「風邪をひく」and「熱が出る」: Natural Japanese Collocations for Talking About Health

September 24, 2026 07:00

更新: September 20, 2026 07:24

「風邪をひく」and「熱が出る」: Natural Japanese Collocations for Talking About Health

3分整理 N2 N3 〜と〜の違い

「風邪になる」or「風邪をひく」— Which Sounds Natural?

Imagine that you want to tell a Japanese friend that you caught a cold yesterday.

Which sentence would you choose?

「昨日から風邪になりました。」
I became a cold yesterday.
「昨日から風邪をひきました。」
I caught a cold yesterday.

The second sentence, 「昨日から風邪をひきました」, is the natural choice.

Now look at another pair.

「朝から熱になりました。」
I became a fever this morning.
「朝から熱が出ました。」
I developed a fever this morning.

Again, the second sentence is natural Japanese.

You may already know the words 「風邪」 (kaze / cold) and 「熱」 (netsu / fever). The difficulty is choosing the verb that naturally goes with each noun.

This is a common problem for intermediate Japanese learners: you understand every individual word, but the combination still sounds strange.

Why Do Learners Want to Say 「風邪になる」?

One reason is that learners naturally build new sentences from patterns they already know.

For example, these are all correct:

「病気になる」
to become ill
「元気になる」
to get well / become healthy
「医者になる」
to become a doctor

After learning 「病気になる」, it is easy to think:

If 「病気になる」 is correct, then 「風邪になる」 should also work.

But Japanese does not always use the same verb with nouns that have similar meanings.

With 「病気」, you can say:

「病気になる」
to become ill

But with 「風邪」, the normal expression is:

「風邪をひく」
kaze o hiku / to catch a cold

This is why learning vocabulary one word at a time is not always enough.

Instead of memorizing 「風邪」 and 「ひく」 separately, learn the whole expression:

「風邪をひく」 (kaze o hiku / to catch a cold)

This kind of natural word combination is called a collocation.

Learn 「風邪をひく」as One Unit

The verb 「ひく」 has several meanings in Japanese.

For example:

「ドアを引く」
doa o hiku / to pull a door
「線を引く」
sen o hiku / to draw a line
「辞書を引く」
jisho o hiku / to look something up in a dictionary
「風邪をひく」
kaze o hiku / to catch a cold

The meaning of 「ひく」 in 「風邪をひく」 is quite different from physically pulling something.

So instead of asking yourself, “Why does Japanese use the verb ‘pull’ for a cold?”, it is much more useful to remember:

「風邪」 + 「ひく」 = 「風邪をひく」

Natural Examples

「昨日、風邪をひきました。」
I caught a cold yesterday.
「寒い日に外にいたので、風邪をひいてしまいました。」
I stayed outside on a cold day and ended up catching a cold.
「風邪をひかないように、暖かくしてください。」
Keep yourself warm so that you do not catch a cold.
「彼は風邪をひいて、学校を休みました。」
He caught a cold and stayed home from school.

The following expressions are normally unnatural:

Unnatural: 「風邪をする」
Unnatural: 「風邪になる」

Even though 「病気になる」 is correct, 「風邪」 normally combines with 「ひく」.

Why Do We Say 「熱が出る」?

Now let’s look at 「熱」 (netsu / fever).

When your body temperature rises because you are ill, Japanese commonly uses:

「熱が出る」 (netsu ga deru / to develop a fever)

For example:

「夜になって熱が出ました。」
I developed a fever in the evening.
「風邪をひいて、38度の熱が出ました。」
I caught a cold and developed a fever of 38°C.
「朝から熱が出ているので、今日は休みます。」
I have had a fever since this morning, so I am taking the day off.

The important point is that Japanese normally says 「熱が出る」, not 「熱になる」.

The verb 「出る」 (deru / to come out, appear) is frequently used for symptoms that appear in the body.

