Irish puts an illness, a feeling or a state ON a person with the preposition ar, which merges with the pronoun to give orm, ort, air, uirthi, orainn, oraibh, orthu. So you never literally have a cold - the cold is on you. The same pattern carries hunger, thirst, fear and joy: tá ocras orm, tá eagla air.
Examples
- Tá slaghdán orm ó mhaidin.
- I have had a cold since this morning.
- Tá tinneas cinn ar mo dheirfiúr inniu.
- My sister has a headache today.
- An bhfuil pian ort fós?
- Are you still in pain?
The mistake to avoid
Reaching for agam, which says you possess a thing: "tá slaghdán agam" sounds like you own a cold rather than suffer from one.
Where this fits in
Sláinte agus an Corp, Irish Gaelic A2: Say how you feel, name the parts of the body, and get through a visit to the doctor or the pharmacy.