miserable because of the painful swallowing, swelling and drying throat. Sore throat is known medically as pharyngitis.
Stomach ache is usually tied with nausea and just a sick stomach or discomfort feeling.
Stomach pain is a burning sensation, sharp, or stabbing pain like an ulcer.
Therefore, stomach pain is more serious than stomach ache.
You may experience muscle sore when you are pushing yourself lift weights a little more than normal but you do not need to stop your work.
It will develop a muscle ache if you keep going physically active. Although you have already felt discomfort in this muscle ache level and probably better to stop, you still can continue to work.
If you do not pay attention to the serious hurt of what your body telling you, then you will fall into a muscle pain. It means something wrong, no more work.
Muscle pain is known medically as myalgia.
Thank you for bringing these up. Please let me know if I have done any mistakes.
Lina
Very helpful and informative, Lina! I like it. Actually disease names are always a headache of mine.
That sounds fine to me Lina.
thanks Lina ! So helpful.
Thank you so much for letting me know whether my description is an acceptable English or not.
What about this? Please advice as necessary.
You can say feet sore and even feet ache, nothing odds with that. It is just a matter of degree of pain.
You may experience feet sore by simply and ordinary activity, for example standing, walking, or running, but it is just a discomfort feeling which you can continue standing, walking, or running.
You can say feet ache if you thing your feet is really wrong so you stop standing, walking, or running, but an hour later you are totally fine.
If the feet ache goes day and night where you hardly stand, walk, or run and threat your job performance, your activities, and almost everything, you may say it as a foot pain.
Regarding time, sore-ache-pain can also be categorized as an acute and chronic matter.
I do appreciate your contributions. I learn a lot.
Lina
That’s about the only mistake that caught my attention :=)
Hi Lina,
You need to be careful about what part of speech the words are. I’ve added some suggestions for improvement inside the quotes.
The word ‘sore’ is an adjective in the sentence above, and the word ‘ache’ is a verb.
In the sentence above, the word ‘sore’ is an adjective. If you have a sore on one of your feet, then you have a blister or a cut on it, for example.
The word ‘ache’ is used as a verb here.
The word ‘ache’ is used as a noun in the sentence above.
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[size=75]“An agent is a person who is sore because an actor gets 90% of what they make.” ~ Elton John[/size]
Hi Our Tort System and Esl_Expert,
Thank you so much for letting me know my mistakes and correcting them. 
I learn a lot from you.
Lina
Many thanks my friends.
Lina, ESL_Expert, Thanks.