Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Me duele la muñeca.

Because doler works like gustar: the person experiencing the pain is an indirect object. Me means to me or for me, so me duele literally means “it causes pain to me,” i.e. “it hurts me.”

Why is the verb duele in third person singular?

Spanish conjugates doler to agree with the thing that hurts (the subject), not with the person. Here the subject is la muñeca (singular), so we use duele. If both wrists hurt, you’d say Me duelen las muñecas.

What is the subject of Me duele la muñeca?

The subject is la muñeca. Even though in English we think “I hurt,” in Spanish the wrist is the grammatical subject doing the “hurting” and the person is the indirect object (me).

Why is it la muñeca and not mi muñeca?

With body parts (and clothing), Spanish usually uses the definite article (el/la/los/las) instead of a possessive adjective. The indirect object pronoun (me) already shows possession, so you say la muñeca, not mi muñeca.

Can I say La muñeca me duele instead?