For example:

「熱が出る」
netsu ga deru / to develop a fever
「咳が出る」
seki ga deru / to cough, to have a cough
「鼻水が出る」
hanamizu ga deru / to have a runny nose
「症状が出る」
shōjō ga deru / symptoms appear

Here, 「出る」 carries the idea that a condition or symptom becomes noticeable or appears.

Once you understand this pattern, expressions such as 「咳が出る」 and 「症状が出る」 become easier to remember too.

What Is the Difference Between 「熱が出る」and「熱を出す」?

Here is another pair that often confuses learners:

「熱が出る」
netsu ga deru
「熱を出す」
netsu o dasu

Both are natural Japanese, but they are used slightly differently.

「熱が出る」

This expression describes the condition itself: a fever appears or develops.

「昨日の夜から熱が出ています。」
I have had a fever since last night.
「風邪をひくと、よく熱が出ます。」
I often get a fever when I catch a cold.
「急に熱が出たので、病院へ行きました。」
I suddenly developed a fever, so I went to the hospital.

It is especially useful when talking directly about your own condition.

「熱を出す」

This expression often puts the person experiencing the fever in the subject position.

It is particularly common when talking about children.

「子どもが急に熱を出しました。」
My child suddenly developed a fever.
「息子が熱を出したので、会社を休みました。」
My son came down with a fever, so I took the day off work.
「旅行の前日に娘が熱を出してしまいました。」
My daughter came down with a fever the day before our trip.

Do not interpret 「出す」 here as meaning that someone deliberately “produced” a fever.

For a simple description of your own condition, 「熱が出ました」 is a very useful basic expression to remember.

Learn Health Vocabulary as Noun + Verb Combinations

Japanese has many fixed or highly natural combinations for talking about health.

Try learning these as complete chunks:

「風邪をひく」
kaze o hiku / to catch a cold
「熱が出る」
netsu ga deru / to develop a fever
「咳が出る」
seki ga deru / to have a cough
「鼻水が出る」
hanamizu ga deru / to have a runny nose
「頭が痛い」
atama ga itai / to have a headache
「のどが痛い」
nodo ga itai / to have a sore throat
「体調を崩す」
taichō o kuzusu / to become unwell
「病気になる」
byōki ni naru / to become ill
「病気にかかる」
byōki ni kakaru / to contract an illness
「熱が下がる」
netsu ga sagaru / for a fever to go down
「風邪が治る」
kaze ga naoru / to recover from a cold

If you memorize only individual nouns, you may hesitate when speaking:

“Does 「風邪」 go with 「なる」 or 「する」?”

“Should I use 「なる」 or 「出る」 with 「熱」?”

Learning the complete combinations avoids this problem.

「風邪をひく」

「熱が出る」

「熱が下がる」

「風邪が治る」

These chunks are also extremely useful when preparing for JLPT vocabulary questions.

How About 「病気になる」and「病気にかかる」?

Two related expressions are:

「病気になる」 (byōki ni naru / to become ill)
「病気にかかる」 (byōki ni kakaru / to contract an illness)

「病気になる」 is a very general expression.

「父が病気になりました。」
My father became ill.
「病気にならないように、健康に気をつけています。」
I take care of my health so that I do not become ill.

「病気にかかる」 is often used when talking about contracting or developing a particular disease.

「インフルエンザにかかりました。」
I caught influenza.
「感染症にかからないように注意してください。」
Please take care not to contract an infectious disease.

For the common cold, however, everyday Japanese normally uses:

「風邪をひく」

The key lesson is that you cannot simply choose one verb and use it with every health-related noun.

Learn the natural combination for each expression.

Check Your Feel for Natural Japanese

Everyday Life

「昨日から風邪をひいています。」
I have had a cold since yesterday.
「朝起きたら、少し熱が出ていました。」
When I woke up this morning, I had a slight fever.
「熱は下がりましたが、まだ咳が出ます。」
My fever has gone down, but I am still coughing.

