¿Dónde te duele?
To ask "Where does it hurt?" in Spanish, say ¿Dónde te duele?
Doctors, nurses and parents ask this to find where someone feels pain.
What does it mean word for word?
Dónde means where, te means to you and duele means hurts.
How does it change in a sentence?
The verb meaning to hurt works like the verb meaning to like, so the person feeling the pain is the indirect object te. For someone you address formally, use le in place of te.
Did you know?
- In Spanish, you do not say 'my arm hurts', but rather me duele el brazo, which literally means 'the arm hurts me'. The body part is treated as the subject causing the pain, not the person experiencing it.
- While duele is used for physical pain, Spanish uses the word duele for emotional heartbreak too. A person might say me duele el corazón to describe grief or a broken heart rather than a medical condition.
- The verb doler is a 'stem-changing' verb, where the 'o' changes to 'ue' in the present tense. This is why the root dol- in dolor becomes duele when spoken.
Example conversation
Alejandro is helping Elena after she falls down.
- Alejandro¿Estás bien? ¿Dónde te duele?Are you okay? Where does it hurt?
- ElenaMe duele mucho la rodilla.My knee hurts a lot.
- AlejandroDéjame ver si es grave.Let me see if it is serious.
- ElenaGracias, Alejandro, eres muy amable.Thanks, Alejandro, you are very kind.
