O meu olho dói.

My eye hurts.

Breakdown of O meu olho dói.

• meu: my
• o olho: the eye
• doer: to hurt

Questions & Answers about O meu olho dói.

Why is it O meu olho and not just meu olho?

In European Portuguese, possessives (meu, tua, seu etc.) are usually used with a definite article:

• o meu olho = my eye
• a minha mão = my hand
• os meus olhos = my eyes

Leaving out the article (meu olho) is possible but in Portugal it tends to sound either poetic, very emphatic, or influenced by Brazilian usage. In everyday European Portuguese, o meu / a minha / os meus / as minhas is the default.

Could I say just O olho dói to mean “My eye hurts”?

Grammatically yes, but it wouldn’t naturally mean “my eye”. It would sound like:

• O olho dói. – The eye hurts. (which eye? whose eye?)

To mean “my eye hurts” without the possessive, European Portuguese normally uses an indirect object pronoun:

• Dói-me o olho. – literally Hurts-me the eye → My eye hurts.

Here me already shows whose eye it is, so you don’t need meu.

What’s the difference between O meu olho dói and Dói-me o olho?

Both can mean “My eye hurts”, but there’s a nuance:

• Dói-me o olho. – very typical, especially for body parts. Structure:
  doer (3rd person) + me (to me) + o olho (the eye).
  This is usually the most idiomatic way in European Portuguese.

• O meu olho dói. – also correct, more like English, explicitly saying “my eye”.
  It can sound a bit more descriptive or emphatic about my eye.

In practice, for pain in a body part, many natives prefer Dói-me o olho.

Why is it meu and not minha?

Possessive adjectives in Portuguese agree with the thing owned, not with the owner:

• olho is masculine singular → meu olho
• mão is feminine singular → minha mão
• olhos is masculine plural → meus olhos
• mãos is feminine plural → minhas mãos

So you say o meu olho, not a minha olho or o minha olho.

How do I say “My eyes hurt”?

You need plural for both the noun and the verb:

• Os meus olhos doem. – My eyes hurt.

Or, using the more typical structure with a pronoun:

• Doem-me os olhos. – literally Hurt-me the eyes → My eyes hurt.

Note the verb:

• dói – singular: O olho dói.
• doem – plural: Os olhos doem.

What is the infinitive of dói, and how is it conjugated here?

The infinitive is doer (to hurt).

In O meu olho dói, dói is:

• 3rd person singular, present indicative of doer.

For reference:

• (ele) dói – it hurts
• (eles) doem – they hurt

With body parts you almost always see the 3rd person forms: dói / doem.

Why does dói have an accent on the ó?

The acute accent (´) does two things here:

1. Shows the stressed syllable: dói is one syllable with a stressed diphthong /ɔj/.
2. Marks an open “ó” sound (like British “not”), not a closed “ô”.

Without the accent, doi would be read differently (and doesn’t exist as a normal word). The accent tells you both where and how to pronounce the vowel.

How do I pronounce olho and how is it different from óleo or olha?

• olho (eye) – /ˈo.ʎu/

  • lh is a palatal “L”, similar to Italian “gli” or the “lli” in English “million”.
  • Two syllables: o-lho.

• óleo (oil) – /ˈɔ.lju/

  • Different vowel in the first syllable and a different stress pattern.

• olha (look!, he/she looks) – /ˈɔ.ʎɐ/

  • Ends with a schwa-like sound /ɐ/.

So olho and olha are clearly different words; don’t pronounce lh as a simple English “l”.

Could I say O meu olho está a doer instead of O meu olho dói?

You can, but it changes the feel a bit:

• O meu olho dói. – neutral, standard way to say “My eye hurts.”
• O meu olho está a doer. – literally “My eye is hurting.”
  Sounds more like a process that is happening now, or starting now.

In European Portuguese, for pain, dói is much more common and natural than está a doer.

Is there a difference between European and Brazilian Portuguese for this sentence?

Yes, mostly in the article and pronoun usage:

• In Brazil, it’s very common to drop the article:
  
  • Meu olho dói. (more natural in Brazil than O meu olho dói.)
• The structure with pronoun is also common in both:
  
  • Dói-me o olho. (EP – pronoun after verb in this context)
  • O olho me dói. / Meu olho dói. (BP – more flexibility with pronoun position)

So O meu olho dói. sounds more “European”, while Meu olho dói. sounds more “Brazilian”.

What’s the difference between using doer and using the noun dor, like Tenho dor no olho?

Two common ways to talk about pain:

1. With doer (verb):

   • O meu olho dói. / Dói-me o olho. – literally “My eye hurts.”

2. With dor (noun):

   • Tenho dor no olho. – I have pain in my eye.
   • Tenho dores nos olhos. – I have pains in my eyes / My eyes are aching.

Both are correct. Using doer is usually shorter and more colloquial; ter dor(es) can sound a bit more formal or clinical.

Do I need the pronoun me as well, like O meu olho dói-me?

You can say:

• O meu olho dói. – My eye hurts.
• O meu olho dói-me. – literally My eye hurts me.

Both are grammatical in European Portuguese. The version with -me emphasizes that it hurts me, but because meu already shows it belongs to you, -me is not strictly necessary.

In practice:

• With the possessive: O meu olho dói. (no pronoun is fine)
• Without the possessive: Dói-me o olho. (the pronoun is then essential to show it’s your eye).