Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Si no hubiera cenado tanto, ahora no me dolería la barriga. - If I hadn’t eaten so much for dinner, my belly wouldn’t hurt now.

Si no hubiera cenado tanto, ahora no me dolería la barriga.

If I hadn’t eaten so much for dinner, my belly wouldn’t hurt now.

Breakdown of Si no hubiera cenado tanto, ahora no me dolería la barriga.

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Questions & Answers about Si no hubiera cenado tanto, ahora no me dolería la barriga.

Which tense and mood is hubiera cenado, and how is it formed?

Hubiera cenado is the pluperfect (past perfect) subjunctive — in Spanish, pretérito pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo.

Formation:

Imperfect subjunctive of haber: hubiera (or hubiese)
past participle
of the main verb: cenado (cenar → cenado)

So:

hubiera cenado ≈ “had eaten dinner” / “had had dinner” in a hypothetical or unreal situation, usually after si.

Examples of the same tense:

Si hubiera estudiado, habría aprobado. – If I had studied, I would have passed.
Ojalá no hubiera llovido. – I wish it hadn’t rained.

Why do we use hubiera cenado here instead of había cenado or he cenado?

Because the si-clause is talking about an unreal / counterfactual past condition (“If I hadn’t eaten so much… but in reality I did”).

Si no hubiera cenado tanto…
→ “If I hadn’t eaten so much (but I did).”

If you used indicative forms, the meaning changes:

Si no había cenado tanto, ahora…
sounds odd; it suggests a real past situation the speaker is unsure about, not a regret.
Si no he cenado tanto, ahora…
= “If I haven’t eaten that much, now…” (a real, possible condition, not contrary to fact).

In Spanish, for counterfactual past conditions introduced by si, you normally use:

si + pluperfect subjunctive: si no hubiera cenado tanto…

What tense is dolería, and what does it express here?

Dolería is the simple conditional (condicional simple) of doler.

dolería ≈ “would hurt” / “would be hurting”

Here it expresses a hypothetical result that would be true now if the past had been different:

…ahora no me dolería la barriga.
→ “…my stomach wouldn’t hurt now.”

Compare:

me duele la barriga – my stomach hurts (real fact)
me dolerá la barriga – my stomach will hurt (future)
me dolería la barriga – my stomach would hurt (hypothetical)

How does the combination Si no hubiera cenado… ahora no me dolería… work when it mixes past and present?

This is a common “mixed” conditional:

Past unreal condition:
Si no hubiera cenado tanto…
→ If I hadn’t eaten so much (but I did).
Present unreal result:
…ahora no me dolería la barriga.
→ …now my stomach wouldn’t hurt (but it does).

Pattern:

si + pluperfect subjunctive (hubiera cenado)
simple conditional in the main clause (dolería) + a present-time marker (ahora)

If you wanted the result to be in the past instead of now, you’d usually use the compound conditional:

Si no hubiera cenado tanto, ayer no me habría dolido la barriga.
If I hadn’t eaten so much, my stomach wouldn’t have hurt yesterday.

So:

no me dolería → unreal consequence now
no me habría dolido → unreal consequence then / in the past

In no me dolería la barriga, what is the subject, and what is the role of me?

With doler, Spanish structures the sentence differently from English.

Subject: la barriga (3rd person singular – that’s why the verb is dolería)
Indirect object (to whom it hurts): me

Literally:

(A mí) me dolería la barriga.
≈ “To me, the belly would hurt.”

English flips the structure:

“My stomach would hurt.”

So:

la barriga = thing that causes pain → subject
me = person who feels pain → indirect object pronoun

Why is it la barriga and not mi barriga?

With body parts and clothing, Spanish normally uses the definite article (el / la / los / las) instead of a possessive adjective when the owner is clear from a pronoun.

Examples:

Me duele la cabeza. – My head hurts.
Se lavó las manos. – He/She washed his/her hands.
Te has manchado la camisa. – You’ve stained your shirt.

