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Me lastimé el tobillo y ahora camino con una muleta prestada.

Me lastimé el tobillo y ahora camino con una muleta prestada.
I hurt my ankle and now I walk with a borrowed crutch.
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Questions & Answers about Me lastimé el tobillo y ahora camino con una muleta prestada.

Why does the sentence start with me in Me lastimé el tobillo?

Me is a pronoun that marks who is affected by the action. With injuries in Spanish, it’s very common to use this pattern:
[indirect object pronoun] + verb + body part
So Me lastimé el tobillo is literally like “I hurt the ankle (on me),” meaning “I hurt my ankle.”

Is lastimé reflexive? What is the base verb here?

The base verb is lastimar = “to hurt / to injure.”
In Me lastimé, it’s being used in a “self-affected” way (similar to reflexive usage), because the injury happened to you. You’ll often see it listed as lastimarse when it means “to get hurt.”

Why is there an accent in lastimé?

Lastimé is the preterite (simple past) yo form: yo lastimé = “I hurt / I injured.”
In Spanish, these -é endings in the preterite carry an accent to mark the stress: las-ti-MÉ.

Why does it say el tobillo instead of mi tobillo?

Spanish usually uses the definite article (el / la) with body parts when it’s already clear whose body part it is, especially when a pronoun like me is present.
So Me lastimé el tobillo is the natural Spanish way to say “I hurt my ankle.”

Can I say Me lastimé mi tobillo?

Grammatically, yes, but it usually sounds unnecessary or overly explicit.
Mi tobillo might be used for contrast or emphasis (for example, “not yours”):

  • Me lastimé mi tobillo, no el tuyo.
    In normal speech, Me lastimé el tobillo is preferred.
Why is the past tense preterite here and not imperfect?

Me lastimé describes a completed event (a specific injury that happened). That’s why Spanish typically uses the preterite.
The imperfect (me lastimaba) would suggest an ongoing/repeated situation (“I used to hurt my ankle” / “my ankle was hurting”), which doesn’t fit as well here.

Why is camino in the present tense? Would estoy caminando also work?

Ahora camino... uses the present to describe your current situation/state: “now I walk / now I’m walking (these days).”
Ahora estoy caminando... emphasizes what you are doing right at this moment. Both can work, but camino often sounds more like “this is how I’m getting around now.”

What does caminar con mean here?

Caminar con means “to walk with / using.”
So camino con una muleta = “I walk using a crutch.”

Why is it una muleta (feminine) and not un muleta?

Muleta is a feminine noun, so it takes feminine articles and adjectives:

  • una muleta
  • una muleta prestada (adjective also feminine)
What’s the role of prestada and why does it go after the noun?

Prestada means “borrowed” and agrees with muleta (feminine singular).
In Spanish, descriptive adjectives commonly come after the noun, so una muleta prestada is the neutral, normal order. Putting it before (una prestada muleta) is unusual and would sound marked/stylistic.

How would the sentence change if I’m using two crutches?

You’d make it plural:

  • Me lastimé el tobillo y ahora camino con muletas prestadas.
    You can also say con unas muletas prestadas, but often the article is dropped in plural after con.
How is ll pronounced in tobillo in Latin America?

In most of Latin America, ll is pronounced like a y sound (or a soft “j” sound in some regions).
So tobillo is often pronounced roughly like to-BEE-yo (with Spanish vowels), though it varies by country and accent.