Meu dedo dói, então vou colocar gelo agora.

Because in Portuguese, doer works like to hurt in My finger hurts.

The thing that hurts is the grammatical subject:

• Meu dedo dói = My finger hurts
• literally: My finger hurts

You do not say eu doo meu dedo for this meaning. That would treat I as the subject of hurt, which is not how Portuguese normally expresses this idea.

A very common alternative is:

• Estou com dor no dedo = I have pain in my finger / My finger hurts

Dói is the present-tense form of the verb doer.

Here, the subject is meu dedo, which is third person singular, so the verb becomes:

• meu dedo dói

A few examples:

• Meu braço dói = My arm hurts
• Minha cabeça dói = My head hurts
• Meus dedos doem = My fingers hurt

So:

• singular subject → dói
• plural subject → doem

Both can be used, and both are natural.

• Meu dedo dói = My finger hurts
• Meu dedo está doendo = My finger is hurting

In Brazilian Portuguese, está doendo often sounds a little more immediate or ongoing, while dói can sound more general or neutral.

For this sentence, both are fine:

• Meu dedo dói, então vou colocar gelo agora.
• Meu dedo está doendo, então vou colocar gelo agora.

In everyday speech, many Brazilians might prefer está doendo in this situation, but dói is absolutely correct.

In Brazilian Portuguese, ir + infinitive is extremely common for the future, especially in speech.

So:

• vou colocar = I’m going to put / I’ll put

This is often more natural in conversation than the simple future:

• colocarei

Both are correct, but they feel different:

• vou colocar gelo agora = very common, natural spoken Brazilian Portuguese
• colocarei gelo agora = correct, but more formal or less conversational

Literally, it means to put ice.

In natural English, you would probably say:

• put ice on it
• apply ice
• ice it

In Portuguese, colocar gelo is a normal and natural way to say this.

You could also hear:

• pôr gelo = to put ice
• colocar gelo no dedo = to put ice on the finger

The sentence leaves out no dedo because it is obvious from context.

Because gelo here is being used in a general, uncountable way, like ice in English.

So:

• vou colocar gelo = I’m going to put ice on it

You could make it more specific if you want:

• vou colocar um pouco de gelo = I’m going to put a little ice
• vou colocar o gelo = I’m going to put the ice

But in this sentence, just gelo sounds natural.

In Brazilian Portuguese, possessives can appear with or without the definite article.

So both are possible:

• meu dedo
• o meu dedo

In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, meu dedo dói sounds completely natural.

Very roughly:

• meu dedo = very common, simple, direct
• o meu dedo = also correct, sometimes a little more marked or emphatic depending on context

For a learner, it is good to know that both exist.

Here, então means so or therefore.

It connects the two ideas:

• Meu dedo dói = My finger hurts
• então vou colocar gelo agora = so I’m going to put ice on it now

It shows cause and result.

Other examples:

• Estou cansado, então vou dormir. = I’m tired, so I’m going to sleep.
• Está chovendo, então não vou sair. = It’s raining, so I’m not going out.

Not strictly. It adds the idea of now / right now.

Compare:

• vou colocar gelo = I’m going to put ice on it
• vou colocar gelo agora = I’m going to put ice on it now

So agora makes the action feel more immediate.

You could also move it:

• Agora vou colocar gelo.
• Vou colocar gelo agora.

Both are natural.

Yes. Dedo can refer to both a finger and a toe.

Usually context makes it clear. If you want to be more specific, you can say:

• dedo da mão = finger
• dedo do pé = toe

So in this sentence, meu dedo dói could technically mean my finger hurts or my toe hurts, but most learners are often shown the intended meaning by context or translation.

Dói is pronounced roughly like DOY, with the stress on that syllable.

The accent mark in dói helps show the stressed vowel pattern and distinguishes the written form correctly. For learners, the important practical point is:

• dói sounds like one stressed syllable, roughly doy

Examples with similar sound patterns:

• herói
• céu is different, but also shows how accents help with pronunciation and stress

You do need to write the accent: dói, not doi.

Yes, absolutely. That is very common and natural.

Compare:

• Meu dedo dói.
• Estou com dor no dedo.

Both mean something like My finger hurts.

The second structure is extremely common in Portuguese for pain:

• Estou com dor de cabeça. = I have a headache.
• Estou com dor nas costas. = My back hurts.
• Estou com dor no dedo. = My finger hurts.

So if you are speaking naturally, this is a very useful alternative to learn.

Sometimes, but the meaning changes a little.

• Meu dedo dói = My finger hurts
• O dedo dói = The finger hurts

If you are already talking about your own finger, people may understand it anyway, but meu dedo is clearer and more natural if you want to say it is your finger.

Portuguese often uses body-part nouns with possessives or with prepositional phrases depending on the structure:

• Meu dedo dói.
• Estou com dor no dedo.

Both are common, but they are built differently.