In no me dolería la barriga:

me already tells us whose belly it is.
Adding mi barriga would sound unnatural or emphatic, and usually isn’t needed.

You would only use mi barriga if you really wanted to emphasize contrast:

No la tuya, mi barriga. – Not yours, my belly.

What exactly does barriga mean in Spain? Could I say estómago or tripa instead?

In Spain:

barriga = “belly”, “tummy”; fairly neutral and common, often slightly informal.
estómago = “stomach”; more anatomical / neutral, often used when talking about digestion, medicine, etc.
tripa = “belly / gut”; more colloquial.

You could say:

Si no hubiera cenado tanto, ahora no me dolería el estómago.
Si no hubiera cenado tanto, ahora no me dolería la tripa.

All are understandable. The choice is mainly register and style:

barriga / tripa – everyday, informal
estómago – more “correct” / medical / neutral

What does tanto add here? Could I say Si no hubiera cenado mucho instead?

Tanto means “so much / so many” and adds a strong emphasis on excess.

cenar mucho – to eat a lot (quite a large quantity)
cenar tanto – to eat so much (too much, more than normal or advisable)

Both are grammatically fine:

Si no hubiera cenado mucho, ahora… – OK
Si no hubiera cenado tanto, ahora… – sounds more like regret / complaint: “If I hadn’t eaten so much.”

In this kind of sentence about regretting overeating, tanto is very natural.

Can I change the word order, for example: Ahora no me dolería la barriga si no hubiera cenado tanto?

Yes. Spanish allows quite a bit of flexibility in word order, as long as certain elements stay in place:

The clitic pronoun (me) must stay before the conjugated verb:
no me dolería, not me no dolería or dolería me.
The negation no must come immediately before the verb (and its pronouns):
no me dolería, not me dolería no.

Some natural variants:

Si no hubiera cenado tanto, ahora no me dolería la barriga. (original)
Ahora no me dolería la barriga si no hubiera cenado tanto.
Si no hubiera cenado tanto, la barriga no me dolería ahora.

All are correct; they just change the emphasis (what you say first).

Can I replace hubiera with hubiese in this sentence?

Yes.

Si no hubiera cenado tanto, ahora no me dolería la barriga.
Si no hubiese cenado tanto, ahora no me dolería la barriga.

They are equivalent in meaning. Both are forms of the imperfect subjunctive.

Usage notes:

In Spain, the -ra form (hubiera) is generally more common in speech.
The -se form (hubiese) can sound slightly more formal or literary, but is also used in everyday language.

You can freely alternate them here.

Could I also say Si no hubiera cenado tanto, ahora no me habría dolido la barriga? What’s the difference?

Yes, that sentence is grammatically correct, but the meaning shifts:

Original:
- Si no hubiera cenado tanto, ahora no me dolería la barriga.
  → Past unreal condition + present unreal result.
  “If I hadn’t eaten so much, my stomach wouldn’t be hurting now.”
Variant:
- Si no hubiera cenado tanto, ahora no me habría dolido la barriga.
  → Past unreal condition + past unreal result, located somehow before “now”.
  “If I hadn’t eaten so much, my stomach wouldn’t have hurt (at some time before now).”

In practice:

Use no me dolería when you’re talking about the pain you feel right now.
Use no me habría dolido when you’re talking about pain that would have happened earlier but didn’t (or when you’re focusing on a completed episode of pain).

Why are there two no’s in the sentence? Is this a double negative?

No. Each no belongs to a different clause:

Si no hubiera cenado tanto,
→ negates hubiera cenado (“if I had not eaten so much”)
ahora no me dolería la barriga.
→ negates dolería (“would not hurt”)

So it’s one negation per clause, not a single “double negative” in the English sense.

Spanish also allows true multiple negatives inside one clause, e.g.:

No tengo nada. – I don’t have anything.
No vi a nadie. – I didn’t see anyone.

But in your sentence, the two no’s are simply required to negate each verb in its own clause.