Me duele el pecho cuando corro, pero mi médica dice que mis pulmones están bien.

My chest hurts when I run, but my doctor says my lungs are fine.

Breakdown of Me duele el pecho cuando corro, pero mi médica dice que mis pulmones están bien.

• yo: I
• mi: my
• estar: to be
• cuando: when

Questions & Answers about Me duele el pecho cuando corro, pero mi médica dice que mis pulmones están bien.

Why is it Me duele el pecho and not Mi pecho duele?

Spanish normally uses the verb doler in a special structure, similar to gustar:

• Me duele el pecho. = The chest hurts me / My chest hurts.
  • me = to me (indirect object pronoun)
  • duele = hurts (3rd person singular)
  • el pecho = the chest (this is the grammatical subject)

So literally it is “The chest hurts to me”, but in English we say “My chest hurts”.

You can say Mi pecho duele, but it sounds unusual and marked, almost poetic or dramatic. In everyday speech, people say Me duele + [body part] almost all the time.

Why do we say el pecho (the chest) instead of mi pecho (my chest)?

When talking about body parts (and clothes), Spanish often uses the definite article (el / la / los / las) plus an indirect object pronoun, instead of a possessive:

• Me duele la cabeza. = My head hurts.
• Le duelen las piernas. = His/her legs hurt.

The person is already clear from the pronoun (me, te, le, etc.), so a possessive (mi, tu, su) is usually not needed.

So:

• Me duele el pecho. (standard)
• Me duele mi pecho. (usually sounds odd or overly emphatic)

Use the possessive with body parts when you’re really contrasting owners or when there’s no pronoun to show whose it is, e.g.:

• Este es mi pecho, no el tuyo. = This is my chest, not yours.