School

「田中さんは風邪をひいたので、今日は学校を休みました。」
Tanaka caught a cold, so he stayed home from school today.
「昨日の夜に熱が出ましたが、今朝はもう下がりました。」
I developed a fever last night, but it had already gone down by this morning.
「最近、クラスで風邪をひいている人が増えています。」
Recently, more people in the class have been catching colds.

Work

「風邪をひいてしまったので、今日は在宅で仕事をします。」
I have caught a cold, so I will work from home today.
「昨夜から熱が出ているため、午前中に病院へ行きます。」
I have had a fever since last night, so I will go to the hospital this morning.
「体調を崩さないように、忙しいときこそ十分に休んでください。」
Make sure you get enough rest, especially when you are busy, so that you do not become unwell.

Family

「子どもが急に熱を出したので、病院に連れて行きました。」
My child suddenly developed a fever, so I took them to the hospital.
「妻は風邪をひいて、昨日から寝ています。」
My wife caught a cold and has been resting in bed since yesterday.
「熱が下がったからといって、すぐに無理をしないほうがいいですよ。」
Just because your fever has gone down does not mean you should push yourself right away.

Can You Fix These Unnatural Sentences?

The meaning of the following sentences may be understandable, but the Japanese combinations are unnatural.

Unnatural: 「昨日、風邪になりました。」
Natural: 「昨日、風邪をひきました。」
I caught a cold yesterday.
Unnatural: 「朝から熱になりました。」
Natural: 「朝から熱が出ました。」
I developed a fever this morning.
Unnatural: 「風邪が出たので学校を休みました。」
Natural: 「風邪をひいたので学校を休みました。」
I caught a cold, so I stayed home from school.
Unnatural: 「熱をひきました。」
Natural: 「熱が出ました。」
I developed a fever.

「風邪」 and 「熱」 are both related to health, but they combine with different verbs.

That is exactly why learning collocations is so important.

How Could This Appear on the JLPT?

On the JLPT, knowing the dictionary meaning of every word is not always enough.

Consider this original practice question.

Question 1

「昨日から風邪を（　　　）ので、今日は家で休みます。」

I caught a cold yesterday, so I will stay home today.

出した
なった
ひいた
作った

The most natural answer is:

「ひいた」

When you see 「風邪」, you should be able to recall the combination 「風邪をひく」.

Question 2

「朝から熱が（　　　）ので、病院へ行きました。」

I developed a fever this morning, so I went to the hospital.

出た
ひいた
なった
作った

The natural answer is:

「出た」

「熱」 naturally combines with 「出る」.

Question 3

「昨日は38度ありましたが、今朝は熱が（　　　）。」

My temperature was 38°C yesterday, but my fever went down this morning.

治りました
下がりました
ひきました
終わりました

The natural answer is:

「下がりました」

Remember:

「風邪が治る」
a cold gets better
「熱が下がる」
a fever goes down

On the JLPT, the important question is not simply:

“Can I understand what this sentence means?”

Instead, ask yourself:

“Which combination sounds most natural in Japanese?”

Rather than translating every verb separately, recall the noun and verb as one familiar chunk.

What to Remember Today

Learn 「風邪をひく」 as one complete expression.
Use 「熱が出る」 as the basic expression for developing a fever.
Symptoms often appear with 「出る」, as in 「咳が出る」 and 「鼻水が出る」.
Learning noun + verb combinations makes JLPT choices much easier to recognize.

Understanding Is Only the First Step

Right after reading an explanation, expressions such as 「風邪をひく」 and 「熱が出る」 may seem easy.

But on the JLPT, several similar-looking choices may appear at the same time.

That is when you need more than knowledge. You need to recognize the natural expression quickly.

RJT (Rapid Japanese Training) helps you practice Japanese through vocabulary, grammar, reading, and listening questions using a simple learning cycle: