Breakdown of Me duele el brazo después de nadar.
después de
after
me
me
nadar
to swim
doler
to hurt
el brazo
the arm
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Spanish grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Me duele el brazo después de nadar.
Why do we say me duele el brazo instead of duele mi brazo?
In Spanish, doler works like gustar: the thing that causes pain (here, el brazo) is the subject, and the person who feels it is marked by an indirect object pronoun (me = “to me”). Literally it’s “the arm hurts me.” If you said duele mi brazo, you’d be treating mi brazo as an object, which doesn’t fit this structure.
What kind of verb is doler, and why is it conjugated as duele here?
Doler is an impersonal verb that takes an indirect object. It agrees in number with the thing causing pain. Since el brazo is singular, you use the third-person singular form duele. If you had more than one arm (hypothetically!), you’d say me duelen los brazos.
Why is there a me at the beginning of the sentence?
Me is the indirect object pronoun for first person (“to me” or “for me”). It tells us who is experiencing the pain. In Spanish, indirect object pronouns normally come before the verb.
Why do we use el brazo (definite article) instead of mi brazo?
With body parts and articles, Spanish usually drops the possessive adjective when context makes ownership clear. Here, me already shows it’s my arm, so you say el brazo instead of mi brazo. You could use mi brazo for extra emphasis, but it’s redundant.
Why is it después de nadar (infinitive) and not después de nadando (gerund)?
After time expressions like después de, you always follow with an infinitive when referring to an action (e.g. después de comer, después de dormir). The gerund (nadando) describes an action in progress and can’t directly follow después de.
Can I say El brazo me duele después de nadar instead? Is that word order okay?
Yes, El brazo me duele después de nadar is grammatically correct. Spanish word order is flexible. Starting with Me duele is simply more common and puts the focus on your experience, while starting with El brazo emphasizes the arm.
What’s the difference between Me duele el brazo and Me lastimé el brazo nadando?
- Me duele el brazo = “My arm hurts” (you’re describing the sensation of pain).
- Me lastimé el brazo nadando = “I injured/my arm got hurt while swimming” (you’re describing the event of getting hurt).
What about Tengo dolor en el brazo – is that the same?
Both express pain, but:
- Me duele el brazo is more colloquial and common in everyday speech.
- Tengo dolor en el brazo sounds a bit more formal or clinical (you’re literally saying “I have pain in my arm”).
How would I ask “Does your arm hurt after swimming?” in Spanish?
Use the second-person pronoun te as the indirect object:
¿Te duele el brazo después de nadar?
How do I say “My arm hurt yesterday after swimming”?
Switch duele to the preterite dolió and add ayer:
Me dolió el brazo ayer después de nadar.